Little Gingerbread house

We did our little Gingerbread house, our first! Ok, we did it the cheat way. Bought a ready made set off the supermarket shelf. It was all so simple and fun. Great enjoyment we had! I did the really tough part, spread the icing, and Js decorated it their way.

Decorating Fun

As much as the kids, I enjoyed getting my hands embarked on this tiny project. Like a childhood dream fulfilled. I got questioned many times, while working on the project, "Can we eat the candies, please?" I firmly said 'No.' I fear we wouldn't stop eating, like how a buffet does to us. They all looked so candylicious. Now that I re-think about it, popping some candies is part of the fun. Perhaps, next year.

Yums!

And here are two Js brought home from school. Made with graham crackers. Simply wonderful! 

Gingerbread houses

All 'houses' will sit prettily till the year crosses. In Singapore's environment, the 'houses' would probably be eaten up by ants or not able to withstand the humidity. Again, I say, we love the weather here! Next round, I promise, I'll try making one from zero.

Riot in Little India

Riot in Little India! I received text messages on my phone. Not thinking too much about it, I thought it was nothing alarming. As we caught up with our day, we caught up with news. I was totally appalled at the damages and destruction done from this rebellious act. Boldness and multitude of anger must have triggered those gravely acts. It's been 44 years since the last racial riot, is this for real?!!

I live in Little India. At least, for the past 4 years, before our big move. I've served some short term as a member of the Residents committee and I know how situation is like on a typical Sunday. We have made every good effort to ensure that the residents and foreigners are comfortable and soundly safe. Upon reading the news, I knew it happened on a Sunday, when foreign workers gather faithfully every week to meet and catch up with friends at any spots along the road, pavement or fields. As residents, we would drive our Sundays home with the horn intermittently pressed. From drivers perspective, that's our frustration. But, I have lived with it, since I chose to buy a home in the heart of Little India. It's truly a place where you can almost experience the road crossing culture from Bombay. They seize every road crossing opportunities, whether safe or unsafe. Drivers have to be extremely cautious with those lives on the road. And once, a friend of mine came by our house, drove and honked, got his boot kicked by a one of the crosser. Which also explained why I don't receive friends on Sundays. After much absorption of news, I began to have this morbid thought, if I were the driver who killed the pedestrian that day, I would have been killed to death by the rioters!

There were many buses around that time, on that day because, that's where their transport come by to send them back to their dormitories. I've been once or twice a pedestrian on a Sunday night, when making my way home. There were rowdy crowds and individuals, and as a lady, I do get stares, but I still feel safe. Looking at how the crowd wouldn't strictly walk on pavements, It's amazing at how this area can be accident free for so long. In crowded situations like this, it's quite a human's responsibility to look out for their safety.

Now that it happened, power driven by numbers, it definitely is a good root reason to retaliate. I gathered reports, the people were angered because they were being pushed by the police from getting near the accident site and that it took long for paramedics to arrive. I know auxiliary police patrol the area very frequently on Sunday nights for crowd control. It makes sense to manage crowd, making the scene ready for rescue work. I wouldn't think gently asking everyone to back off works. I know how Sunday nights are like in there.

I'm in a foreign land myself now, and I've been the ears and eyes of a citizen in my own land. I know how discriminating these workers have felt in their hardworking days, and we know how unjustified lives can be for them. Let me cite an incident. Some years ago, while I was walking home from the MRT after a long work day, I was appalled by this young mum who raised her voice at a seemingly foreign worker to me. She was with her, perhaps 3 or 4 year old daughter. They walked by each other and the man patted the little girl's head. This got the mum's nerves agitated, she stopped and sternly reprimanded him, "I told my daughter that no strangers should touch her. Can you please apologize to her, for touching her!" I was so taken aback, I thought I should step in to 'rescue' the plight of this man. But I knew, it was no business of mine, I continued my walk. It's no wonder the new generation do not learn peace. I know it can be offending when strangers touch our child, but it's public, it's open, it's not like she's been molested. Does he deserved to be raised at? The man apologized anyway. I thought things might be different if someone else of a different profile patted the girl's head.

With much comments and blames everywhere, online and offline. I know our country is still a place of stability, with strict laws abiding. It's true that we should not tolerate such senseless acts, but with mature minds, we should move on to recover and trust. I wasn't even birthed since our last riot, we have new blood in every industry and for such readiness test, it was a very good job done. I'm proud of  our law enforcers! 

This a space where I blog my parenting journey, I borrowed some space to tribute salute to the heroes who risked their lives for peace. It's history making and it will get marked in their textbooks. To survive as a united country, we must learn to solve conflicts assertively and non-violently.

Thanksgiving week

Thanksgiving is a Big thing to the Americans here. Seemingly, like our Chinese New Year, schools are on half day on the eve, followed by a 2 days holiday. We attended a thanksgiving lunch and dinner over the extremely long weekend. That was also when I realised, thanksgiving isn't about sale and shopping, but reunion, family, friendship and food! I meant I know that, but was quite oblivion about its true existence, till now.

Same time last year, I was busy shopping through the wee hours with crowds, joining queues after queues for deals. This year, it was a whole lot of new experience. We had a pot luck lunch at Lou's neighbourhood. He kindly extended the invite to our family. I brought curry chicken, as I find it the easiest to present, as a Singapore dish. When the food line was opened after a blessed prayer, I was wow-ed by the spread and I am very inspired to try more American recipes. We had our tummies covered from appetizers to dessert. Deliciously awesome beyond words! We left the place with an extremely heavy tummy! We couldn't even walk well.

In the evening, with still much food digesting in our body, we drove up to Pastor Lo's ranch for another round of feast. It was a day of overwhelming food blessing. We were not only awed by the food, but also by the animals he kept in his ranch. There were 24 chickens, 5 cats, 1 goat and 1 dog! Hope I didn't miss the counts. The kids had a great time of pet therapy. And the adults engaged in a wonderful time of conversations. I've learned so much from Pastor, he's such an inspiration, and a man who brings great blessings to people around him. I've never met a family with such great hearts and minds, their home is so filled with love and kindness. They are blessed with 5 children of their own and still, they are trying to adopt children from the World. It's mind blowing! 

 

Thanks Maria for the spread!

Jazz love the cats!

 

It was a great week! Truly! Nice meeting some locals and knowing more about their tradition. Extremely thankful for the people God placed in our lives. The ones who blessed and loved us, the ones who inspired us, the ones who moulded our characters from the amount of patience and tolerance we went through with them, the ones whom we learned a whole new set of experience and knowledge from. Thank you!

And shopping! Of course I did my good part in helping boost the local's economy. I did some slight shopping after dinner, at our nearest outlet stores. It was only my full force shopping on Black Friday, I unleashed my long stored power for a shopping marathon. It's a pity that my favourite stores were tagged with long queues, I had to sorely give it a miss. And friends who sent their good buys to my home, don't forget my kindness. Just kidding, it was easy.

In midst of these busy days - feasting, shopping and home shopping (online), I've to confess that I've been quite an indecent mum and wife. We had packed meals, late meals and the kids were left playing aimlessly everyday. They have been such good shopping companions when we shopped the whole day out, they napped, snacked and had some time on the tablet. For now, shopping's over, it will be a long long time before I madly spree again. Thankful for my loots!