Christmas 2013

By Esther Rachel Lai. - 12/28/2013

So ever since I met Shane and his family, Christmas has been extra special for me. I'm Christian but us Christians, we don't really celebrate the day like the Catholics do. Shane & his family are Catholics so Christmas is a really special time for them, a time of love & celebration in remembrance of Christ the Lord and also, a time of gathering for our families. I love how our extended families and friends gather together, both Catholics, Christians and non-believers aike, just coming together and having a good time catching up & of course, having a really awesome Christmas feast!!

Every year on Christmas Eve, We'll have dinner with Shane and his family, just the 6 of us. My talented mother-in-law will wake up at the crack of dawn to prepare a feast for us and for our guests the following day.

AWESOME ROAST BEEF with a little bit of brandy. YUM!

ROAST CHICKEN. SOOOO GOOD! Getting hungry looking at these pictures!!

A feast fit for the King!

But we're all royals, children of The King of Kings.

& of course, the children's favourite part of Christmas (my favourite too, hehehe), OPENING PRESENTS!!!

A picture with her tissue paper present & her real present (Watch the prank we played on Kylie in the previous blog post!)

Kylie got a camera for Christmas! It's the folks' old camera but it works just fine! She takes pretty good photos with it!

That toy is one helluva puzzle to figure.

Putting her Christmas present to good use right away!

We (Shane, Ky & I) wanted to head to Crowne Plaza Hotel at the airport, have a few drinks and have a quiet countdown to Christmas together but Shane & Kylie was wayyy too tired so plans got ditched. (I was looking forward to having half a dozen of fresh oysters! Still craving for them now, hahaha.)

On Christmas day itself, we got ready bright and early, dolled up pretty in our reindeer ears and headed to my in-law's place for round 2 of Christmas! This time, with Shane's maternal side of the family as well!

A few of our relatives were already there before us helping my mother-in-law with the food. We had laksa for our main dish & boy, was it good! It's actually instant laksa, you just have to cook the noodles and add the ingredients separately but it's super yumz! (See the orange boxes there? That's the instant laksa paste, it's by Primahouse if I'm not wrong. Easy to make & really good!)

Don't need a mistletoe for a Christmas kiss!

With our favourite couple, John & Pat! The siblings God forgot to give us. haha!

My wonderful in-laws.

RAVINNNN! Shane calls him the "Black Jesus" cause his birthday falls on Christmas day itself (hahaha, all in the name of fun) but he's the nicest guy you'll ever meet! Don't be fooled by his crazy big biceps!

& of course, a shot with my lovely parents. My brother couldn't make it that day due to work though. I love you guys, always.

Grumpy face cause Shane had to book in on Christmas night. boo.

The Joseph brothers. (Shane's the younger of the two but he looks like the older sibling.)

The weekend before Christmas, I held a small Christmas gathering with the girls, their +1s and the tots! We had a pot-luck & all the food was wiped out! Should totally do this again next year!