This is a full working weekend for both Calvin and I. He's deployed and I've gotta rush presentations. This morning while I'm still in bed, I decided to cook a simple dinner... Cracked my head on what to cook. As usual, I thought pasta should be easy. And I kind of have a craving for Coffee Club's Garlic Prawn Pasta.

So, I got out of bed and searched for an aglio olio recipe before I went to NTUC. Settled on a "Spicy Shrimp and Spaghetti Aglio Olio" recipe. Made a bit of modification to it: used Angel Hair instead of Spaghetti; added in honey tomatoes; didn't add chopped parsley; didn't have all the sides; & didn't add anchovy fillet (can't find it in NTUC Xtra!).

Calvin sms'd me while I was having breakfast and delivered a piece of good news regarding his work! I was really happy and proud of him. Then, the simple dinner plan became a little celebration. So, here's the 3 course dinner I prepared for the celebration.

As I prepared each of the dishes, I realised there's tomatoes in all of them! haha... and the dinner became a tomato-themed one.

What's a celebration without champagne?! We have 4 bottles of champagne in our chiller and what better time to pop it than today? We had the bottle of Moet & Chandon, which was a gift from Jinu during our wedding.

Sometime end last year, while having coffee at Yakun before attending church service, Dennis, Eunice and us were talking about going for a short trip together. We all got so excited that we started thinking of where to go. Krabi was the chosen destination and we booked the trip way way in advance! It's actually the 1st time I spent part of CNY outside of S'pore. I did the 先斩后奏 trick again... Told my parents just a few weeks before CNY... bad bad... don't learn... :p

Seriously, I do miss house hopping with my relatives. Every year, the same group of us (aunties, cousins, nieces, etc) would visit every single one of our aunts every non-working day of CNY. Something that Calvin doesn't do with his relatives. But he did it with my relatives over the last couple of years. So, this year to reward him (haha, like real) we decided to get away for CNY... WAIT! Before you jump to conclusion... no no... we didn't try to "siam"... we went away only after giving all the angbaos...

We had great great fun with Eunice and Dennis. We didn't plan much before we took off. Just planned to take it slow... unwind and enjoy one another's company. Here are some photos of the 2 most exciting activities over our short 3-day holiday.

~ Kayaking through mangroves to Bor Thor Caves ~
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~ Bike trip to Krabi Town ~
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We had breakfast with my family before heading to Calvin's place to "bai nian". We wanted to have prata at Casuarina and was surprised that the wanton mee shop is open on the 1st day of CNY.

Aunties, cousins, nieces... a unanimous sea of red! (^__^)

My busy family came over for reunion dinner on 4 Feb. Eversince my brother started his waffle shop, my family became a family of busy bees... And when your children get married and had to have reunion dinner with their wife/husband's family on CNY Eve, your own family dinner has to shift to a different day. My family didn't mind that, something's gotta give right? So we had ours ahead of time. It's a working day for everyone and we didn't have time to cook, so it became a potluck reunion this year. Though we didn't have the "traditional" home-cooked reunion dinner, we had a wonderful time chatting and catching up with one another's lives.

It's CNY Eve today. My office is closed but Calvin's gotta work for half a day. I decided to cook a little lunch for our own little family of 2. Simple dishes.. cos I can't whip up anything beyond simple.. haha :p

It's the first time I had reunion dinner at Calvin's parents' place officially as a daughter-in-law (and I didn't take pictures!). This is the only time of the year that Calvin's mom will bring out her wok and get into a major cooking session. All other days of the year, she only cooks healthy meals.. steamed and boiled dishes and yummy! I love her steamed fish and chap chye. Oh of cos these signature dishes are found on the reunion dinner table as well, flanked by all the other dishes.