My mom called me this morning to say that my sis-in-law Maureen will be giving birth to my little niece today. She was feeling her contractions this morning and my bro had sent her to the hospital. At about 5plus in the afternoon, I received my bro's sms to announce the arrival of his little princess, Amanda!

We were supposed to have our foot reflexology appointment at 8.30pm tonight, but we couldn't wait to see baby Amanda... so we postponed our appointment and flew down to KKH to visit our little niece.

OMG!! My big bro is a big daddy now!!! (^__^)

Most times, I couldn't tell if the baby looked like the dad or the mom. But for Amanda, her features were distinctively replicates of her parents. Her eyes were exactly like Maureen's and her lips were exactly like my bro's. And she's got the most beautiful bountiful hair. So cute!!!

Halfway through the Christmas year end break and I've been feeling great! Today, we went for another wedding lunch - 5th wedding in December! Got this dress about 2 years back and now I think it's such a good buy. Cos I can still wear it when I'm preggie! Haha...

My feet have been swelling quite a bit lately. My fingers and wrists are also aching from swelling joints. Other than that, I feel good! Calvin and I have been enjoying feeling 小B's activities in my tummy. We can imagine her responding to our conversations. So cute! Even though we're not quite ready to receive her yet, we're really excited about it.

This week, we have plans to finish furnishing her baby room, washing all the hand-me-down clothes, buying all her daily essentials, packing the hospital bag, etc etc. Earlier on, after we left the wedding luncheon, we made another trip down to Baby Kingdom and Ikea to get more baby stuff. In just the last couple weeks, we've made so many trips down to Ikea. It's just like going back 2 years ago when we were setting up our new home. Now, we're only setting up a little room for our little one. (^__^)

Noi and Randy are back for Christmas and so it's time for a get-together. I wish I was able to whip up a feast for them, but really didn't have the ability to do that. After standing for 3hours yesterday baking the cookies, my feet swelled so bad they looked horrible. I knew I couldn't manage standing for long hours again today. Thank God Winnie ordered Roast Chicken, Honey Baked Ham and Cheesy Sausages. So my job was only to prepare a soup, a vege dish and desserts.

I made a pot of Crab, Clam and Corn Chowder from scratch and by the time I'm done with it, my feet puffed up again. All thanks to Jasmine who came early to help me out. She then took over and prepare the vege for me. She was my "maid" for the day... wahaha... Thanks tons pal!

Entertainment for the evening = Wii!!! and the little princesses, Tricia and Reeann...

I baked again today! My first try at baking cookies... so I selected the simplest basic sugar cookies recipe from Martha Stewart's website.

I love this recipe. I think the cookies taste so good! Not too sweet at all... Nice!

It's a potluck party at the Kwek residence this year. I decided to tap into the recipe magazine I got from Melbourne again. There's this super simple recipe to make a nice looking pasta pie in there so I decided to give it a shot.

Verdict: I think it looks better than it tastes... think it's too dry to start with and it's not flavourful enough... Well, but I had fun making it.

More and more kids at our Christmas party as the years go by... This Christmas, we were joined by a pair of cute little twin girls, Valene and Valencia. There's also baby Aining who's only 11 days old, so she and mommy Choon Yng couldn't join us today. Next year, our 小B will join in the fun too! (^_^)

We're going to Jie Jie's place for our family's annual Christmas gathering. I didn't have time (& energy) to buy presents for my nieces/ nephew and cousin this year. So I was thinking of making some yummies to bring over. I remembered Nicole's very pretty oreo truffles and decided to have a go at that.

I got white chocolate and wanted to do what Nicole did with her truffles. But for some reason, the white chocolate didn't melt like the way its dark counterpart did. It was hard and I couldn't drizzle it over the truffles! So I added on some rainbow sprinkles over them instead. Didn't turn out too bad... (^_*)

This year, TTC's Christmas gathering is organised by Calvin and Jinhong. These 2 big boys decided that we should all head away from town and congregate at the east end of the island - Changi. So they booked 2 rooms at Changi Village Hotel for all of us to crash into. And we had a nice dinner at Charlie's Corner.

As usual, when TTCians gather, it's all about food, fotos and FUN FUN FUN. We were cam-whoring the whole time... haha... Most of the fotos are with Ying and I'll probably get to upload them here some time later.

Next year, there'll be a junior TTC member joining in the FUN! Our 小B will be celebrating her first Christmas with the fun-loving TTC uncles and aunties! (^__^)

小B gained another 600gms in the last 3 weeks! She weighs about 2.4kg now. Woohoo! She's really growing fast... Dr Ho managed to capture a clear shot of her face. Look at her chubby face! So cute!! hehe... TTCians said her nose looked like Calvin's. haha... When I showed them the scan, they were so excited and they all had comments about my little darling. It was soooo funny...

We're also feeling a lot of her movements! Starting from today, I'm supposed to count her movements. Everyday from 9am, I need to start counting the number of times 小B moves and record the hour that she moves for the 10th time. In the event that she doesn't move at least 10 times by 9pm (a span of 12 hours), I need to go to the delivery ward immediately. So, I need to physically tick this chart and bring it to Dr Ho every time I visit him.

I soooo need to pack my hospital bag. I soooo need to get her room and essentials ready. Can't wait for the holiday break (my company's closed from 24/12 - 4/1... hurray!!) to start so we can get down to some real "work" in preparing for 小B's arrival.

We bought her cot from Baby Kingdom some weeks back and it's finally delivered today. This cot is one of those that can be used until she's older and it can be converted into a small bed for toddlers. With the cot and the lollipop garden wall, it looks more like a baby's room now... More furnishing to do and we've gotta do it soon... we have less than 2 months... I'm getting so excited!

It's less than 2 weeks from Christmas! And I feel I'm soooo behind time in shopping for gifts, etc. I tried shopping but my feet gave up after walking for about 1 hour... I never imagined that walking can be so tiring... The other day, Hazel went to this small scrapbooking store in International Plaza and I followed her there. I saw these ribbons and I knew I had to buy them! I'm such a sucker for ribbons...

Today, I finally got down to doing something that I planned to do last week - Christmas cards. Happy with what I've made... (^__*) Now I really need to plan my gift hunting soon. Hope I have enough time... and energy.

Since JC days, Xifen and I have been CRAZY about Calyx from Prescriptive. Nothing can replace the scent of this perfume. It's really exhilarating - just like what its tagline claims.

About 3 years ago, Prescriptive ceased its operations here in Asia. I bought a bottle just before the Prescriptive counters disappeared and after that, I can't find another scent that comes close to this.

Xifen went for a holiday in US and came back with this for me! My advance Christmas present!! I was so happy when I received it. YEAH!! Thank you so much!! (^__^)

I attended 4 weddings this weekend!

1. Dec 5, Fri night: Yew Leong & Mavis @ Mandai Orchid Garden
It was a simple and yet beautifully sweet wedding. They wrote their own vows and both of them delivered their vows in the most beautiful and touching way. The picture on the left shows the wedding favours they prepared... how apt for the theme and venue of the celebration.

2. Dec 7, Sun afternoon: Adrian & Kaylene @ Grand Corpthorne Waterfront
Adrian is Calvin's army friend. When we got to the hotel, we saw 4 bridal cars parked outside the hotel lobby. This is really an auspicious day for weddings! Kaylene played a tune on the piano dedicated to her parents as a gesture to thank them for bringing her up.

3. Dec 7, Sun night: Mei'er & Weiwen @ Pin Si Restaurant
Soon after we got home from the wedding luncheon, we had to get ready for the 2nd wedding event for the day. It felt like we were rushing for our own wedding.. haha... This is one of the "biggest" wedding I went to. They had close to 70 tables I think. The food at this restaurant is really good! Calvin ordered rice because he has had enough of "wedding dishes"... and he had THREE bowls! hahaha.. true blue "fan tong" husband I have...

4. Dec 8, Mon night: Joan & Sebastian @ Swissotel Merchant Court
This day is indeed very very special for the couple. It's both Joan & Seb's birthday. They ROM'd on this day last year. And today is their customary wedding. Imagine... one year one mega celebration - both their birthdays, ROM anniversary, customary anniversary... all rolled into 1 day.

PHEW! I've never attended so many weddings in such a short time frame. Of course, I had to go back to Maternity Exchange to see what they have for this growing tummy to look good at all these weddings. I rented 2 cocktail dresses - the black low-back halter one that I rented for Audrey's wedding and another black & white satin floral tube dress. I also bought a pair of low black heels so I don't have to spoil the look of these pretty dresses by wearing flats... :p

At Adrian's wedding, one of Calvin's army friend sitting across the table was asking me when we're planning to have kids... I leaned back on my seat and showed him the tummy that's hidden by the table... haha.. he was shocked and I could tell from his facial expression that he's counting back and thinking how long has it been since our wedding. wahahaha!! Hey friend... it's been more than a year. For the record, we got pregnant about 8 months after our wedding. And now, we're 8 weeks from receiving God's beautiful gift into our arms. (^_^)

Baby Nigel has grown so much over the last 3 weeks! He's been feeding well and he even has a little tummy growing... so cute!!! We didn't get to play with him today as he was sleeping the whole time that we were there. Corinna said that he was wide awake for a long time before we got there... Nigel said, "Jiu Jiu & Jiu Mu, you are late!!" :p

We were kept busy with a lot of things lately and I didn't plan anything special for Calvin for his birthday this year. He was on duty last night and I decided to give him a little surprise when he gets home this morning - breakfast with love!!

He was back early this morning and the surprise wasn't ready!! Thank God it didn't take much time and it wasn't too difficult to prepare this. He was pleasantly surprised when he saw what was served on the table. And he said it was yummy!! (^__^) I love you, baby...

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Cheesy Egg in Ham Basket (that's what I call it)
I bought a recipe magazine in Melbourne when we were there. And I was attracted to this. Creative and yet simple to prepare. I made some modification to the ingredients but here's the original recipe:

Ingredients
Makes 6
Preparation: 10min
Cooking: 12min

60g reduced-fat fetta, crumbled
1/3 cup grated reduced-fat tasty cheese
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh basil
2 tablespoons finely chopped chives
100g packet (12 slices) fat-free shaved leg ham
6 eggs

I used:
shredded cheddar, shaved honey glazed chicken ham, bacon bits and eggs

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200 deg C. Grease a 6 x 1/3 cup muffin tray. Combine cheeses and herbs in a bowl.
2. Line each cup hole in tray with 2 overlapping slices of ham to shape nests. Fill with half the cheese mixture. Carefully crack and egg in each hole (avoid broken yolks) and top with remaining cheese mixture.
3. Bake for 10-12 minutes for a medium-set egg or until cooked as you prefer. Sprinkle with black pepper. Serve with toast.

By my standards, this is very easy to make... :p
I'll add the herbs the next time I make this.

In the past 7 months, I've never really had any leg cramps... Thank God! Everytime my calf stiffens up and feels like it's going into cramps, I was able to flex it and soothe it. But last night, I had a major one on my right calf. GOSH... it was bad man! I was totally incapable of flexing it. I had to jolt Calvin up from his sleep... Thank God he's not on duty last night. Or else, I really wouldn't know what to do. The calf muscle was stiff the whole day today. I pray that I'd never have this kind of cramps ever again.