Visitors from Japan

Jin and I used to work together in Japan. He actually quit the company before I did and started up his own company. A few years have passed and now he is running two golf schools - very successful!

When I saw him back in Japan in October he mentioned he hasn't had a proper family holiday for a long time and was feeling guilty. So I suggested to book tickets to Singapore and we will look after the whole family during the New Year holiday. With no hesitation he did it!

Matthew requested the flight out of Osaka. They were extremely excited to see inside the cockpit before the fight.

On the first day we took it easy as they were still tired from the late night flights (they came via Taipei so made the trip slightly long). We hopped on a double decker bus and went to Parkway Parade for some shopping and lunch.

Tomo and Jin:

Their boys Takumi (5) and Ko (3). Yep exactly the same age as our boys. There was endless screaming, laughing, fighting and giggling during their stay :)

Nudy artists

I have became very lazy letting the kids doing fun play. Just because I have to tidy up the mess afterward... This water mat is not too bad. All they need is some paint brushes and some water. Luca and Ashley had lots of fun!

While daddies are at work

Us mummies enjoyed relaxing time by the pool:

The best way to entertain the kids :)

Christmas Lunch 2015

Our Christmas lunch was very social this year. We had our friends, Stefan and Su plus the Komine family. We thought about doing a hotel lunch like we did two years ago but having 5 kids in total we decided to stay at home and let them play with their new toys and take it easy.

The food preparation was not too much for me. We ordered pre-cooked turkey from Cold Storage along with some ham and fresh oysters. All I needed to do was make some shrimp salad (which turned out to be very tasty!) and roast some vegetables - nice and easy!

The table was set festively:

And the bubbles were open!  

Merry Christmas everyone!

Unfortunately our dining table wasn't big enough to have all of us together, we had to have a separate table for the kids. 

Matthew brought some kiddy bubbly from Japan. Luca almost drank the entire bottle:

The kids were too busy playing and didn't stay at the table long. Well it's Christmas, as long as they were happy, us adults were happy too!

We re-heated the turkey slightly too long maybe... it came out a bit sun burnt! But still tasted very yummy :)

We had lots of laughs and too much to drink... but it was very relaxing and we were all very HAPPY!

We managed to get some couples photos while we were still sober (very important!)

Kei and Tetsuo:

 Sue and Stefan:

 And us!!

After spending all afternoon/evening eating and drinking I got too lazy to do the dishes and clean up. So I called up my cleaner to come and help us. Lucky she was available and was very happy to get some extra work. While she was cleaning we took a little walk to the other side of the condo to visit James & Nicola and their kids with some Christmas presents.

And of course we had some more wine!

 

When we returned we had some Japanese Christmas cakes that Kei has ordered. They were very soft and light. I like it as they are not too sweet - reminded me of the Christmas cakes we used to have when I was little. 

I cannot believe I forgot to take "Rose Family" only photo at the beginning of the lunch!!! The kids weren't too cooperative by the time we tried to take some in the evening :(

At least I have a nice combined family photo:  

What a fantastic Christmas day we had. Thanks everyone for making the day so special. You guys are definitely our Singapore family :) :) :) 

Christmas morning 2015

Even with some struggle (hangover that is) we managed to set up the presents. The kids stayed in bed till after 9am and we had to wake them up!

They were all sleepy and still waking up when they discovered their stockings were full of goodies from Santa :) 

There were some apples, oranges, chocolate coins, board games, little books, stickers etc etc.

They must have been so tired from the previous night. They were very content with what they got from Santa even tho they could see so many presents in front of them waiting to be opened. 

Eventually we had to prompt them to see the big gifts. Oliver got a brand new big boy bike!

And Luca got Oliver's old balance bike with his new friend Mr Monkey. I don't think he knew it was a hand me down from Oliver - he told me "this looks like Oliver's bike but it's mine!"

Ashley got a doll buggy. Now she can push around her little baby she was given in Germany :) She thinks it's hers so she has to sit in it to!

After this the kids were on a roll. Oliver did a good job reading the names and distributing the presents.

There were Playmobile toys, Lego, Little Pony, more cars and airplane toys, lovely books, All Black goodies and more! Our kids certainly didn't need any more toys but it's Christmas :) - my only concern is now I have to find room for those new toys in their bedroom - how?