This was a really long day for us... and we were supposed to be mourning...hmmm...
1st Stop: Our aunt or who me & my sis call "Ma Kor". This our Dad's only surviving elder sister. Thought we should visit her while she's still alive. Being the eldest, my aunt was the matriach of the family and she wielded alot of influence in my dad's family circles. My sis and I simply did not want any involvement, so we simply laid low. My aunt is still very fiesty but she has mellowed down a lot because of age and illness. The kids had a mighty fine time playing with my cousin's kids who were also at her place. We had a nice simple home-cooked meal of macaroni soup for lunch there. This is a nice shot of my aunt and all the kids.
2nd Stop: TT's badminton kaki's place. This is one intriguing home. His friend did the interior design himself and hired and fired a number of contractors along the way to get the job done. All the cabinets and compartments are cleverly consealed to keep the clutter away from sight. His home is a total opposite of ours! haha! As much as I admired the ingenuity and neatness, it wasn't exactly what I would wish for in my own home. Perhaps...I may do it while we were still childless, but no way I could design such a home with the kids around. I'm more practical than I am anal! 
But I would certainly want to borrow some storage and space-saving ideas. Still, it's an impressive and tasteful home worth applauding.. clap-clap-clap! I've not taken photos for fear of copyright infringement! Anyway, we managed to watch the movie Ice Age 2 projected to a big screen in his darkened living room... yeah, just like in a cinema. These are the kids playing downstairs at the playground after this visit.
3rd Stop: Another of TT's badminton kaki's place. The whole gang from the 2nd Stop went over to another kaki's place for dinner. This time it was a 2-storey house in the East. This other friend has 4 boys. Three of which are 4-year old triplets! TT spent the evening gambling with playing cards with his other kakis while the kids entertained themselves around the house. To put it mildly, I was quite bored. I had to signal to TT a few times for about an hour before he stopped playing. By then it was already 9.45pm and the kids looked visibly tired.
Poor Isaac could only take short naps while travelling from one place to another. But I think he enjoyed the visitations. I had a mother's foresight to get both kids take a bath at the home of our 3rd stop. Can't imagine having them sleep through the night in the whole day's sweat and grime! Isaac was knocked out on the way home in the car. We only had to put on his diapers and long jammies when we carried him to bed. Cheryl slept in the car too, but we managed to get her to change to her jammies before she actually went to bed.CNY 2nd Day (Mon)
We visited TT's aunt in the morning. Originally we thought they were "pantang", and were planning not to visit her. But she said as long as we were not wearing those little mourning taggies, it was ok to visit. Oo..kay... whatever...
We originally wanted to go to VivoCity for lunch but there was a terrible jam on the way there, so we detoured to Safra Mt. Faber taking our chance of the restaurants there being open. They were, so we ate at the Chinese restaurant there. Weren't actually planning to have an expensive meal, but ended up eating one of the CNY set meals costing $188. It was just perfect for 4 adults (me, TT, TT's mum and my maid) and the two kids. Even though the food's not halal, there wasn't any pork dishes, so my maid could take all the dishes. We had shark's fin soup, abalone, chinese mushroom and lettuce, steamed fish and ee-fu noodles. We packed the yu-sheng.
In the afternoon, TT's family came over to our place to visit. We asked to help us eat our new year goodies, including some yummy gourmet bak-kwa! TT had booked the badminton court for 2 hours for my nephews. We just cooked a simple dinner of fried rice, ngoh hiang and fried vege for everyone.We managed to catch the fireworks again tonight.
CNY 1st Day (Sun)
In the morning we got the kids dressed up. Cheryl in a yellow dress, and Isaac in a blue Thomas the Tank Engine T-shirt. He chose this over some chinky orange red T-shirt! So young, so fussy! I decided not to dress them in traditional chinese garb this year, 'cos it's only worn once and such a waste of money... Didn't really have time to buy too because my Dad passed away.
We got the kids to "pai nian" to me with oranges. Boy, it wasn't easy to get Isaac to do this for the camera! We ended up with a pair of bruised oranges after a series of abuse by Isaac (rolling, throwing, even kicking the oranges!) In exchange, I gave them their ang pows together with their piggy banks. Below is family shot taken by our maid after about 8 attempts.
Then it was off to my mother-in-law's place. I gave out red packets to my nephews since my in-laws didn't mind. This is pic with my MIL, SIL and nephews. My elder SIL's family is not in the picture. 
We stayed till mid noon before returning home. We would be having our reunion dinner with my sis family that evening. My mum decided to hold it at my place since most of the food was in my fridge. We had pseudo steamboat... my mum precooked all the separate ingredients in advance, so that we could pick and choose what we want into our soup. I much prefer it this way, not so messy and the food cooked to perfection. I never quite liked traditional steamboat, everybody dumps everything in and in the end it gets all fished out together in one big unappetizing mess. Worse if someone cracks an egg in the soup as well.I gave out the red packets, orange and green piggy banks to Lauren and Oli. We managed to catch the CNY fireworks from our window at 9pm.
CNY Eve (Sat)
We did more spring cleaning today. This is Cheryl helping to wipe the TV (like real). Mum cooked some sweet longan soup soup with sweetened ginko nuts which we ate before midnight...hmmmm.. couldn't wait for the new year lah! The kids went to bed before midnight, so only TT and I managed to catch the fireworks from our window at midnight.CNY Reunion Dinner (Fri)
We had our reunion dinner for TT's side early this year on Friday evening. Our company didn't give us any half day, so I made my way to Tampines after work while TT brought the kids there a little earlier. We had steamboat, which was the reunion dinner option for the past few years, since my aging MIL did not really have the mood nor energy to do anymore major cooking.
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