Happiness is... enjoying a whirlwind year-end holiday

We always look forward to December because it is always a month filled with lots of fun activities, celebrations, gatherings and family vacations. December 2025 was no exception and in fact, it was one of the best year end holidays we've ever had.

Let's see, besides going for family walks, visits to Sentosa, indoor playgrounds and two camps, we also had BBQs, playdates, family get-togethers, movie dates and a Christmas gift exchange. The most important highlight had to be our epic 9D8N road trip to Malaysia where we visited Kuala Lumpur, Genting, Cameron Highlands and Melaka. Yes, super exciting!

Of course, we also celebrated Ariel and Asher's birthdays and I can't wait to share more about their celebrations. We also counted down to 2026 and ended the year 2025 with a big bang.

In this post of "Happiness is...", it's about thoroughly enjoying a whirlwind holiday with my loved ones.

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Guess where we were? We were at the southernmost point of continental Asia, woohoo! To get here, we crossed the iconic rope suspension bridge at Palawan Beach in Sentos and the views were amazing!

You know why I love school holidays so much? Because we get to spend so much time together and the kids get to hang out with each other too. Sure, they will never stop bickering or criticising each other but to look on the bright side, they also play together, look for insects together and have fun together.

Since a couple of years ago, I've tried to instill a healthier lifestyle and that means making time to work out, exercise and keep fit. Better still if we do it as a family. Some of my friends often refer to us as the 'sporty' and 'outdoorsy' family and they are absolutely right about there.

This time, we cycled and ran to Coney Island because the kids love to go to the beach and look for marine creatures there. We ended the evening with a yummy mookata meal - which probably added lots of calories and rendered our exercise effort useless - but it was so worthwhile and we seriously love having a good mookata meal together.

Just a day before we set off on our long road trip, we were still attending events and travelling across the island. The kids had lots of fun at Airzone in City Square Mall where we climbed ropes, overcame obstacles, whizzed down slides and even played laser tag too. Yup, laser tag was the most fun bit as we teamed up and competed with another family. I think my kids are like me, kinda competitive and have the desire to win when it comes to such events.

We love Luge and can never get enough of it. So whenever we get a media invite, the kids will all try to make time for it. This time, we got to whizz down all the four different slopes despite it drizzling earlier and we all enjoyed it very much. It's always a challenge for me because I have ride tandem with the 5yo and still be able to film ourselves and the other three kids. Yeap, but seeing the big smiles on their faces, it's all worthwhile.

We watched a couple of movies in the cinemas this month because it's something that we all enjoy and I usually get one to two hours of peace to sit back and relax, haha. So we caught Five Nights at Freddy's 2 (we watched the first movie during Halloween) and also Anancondo. The former was a scary thriller that kept us at the edge of our seats while the latter was a comedy that made us laugh and chuckle.

It might be a busy month but there's always time to meet up with good friends. We visited Steven's house which has nine cats and and over 40 birds and the kids were so, so in love with the felines and wished they could stay there longer.

Our friends also came to our place to eat and swim together and we had these poppers which we let the kids play and inside each of them was a fun riddle which we could take turns to solve.

The hubby and I also hosted a barbeque cum playdate session for some my mummy friends and their lovely families. I took time to pump lots of cute inflatables for the kids to play while the hubby took charge of the food.

I also brought the boys to feed the horses at Gallop Stable at Downtown East while the girls chose to wait it out and then head straight to the next venue to meet us. Since they have different likes and dislikes and teenagers have a mind of their own, I now get it that we need to split up sometimes so that everyone can be do what he/she wants and be happy.

The good thing is that the two sisters still go to indoor playgrounds with us once in a while so Ansel still has plenty of siblings to play with. He adores his Korkor and Jiejies and love it when they do kiddy stuff with him.

There are also times when I would just bring the two boys out when the girls head out with their friends and stay back in school for CCA. Although their age gap is over five years, these two can still play the same kind of games and get along well together. Thank goodness they have each other.

We also attended two fun camps which took up almost two weeks in December already. The first was a Science camp by Cognutive Whizz and the kids were thrilled to learn about Science concepts, visit farms, take home black soldier flies and even create a terrarium for isopods too. This would be Ariel's last Science camp with us so it made it even more memorable.

The next camp was an Adventure camp with Newtonshow Camp which brought us to a different place every day of the five days. We visited Rainforest Wild, Lee Kong Chien Museum, Snow City, Jurong Lake Gardens, East Coast Park, Pasir Ris Park and more. It was an exhausting but fun-filled week for the kids and myself, who tagged along everywhere, and likewise, it was Ariel's last adventure camp and we are surely gonna miss her in future.

This was the first time I crocheted a beanie on my own and it was for the big sister who turned 16 recently. It is one of the easiest patterns you can find but I am still just very happy that I did it all by myself.

We love hotpots so we were happy to get the chance to have a mum-and-kids dinner at Wang Lu. The kids like to cook their own food so this was a good way to keep them busy, happy and full, and also make sure they eat what they cook and get a good balance of nutrients.

But most of the time, we will be eating at food courts and kopitiams because it is just too expensive otherwise. Plus, the food here can really be good like this tissue prata and coin prata we had were really crispy and good.

So about the road trip I mentioned, we embarked on it on 15 December and returned at wee hours on Christmas Eve so that we could still celebrate Christmas Day with our families. We stayed three nights in KL, two nights in Genting, two nights in Cameron Highlands and one night in Melaka. I will be sharing more in depth in the upcoming posts because there's just so much to share and you bet I took lots of videos too so stay tuned for those.

It was a superb and absolutely unforgettable trip that saw us spending lots of time together as a family of six and we are so proud that our secondhand car made it to so many places and back. Haha. From safaris and zoos to theme parks and farms, we visited so many places and I'm glad that the kids had a ball of a time too.

On Christmas Day, the kids found their presents under the tree and were thrilled that Santa gave them those as well as drank the milk and ate the cookies they had left for him.

Even though we had yet to recover from the trip, we still hosted a family gathering where the hubby cooked whereas I packed the house and logcakes to share. Well, I was also in charge of getting ALL the gifts, which include for our parents, nieces, nephews, kids, brother, sis-in-law and so on, as well as wrapping them all. Yeap, in our house, it's always the mum's job. But that's also what makes Christmas so fun because we get to spread love and joy on others and sprinkling some on ourselves too.

The kids, without a doubt, love this festive season for secular reasons and it is the time of the year where they can receive lots of gifts and hopefully get one or two items on their wish lists.

Whenever the family comes together, magic happens and December was definitely a truly whimsical month filled with lots of fun and happy memories. What a wonderful way to end off the year 2025.

Till more happiness posts in the new year!

Avengers Assemble - Angel is 16!

When I asked Angel how she would like to celebrate her 16th birthday, she didn't give an exact reply. She did mention some of her friends are throwing parties as 16th is supposedly a big milestone, but she didn't want hers to be a lavish or fanciful one.

As always, I just wanted it to be a tad more special when it comes to my kids' birthdays so I planned a 4D3N family getaway for us. The good thing is that her birthday falls during the start of the year end school holidays so the kids are usually free by then.

This year, it also marked the end of 'O' Levels examinations for the big girl so you have no idea how huge a milestone this was, considering it had been a seriously tough couple of years in her upper secondary. So yes, we had every reason to celebrate and since this was a special occasion, I booked for us a special themed apartment that came equipped with a slide, rock wall, rope swings and loft beds.

Avengers, assemble! Woohoo!

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We usually stay in cheap airbnb apartments when we visit Johor, I'm talking about those that cost about $80 a night and has at least 2 rooms so it can fit all six of us comfortably. Yeap, so we don't splurge on hotels or costly apartments just because we prefer to save up on accommodation and use the budget on food or entertainment instead.

But this time, we booked a better one because I wanted the kids to try something new and it was after all a birthday celebration. So we stayed in an Avengers themed loft for six at Sunway GRID and it was pretty awesome. See the house tour here.

The kids loved swinging from rope to rope, they scaled the rock wall and they kept sliding down just cos' we've never had this kind of tunnel slide in our past holidays. Whhheeee! 

On the first day after we checked in, the younger ones decided to jump into the pool for a dip since the water looked too inviting and the infinity pool had a gorgeous view. Angel and I decided to skip it since she doesn't like swimming and I've learnt to accept that my kids have differing likes and dislikes and it's okay to split up when we are on holiday so that we can cater to different needs and preferences.

At night, we hopped over to Sunway Big Box and had Kenny Rogers for dinner, played arcade games at Fun Max and went for an impromptu movie where we watched "Now you see me: Now you don't" and everyone loved it because we like the four horsemen in the previous two films.

We usually don't have a fixed itinerary when we go on holiday even though I might have listed some suggested activities or places of interest to visit. It's usually a play by ear affair and I like to let the kids have the opportunity to vote and decide too. Yeap, democracy rules in our family - until they decide to have split opinions, start quarrelling and drive me up the wall. Haha.

While the sisters shared the same loft bed, this was the first time Ansel was willing to share a bed with Korkor without me by his side. And to fellow mums who practise co-sleeping, you will know how big of a deal that is. Well, he did ask me to stay by his side till he fell asleep but it was still a milestone for this 4-year-old who is growing up fast.

On the second day, we visited one of our favourite places in Malaysia and that is..... Legoland, of course! We must have been here at least two dozen times already since it opened in 2012, I mean, look at my eldest, she is already turning 16! I guess that is the beauty of having younger siblings and since Ansel is only four, I think we will still be making trips here quite often.

The good thing is Ansel is now tall enough for all of the rides, woohoo! Well, he still needs parent accompany but at least we can now go for rides together - yes, all six of us! - instead of having to separate due to height limits.

So we went for ride after ride and it was heartwarming to see that the girls were still happy to play together in this kiddy land even though they are almost 13 and 16. They still enjoy the more thrilling rides like Dragon Roller coaster and VR ride, and they are happy to accompany the little one too.

In the evening, we made our way to Snow Land which is located within Medini Mall. The kids always like visiting Snow City so I figured they would love this too.

It was freezing cold and the younger ones had to exit a couple of times before re-entering as they are really not used to the sub zero temperatures. But, we enjoyed whizzing down the icy slides and even tried to have a snowball fight too.

Since it was Angel's actual birthday, the hubby brought us to a Korean restaurant so she could have her favourite army stew. The food was pretty good and we all enjoyed it!

Back at the apartment, of course we had to have a cake cutting ceremony for the big girl. The siblings presented their handwritten cards to 大姐 and I also gave her a card filled with her childhood photos, one from each year of her growing up.

Well, as always, things are never as they seem on social media and right before this, I had to deal with terrible tantrums, quibbles and backtalking before we managed to get everyone to get together for this family shot.

The next day, we made our way to Johor Zoo since the kids love animals and I thought it would be a good and meaningful way to spend our day. Even though the place was small, we still saw quite a handful of animals and spent a good two hours observing and admiring them.

One of the highlights took place on the third night and that was visiting EnergX Park! This was an indoor adventure and trampoline park and we had been looking forward to it for some time. It was our first time visiting and I love that we get to experience so many firsts together as a family whenever we go on holidays.

EnerG X provided lots of fun and we enjoyed the tower slide where we had to sit in a tube and slide down at a fast speed before flying up and heading straight onto a giant inflatable, the trampolines where we played dodge ball and tried to hit each other, the zipline which was very fun as we flew across, the futsal area where we played 3-on-3 and were amazed by how bad we can be at kicking balls, and the four-level obstacle course which freaked Ansel out but was very fun for the rest of the kids.

In fact, the kids had lots of fun and decided to go for a quick dinner before returning to the park to play more before its closing time.

In this second round, we spent much of our time at the trampoline area and while Ansel was happy to keep climbing up an inflatable and jumping down, the other siblinges challenged themslves to scale a high wall.

The wall was really high and none of us could reach it by jumping on our own. We could barely grab the ledge no matter how high we jumped, so seeing how they really wanted to get up, I offered to let the girls stand on my shoulder as I pushed them up. Haha, yup, it's totally the kind of thing I would do for my kids, even if it hurt a little. But guess what, they did it and though no one would understand what we went through to get that photo of all the four kids up on the wall, it is something only my kids and I will know and I kind of like that fact.

Three nights flew past in a flash on on our fourth day, it was time to check out already. The kids usually get to sleep in as while the hubby goes to get breakfast, I would be the one doing the packing and would let the kids sleep till it was really time to get up or we would be charged a late checkout fee.

So we made our way to Sunway Big Box once more and with a stroke of luck, the kids had the chance to feed rabbits, llamas, observe lots of reptiles, and even get up close with iguanas, geckos, skinks and a giant python.

Guess what Angel's fsvourite animal is? Well, it's SNAKE so I think it was destined and we were lucky to be able to get this family shot on our last day.

As the hubby wanted to avoid the peak hours, we ended up staying till late at night and I do mean after midnight so that gave us another day to play.

So we made our way to Chow Cute 2.0 cafe as the kids really like the dogs here and would spend a long time cuddling them and feeding them.

Then we went for a spontaneous family karaoke session since we had time to spare and it's always nice to sing together. I can safely say that our whole family loves to sing, woohoo, so I do love going for karaoke with them and it's a good way to get to learn new English pop songs from the kids while introducing classic Mandopop songs to them, haha.

We ended off the trip with a hearty supper at Dai Tao Lala Hotpot which is one of our favourite eateries at Mount Austin. Yes, even the kids love it too and the fire is always a thrill to watch. It's a good thing we came so late too so there wasn't a queue, woohoo, and we could tuck into the yummy food right away.

So that marks the end of our road trip and Angel's 16th birthday celebration. As always, here's a video to showcase the highlights so that we can always reminisce and remember these happy times. )Yes, the kids still love watching and re-watching our own family videos.)

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Dear Angel,

Happy turning 16, my dear! Wow, 16, that is quite amazing and what a journey you've had so far from Sweden to now.

Over the years, we've had our fair share of ups and downs, fights and struggles, laughters and tears. It's never easy being the firstborn because while you learn, I learn too and as you know, teenhood is never a easy path to navigate. That said, I still hope you are happy to have three younger siblings who can be really noisy and irritating at times, but also bring about unparalleled sweetness and joy.

Congratulations on graduating from secondary school and completing your 'O' Levels! I mean, there were many times when we thought we wouldn't make it here and the struggles were real. But here we are, and I hope you are as proud of yourself as I am of you, and that you like the surprise DIY pipe cleaner bouquet and Stray Kids PuppyM plushie (original one, okay) I got for you.

Happy birthday and hope you enjoyed this short but fun-filled Johor getaway too. We love you to the moon and back!

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Till the next celebration!