Happiness is... holding dear to family celebrations

February is a special and happy month because it marks the arrival of Chinese New Year, which is my favourite festive celebration, and the birthday of the littlest in our family, which also reminds me of the memorable day when I gave birth to this preemie lastborn of mine.

I love Chinese New Year because we get so many opportunities to gather with family and friends. I love listening to the catchy CNY songs, I love dressing the kids up in traditional costumes, I love giving out ang paos and well wishes, I love having reunion meals with the people who matter so much to me in my life.

It's like the older you get, the more you realise that this kind of opportunity might not happen for many more years. People age, people fall sick and people leave this world before we know it. I still feel saddened every time I think of my beloved grandma because CNY just isn't the same without her with us and how I wish I had the chance to celebrate with her once more and let her know just how much I love and miss her.

In this post of "Happiness is...", it's about holding dear to family celebrations and cherishing every chance that we get to come together.

We are lucky to still have our parents around and every year, my in-laws and my parents will take turns to whip up a yummy meal for us. From my mum-in-law's home cooked shark fins and father-in-law's pig stomach soup to my Dad's fried chicken drumsticks and Mum's stir-fried spinach, I don't take any of these for granted and am always thankful for having these 美味佳肴 on our table. The most important thing is that we get to gather and enjoy family bliss with the extended family and the kids get to play and hang out with their cousins.

I love watching lion dance so every year, we will watch some performances on TV and I will also check where the live performances are so that I can bring the littlest with me to watch. Yup, he is the only one who can still skip school so I love bringing him along. This year, we were very lucky as to be able to get a dragon plushie which was caught by an auntie beside us who passed it to Ansel and made him overjoyed.

See his big happy smile? Yeah, just that smile made all the wait worthwhile - we arrived early as we wanted a good seat where he would be able to see the lions. When we got home, he took the blanket and started to pretend to do the lion dance while I sang the "Dong Qiang, Dong Qiang”. It was so cute when the Korkor came to join him and they even tried to do stunts like doing a crouching lion and the big brother also lifted the toddler up and told him to do flutter kicks. Awww, too cute.

I was lucky to be able to visit Bird Paradise and do a review on it as a freelance writer for Singapore Women's Weekly. This meant the kids got the opportunity to explore the park once more and this time, we got to feed both the cassowaries and pelicans as well as watched both of the animal presentations, woohoo!

It is very expensive to visit such attractions because we are a big family and the cost only increases as the kids age like how the eldest is now considered an adult already. So I am always very grateful for any media invites or any opportunity for us to review any attraction, even if it means I have to get busy the whole time as I film our experience and write down important information.

I don't meet up with friends often enough but every time I do, I am indeed very thankful. This time, I brought the two boys to meet up with two of my sisters whom I've known since secondary school. While the boys entertained themselves by scooting and playing ball in the field, we caught up with each other's lives and chatted about anything under the sun. It isn't easy finding friends who remain close for decades and feel like family, so I'm definitely holding our friendship dear for as long as possible.

I love eating out with the kids because it means that I don't need to cook or wash the dishes, haha. Yup, that is the truth that I'm not afraid to confess because it's really exhausting if you were to cook every day of the week, without a helper. Anyway, we made our way to Yakiniku and Ding Tai Fung this month and both restaurants are among our favourites because we love having grilled meat in the former and nothing beats having Xiao Long Bao in the latter.

A big highlight of the month was Ansel turning 3! Yup, how has this tiny baby of mine turned three years old in the blink of an eye? I still remember pushing him out into this world and just reading his birth story still brings tears to my eyes. Those vivid memories are things that I would hold dear in my heart forever.

The hubby and I made time to go to his school to celebrate his birthday on his actual day. We brought along a cake filled with Spider-Man toppers, brought along goodies bags for his schoolmates and also let him wear a hand-me-down that had a number '3' on it.

What happened after that was something totally funny and unexpected. His teachers were shocked to find out that he was only three years old because all along, they had put him in the N2 class because they thought he was turning four. A quick check into his records and some investigation later showed his birth year had been written wrongly as 2020 instead of 2021 and it was an honest mistake made by one of the teachers. No one would have known about it if we didn't decide to celebrate his 3rd birthday in school.

What surprised me was that the teachers said they didn't suspect a thing because he could keep up with the activities that the N2 kids were doing. He would do all the writing as best as he could and learn whatever they taught him. I was half wondering why he was learning difficult phonics and numbers at three years old and it all suddenly made sense to me when they explained it. Way to go, Ansel!

After the birthday boy was dismissed from school, I went for a one-on-one lunch with him and he was ecstatic to hear that we were going to eat McDonald's! It's one of the simple things that bring him lots of joy and I was thankful that we got to spend some time together, just the two of us.

While the eldest had to stay back in school for CCA, the rest came back promptly after school and the first thing they did was to wish the little brother "Happy birthday" and shower him with lots of hugs and kisses. I bought a small piece of Coco Exotic - which is one of our favourite cakes - from Four Leaves and had a mini cake cutting ceremony for him. Yup, this boy loves blowing out candles so I made sure he got to do it a few times in a day.

In the afternoon, we made our way for Heguru class and his teachers gave him a sweet card and also let the whole class sing a song for him. Awwww.

In the evening, we reunited all the kids and made our way to Swensen's for a yummy dinner. For desserts, we had a rare treat and ordered a waffle with ice cream as well as a chocolate fondue which is always a hit with the kids. We brought along our Spider-Man toppers - which are laminated printed cutouts that had toothpicks pasted behind - just to add a personalised touch for Ansel, who was a truly happy boy that day.

The fun continued all the way into the weekend where we had a happy, memorable, one-of-a-kind DIY Spider-Man party which was filled with games, costumes, water play, presents, laughter and lots of family joy. If you have not read about it yet, do hop over here to find out more about all the exciting highlights from the party.

Besides seeing the happy smiles on the birthday's boy face, another thing that warmed my heart was seeing how the siblings were willing to get into action and do all the fun things together with him, even if some of them were much older. For instance, the big sister wore the Gwen outfit that I bought even if it was a little tight and suffocating for her. The second elder sister was very patient with him as she taught him how to shoot the 'villains' at the water play games and took time to accompany him around the pool as he tried to do it himself. 

It is always my hope that the four of them will grow up to be close siblings who love, protect and watch out for one another. It's one of the things that I hope will never change, no matter how old they grow or how far apart they are in the world.

Yup, I know I've shared these photos in the party post but I just need to put them here once more to conclude that lovely weekend that we had. It wasn't a lavish or over-the-top party but it was one that brought joy and created lots of beautiful memories for our family, especially the birthday boy who was beaming from ear to ear. 

I hope you felt our love for you, dear Ansel, because you are truly one of the best things that has happened to our family and you bring about endless bliss and joy. I'm not sure how many more themed birthday celebrations you would like to have but I would gladly plan parties and do it for you for as long as you want. Your milestones mean the world to me, and so do you.

Here's to more family celebrations ahead of us and may we learn to be thankful, to treasure and to never take anything in our lives for granted.

Till the next post of "Happiness is..."!