Our First Christmas Lunch

We headed to Marriott Hotel for our Christmas lunch this year.

It was William's first time getting us a Christmas lunch. He'd meant to reserve a table at Marriott Cafe for the actual lunch, but he ended up reserving a table at Pool Grill Restaurant, and we ended up having Executive Lunch instead.

 It was a small dining area overseeing the hotel pool.

Very quiet, with a very attentive waiter, waitress and manager.

The nice Filipino manager got Baby a colouring activity to keep her occupied.

 We had Lychee Tea while the kids had apple juice

 The hard bread

 Spinach Soup.

Pleasant but relatively tasteless for us who are accustomed to mushroom soup's strong taste.

 Cod fish with chips for the kids

The flakes were fresh and good. Coco finished it all.

 William asked for Turkey Breast for a taste of Christmas.

Who says that turkey meat is hard? This one is tender and soft.

 I am a Lamb Shank fan.

It was totally superior to all lamb shanks I have tasted.

Soft, tender, but not mashed.

The custard/mustard-like cream was slightly sweet and went perfectly well with the lamb.

Even Coco loved it.

 My dessert, Chocolate Fudge Log Cake

 His dessert, Fruit Cake with Strawberry Sherbert

 The kids', Chocolate Chips ice-cream

 The sisters looking at the pool with all the pitter patter

The Executive Lunch was $25++ per pax while the kid's meal was about $10++ per pax.

Totally worth it although it was not what we went for, but oh well, it was his first time booking a Christmas lunch.

 We walked past the huge Christmas tree at the foyer and decided that it was worth a shot

Merry Merry Christmas!

This year, we had more guests than ever in our house.

My relatives from up north came joining us for a Christmas dinner. We had about 27 people in all, including the kids.

The night began with putting the presents under the magic tree ... ...

and some horsing around with the strobes

I thought the red backdrop was just brilliant!

The food from Eatz Catering

Honey roasted chicken mid joints

Cheesy sausages

Scallops Mornay

Tempura prawns

Fried rice

Turkey ham and turkey salami platter

Caesar salad with smoked salmon

Roasted lamb leg

Log cake

Baby is starting to get so seasoned in front of the camera that she's become highly sensitive to it. She is posing in this picture when the focus is on my brother.

I always grab the chance to take a picture with my gals whenever there are people who know how to use a DSLR around.

Baby loves her presents

Posing with their Nerf Guns

The guests:

My brother and his girlfriend

My aunt and my family

My niece

Our family friend

My uncle and cousin

The younger ones amongst us (in the twenties' and thirties' range) thought the food was great.

There wasn't even an awful item on the menu.

However, I ordered for just 14 pax not knowing that so many guests would turn up, so the amount was a little meagre upon first look. The older ones ie. my parents, uncle and aunt did not eat much. They insisted that they were full after eating a little. The friends brought by my sisters and brother did not eat at all. They probably felt too shy to eat. In the end, we had leftovers for almost every item.

Of all the food, Scallops Mornay was the most scrumptious, but the least.

Eatz Catering was prompt in its delivery. I had requested for the food to arrive at 7pm at first, but at the last minute at 2.30pm, I asked for it to be delivered at 6pm to 6.30pm so that one of my sister could eat something before she flew off, and the food came at 6pm. With that, I was utterly impressed.

However, I asked for the food to be increased from 12 to 14 pax, but the invoice stated that it was for 12 pax. The delivery guy called the company and reverted to me that the amount of food was correct but the invoice was wrong. ... I decided not to get upset over it and give them the benefit of doubt since it was Christmas.

Despite their blunder, I will certainly keep Eatz Catering in my list of 'Christmas Dinner Caterers' because of the good food and prompt delivery.

It's Christmas Again

Four years of collecting of Christmas ornaments sure have paid off. The result is a stunning and glamourous tree.

What I bought each year:

First year - the 7 feet Kodiak tree and purple ornaments.
Second year - decided to change to a gold themed tree and bought all ornaments gold.
Third year - gold ornaments again, but limited to each item to one purchase for uniqueness' sake.
Fourth year - gold ornaments again, but decided to have them in pairs as suggested by Coco. Discovered that red and gold go very well indeed. Will KIV red-and-gold theme.

The red and gold ornament that sways me to the potential new theme

This Christmas, I have decided on whether we are going to have a Christmas dinner (we are), the venue (my place) and date and time (the very Christmas day and evening).

I am going to decide on the caterer and menu early too so that I get to eat the roast lamb leg this year. And to make the dinner really Christmasy!

Setting up the Christmas tree

Due to my lack of spatial awareness and numeracy skills, I had overestimated the space in my flat. I bought a 7-feet Kodiak tree, thinking that it would look really grand. I had always wanted a grand-looking Christmas tree and didn't want a mere 5-feet which just about every flat-dweller asks for. Shortly after it arrived, I realised that there is a good reason why most people opted for a 5-feet tree.

I also learnt that there is a difference between the make of trees of different height. A smaller one usually has just 3 parts ie. top, body and bottom stand. But for mine, it has a stand which is broken into 2 parts due to its length, the top bushel and the branches that come with hooks, which we have to hook them onto the stand one by one. It's very tedious and not much fun really. Most of the time, I have to do it by myself because others quickly give up due to the need for great tenacity to endeavour in setting up the tree.

The branches, sorted out by their colour codes, according to their length

The botak stand

Coco fitting in the branches

Okay, the tree's done

Standing on a chair to decorate the Christmas tree

The final product

I've also learnt that the best-looking colour on a Christmas tree is probably gold. A reno forum held a Christmas tree competition a few years back and most people had a gold- or silver-themed Christmas tree. And the gold ones stood out alot better than the silver ones. Silver ones looked, at best, greyish. Gold ones, at best, looked stunning and glamorous. So now my purchase of ornaments leans towards gold coloured ones and so far, they are beautiful and look great on my Christmas tree, especially when on pictures.

When I first bought the ornaments for a purple-themed Christmas tree the first year we had it, upon knowing that ornaments were not cheap, I chose bigger ornaments to cover more surface area of the tree, and I ended up with a lot of bollies. Kinda boring if you ask me. Last year, I decided to buy a variety of designs for the ornaments and tried as far as possible not to repeat the designs. The product was more satisfying than its former version.

The price of a Christmas tree is just the icing on the cake. Everytime I buy the ornaments, I would limit my budget to about $100 so as not to overspend without realising it. And the thrift in me feels stupid to spend a few times more on the ornaments than on the Christmas tree at one go. Buying the ornaments also tells me one thing: it is better to have a smaller Christmas tree.

Adding on the chasing lights will make the tree look fuller if the ornaments are not many.

Last year, I decided to be clever. We hung ornaments on the parts of the tree that were meant to be seen. However, last year, I came across a rotating Christmas tree which I thought was cool. It was a 6-feet tree if I remember it correctly. If I ever buy that, then the strategy of decorating the seen parts of a Christmas tree will not apply.