JYC Planning Happiness

I need to start off by saying I just love the idea of planning happiness. When I actually stopped and thought about it I have been working hard to think of lots of  fun and memorable activities for Scarlett this month so I guess I am planning happiness of a sort.I cannot wait to take her to see the snow at one of the malls, get her photo taken with Father Christmas and enjoy a special hot chocolate date with her parents.

Scarlett's first visit to Father Christmas did not go well - she would not go closer and the screaming was something else!

Our Christmas is a little different up here. It is probably going to be 28 degrees on the day. No snow that is for sure. This year we will have my sister coming to spend the holidays with us which will be great fun. We never cook a big Christmas meal. Like most Singaporean apartments, mine came without an oven. I cannot see me cooking a turkey and roast veges in my convection microwave - maybe a skinny chicken! We have booked into a cafe for Christmas lunch. All the traditional favourites with no cleaning up afterwards.

Scarlett enjoying her first Christmas lunch at The Regent Hotel - she ate her own weight in ham

There has not really been any planning involved for the week with the exception of making a lunch reservation. I have bought all my presents except my husbands. He has given me very clear instructions as to what he would like. I just have to make my way to the correct store.

Our trip to Thailand on Boxing Day has probably required the most planning and hubby has been responsible for most of that. We are staying at an apartment rather than a hotel this time which should work really well with the needs of the adults and the toddler on the trip. I know that Phuket is our Asian happy place as a family and I cannot wait to get my feet on that white sand.

Relaxing on the beach

Dinner time Phuket style

I do miss the more traditional family lunch we would have if we were back in New Zealand but it will be way less drama filled! 

Are you responsible for planning your family get together this year? Is it an all singing all dancing production or a quieter more intimate celebration? I am very interested in the way the holidays are celebrated in different communities.

JYC The First Sign of Christmas

I have to admit I was surprised at the first things that popped into my head when I read the Day 2 prompt. I feel like the season is here either when my feet hit the beach in Phuket, Thailand or when we go fruit and pea picking in New Zealand! Neither I suspect are the traditional answers to when you feel the festive season has begun.

I think I may need to take a few steps back to help put these two disparate options into some sort of context. I lived in New Zealand until I was 8 and then in Singapore until I was 15. When I lived in New Zealand going fruit (usually berry) picking before Christmas was a fun family activity before Christmas. When we lived in Singapore, if we did not go home for Christmas we spent the ten days before Christmas Eve in Phuket having a relaxing beach holiday. Both of these things totally scream Christmas to me!

I do not have access to my childhood photos as they are in NZ with my Dad but I do have photographic evidence of the way that we have embraced these traditions in our little family of three. 

We spent last Christmas back in New Zealand.

Grandad and Scarlett picking raspberries

It wasn't hard to find plenty of ripe ones

Taking instruction on the finer points of fruit picking

Scarlett picked all these herself

It was wonderful to see three generations picking together and enjoying the sunshine. The man who owns the place where we pick always tells us to eat at least as many as we buy so it is a pretty delicious way to spend an hour or two.

Christmas 2010 and 2012 will involve a few days in Phuket as we are spending Christmas Day in Singapore. This year will be great as my sister is coming from New Zealand to join us and Tet's brother and his girlfriend will meet us in Phuket too. Our trip in 2010 was much more low key as it was just Tet and Scarlett and me. We stayed at one of the quieter beaches and had a wonderful time. I was thrilled to see Scarlett enjoying just the same sort of childhood holiday that I loved so many years earlier.

It was a hard job spending time under these umbrellas and in the warm waters but we managed to survive

Scarlett loved playing in the sand

She was busy making sand castles at 10 months - she started walking a week after we got home from this trip

The beach air meant Scarlett had lots of great naps

Even though we now get to Phuket the day after Christmas it still feels like our holiday season starts with taking off our shoes and feeling the sand between our toes. I am much more excited this year about going to Phuket than I am about Christmas Day itself.

Do you have any rituals that signify the start of the season? Are they the traditional Black Friday shopping adventures or is there something a little more unique in your family. I would love to know what marks the beginning of your festive season.

Memories and the Beginning of Christmas

For once in my life I have actually got a little organised and prepared some page blanks to use for my December Daily. I was so thrilled to have a quiet child free morning and I managed to complete eight pages thinking about the sorts of things we are most likely to do. I am a little reluctant to go to much further ahead as I don't want to be forced to do my activities on set days so things fit in my album.

Here are the eight page bases.

I decided it needed a little introduction and I loved the word stickers from Cosmo Cricket's Tiny Type Christmas set.

 

I loved the mixture of paper and veneer Christmas trees. I still have not gotten over my love of those veneer stars. They need to make them forever!

I had to use some of my washi collection. The layering  is far from perfect but I love all the Christmas motifs and colours on this page.

I know that I am going to be in the line at the Post Office on Friday sending all our parcels back to NZ so I decided to use this label so I could record it. Yes, I will be taking my instax there!

When I first saw this paper I really did wonder how on earth I could I could use it in Singapore. Then I remembered there is a Snow City which has an indoor snow and skiing set up or we could visit the indoor ice skating rink at the Marina Bay Sands. Either way, we will be doing something cold weather that will help my daughter grasp what a northern hemisphere Christmas is all about.

I have mainly used my Simple Scrapper kit with some additional Studio Calico, October Afternoon and other odds and ends from my stash.

I am so super excited to be starting now. I am starting to realise that I am not going to be able to incorporate my Journal Your Christmas in this book but I am excited to blog about it and perhaps create a photo book or even some 12 x 12 pages to record these memories.

Is everyone else feeling excited about this season? What are you doing to record your Holiday season?

Journal Your Christmas : My Christmas Manifesto

I have signed up for Shimelle Laine's Journal Your Christmas class this year and I intend to blog along with a number of the prompts and scrap them as and when I feel the urge. I will definitely be working a day behind at least as I generally do not receive the prompts until quite late in the day due to the time difference involved.

This December I intend to:

• Believe in the magic
• See the season through my daughter's eyes
• Create special memories
• Embrace the imperfection of the moment
• Open my heart to the beauty of the season
• Celebrate what may be our last Singapore Christmas
• Give to those less fortunate than our family
• Focus on the family we will be seeing this month rather than on absent friends and family
• Enjoy a December to remember

Do you have a plan for this month. Please share it in the comments as I would love to see it!

We have been making some progress getting our tree up and decorated.

Someone is pretty excited about the tree!

 

Red Riding Hood Yarns

A little bit of something different today. As well as scrapbooking I also like to work the occasional cross stitch and have even been known to knit. Lately, I have come across a couple of women online who dye their own wool and sell it via Facebook. Now I love beautiful wool and I have been kinda cyber stalking these sites watching and waiting for wool.

A couple of months ago I was intrigued by a one off Spring Shawl Club run by Red Riding Hood Yarns so I took a leap of faith and ordered one. There was a choice of a Light or Night option so I went with night and waited to see what arrived.

I was thrilled when I checked the letterbox today to find my parcel. It smelt incredible. I ran upstairs and being a good blogger took photos of the contents.

Inside the bubble bag were two intriguingly shaped parcels and the fragrance was even stronger! I decided to open the soft one first.

The second photo gives a better idea of the colour of the wool. It is a variegated purple and just beautiful in real life. Please excuse a small set of toes in the second picture. Someone was very curious about the red parcels. The vial attached is full of tiny purple beads to adorn the edge of the shawl.

Once I finished oohing and aahing over the first parcel, I opened the second.

It included a sweet treat in the form of some Ferrero Rocher chocolates and a Phoenix Rising Bath Bomb from Lush. What Mum could resist chocolate and a relaxing bath? I think Hannah really knows her market. 

If you like to knit or crochet, Hannah has regular stockings on her Facebook page and her rainbow skeins have to be seen to be believed. I have had a pretty ordinary day and this delivery has really brightened it.

Busy Days

December is nearly upon us and life is getting a little more frantic. There is a lot of change being signalled at hubby's work early next year and with that comes uncertainty about where we will be living by the middle of next year. We would love to remain in Singapore but odds are we will be elsewhere in South East Asia or perhaps we may even have to return to New Zealand. It makes for a challenging time. Thank goodness for blogging and scrapbooking where I can get some of that stress out in the open!

We have a surprise for Scarlett this afternoon. Hubby is taking a half day and we are off to see a Disney Live Performance at the Marina Bay Sands this afternoon. She is a great fan of all things Disney so we hope it will cheer her up. She is still sick but definitely brighter than yesterday. Mean Mummy made her rest most of the day yesterday and it appears to have paid off.

I have another simple layout to share. It used my favourite paper of the last year. I am a big fan of MME but this muted chevron paper really captured my heart. I kept the layout pretty minimal so the paper could sing.

I am still a big fan of the MME enamel dots and maybe went just a little overboard with them! Can you have too much of a good thing? The photo is from Tet's work's family day. I love the way it captures how he holds Scarlett and the lovely location  the event was held at.

Right I had better sort out some lunch and we need to be all ready so we can snatch one of the booster seats at the theatre, otherwise Scarlett will be on our knees all afternoon! Enjoy your Thursday!

Garden City

We really enjoy living in Singapore and now that there is some uncertainty about how much longer we will be here we are trying to make the most of our time here.

One of the things we love is how green it is here. Even though the island is really tiny, huge amounts of space are given over to plants and trees and the city feels exceptionally verdant. We spend a lot of time exploring parks and playgrounds trying to burn off lots of toddler energy. 

By this time of year there is far less outdoor activity as the monsoon has arrived. Some days we barely see any rain but others it buckets down for most of the day. On these sort of days we resort to indoor playgrounds and such in the malls. Scarlett also has weekly gym and ballet classes to keep her active whatever the weather.

One of our favourite malls is on the other end of the island near the airport. Whenever we visit Changi City Point we wonder why we don't go more often. There is a great water play area, an indoor playground and a wonderful amphitheatre which is the subject of today's layout.

The amphitheatre is decorated like a field of sunflowers and Scarlett loves running up and down the stairs and generally burning off steam. The clouds painted above the sunflowers are lovely too.  This is another Roller Rink special with a lot of Amy Tangerine papers and some Echo Park borders and letters. 

We have a sick wee girl here today... another school day missed. Her parent conference went really well last night. Her teachers are really pleased with her and are going to arrange some testing for her as they believe she may need some more structured extension in her learning. It sounds like she is pretty well behaved at school too which was a relief!

I am planning a night of prepping my December Daily album tonight. My kit from Simple Scrappers arrived today and it is lovely. I have some beautiful bits and pieces from Studio Calico's Wonderland and Crate Paper's Sleigh Ride to jazz it up a bit. I have also signed up for Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas for the  first time. I am starting to get really excited about it all!

Have a great rest of your week!