The Last Christmas In Cape Town Part 1
To me, Christmas always held a special place in my heart and I would say the same thing every year. These few years have been more special as we are away from home in Singapore. Since we are away from family and friends, which made a big part of the celebration, I tried to put in more effort to bring the meaning closer to the kids. Last year, me and Imm made gingerbread man together. Having a bigger space and more time as a SAHM truly made a huge difference and I am glad I am able to sneak in some precious memories in their growing up years. I am sure parents will always try their best to bring big smiles upon their kids' little faces and sometimes, we do that through grand celebrations or big sparkly presents which I try to avoid. I struggle with wanting to make them happy but in the simplest way possible... thus experiences like making the gingerbread man = bonding time. And this year, it was snow play and reading stories to Ko since Imm was not here yet. We also put up a Christmas tree with simple deco. Ko really enjoyed seeing the beautiful lights and would often ask if she could switch it on during the day.
We read stories together just to bring Jesus a little closer.... and she even sang a birthday song loudly in church during Christmas Day Mass. We gave embarrassing smiles to those who heard but was secretly proud of our little girl with the big voice.
This was a nice book with pop up pictures. I bought it some years back and it was a good accompaniment on every Christmas.
Since it is summer time here, I brought Ko to the the nearby shopping mall where there was a snow event for some fun. She was so scared at first because it was dark and they had some music which she was not familiar with. It surprised me because I brought her last year too and she was fine. I started digging snow first and she followed me after a while. :)
She also tried her hand at the slide! But didn't want to continue after 2 tries. Guess it was pretty fast.
We went there with my helper's kid and they were just dancing! Such innocent joy!
On another day, we went to the pool for some splashing good time. It is the school holidays and I try to occupy her with some outdoor time as her big brother is not around to disturb her, hee...
She didn't really dare to go inside the water actually and would bend forward to fill her bucket. Sometimes I was afraid she would plunge headfirst into the pool.... parents and their worries, oh well.
Anyway, it was indeed great fun spending time together and sharing about Christmas with Ko. This year, I spend more one-to-one time with her, which I never had with Imm around. Thus, it was a little teeny bit more special. Though I also missed Imm, it is also a special pre Christmas bonding time with my little girl....
