Lucky 13

Over Christmas and New Year K-bao got to spend some time with K-Mum's side of the family. Indeed, with K-Great-Grandmum in the house, along with all the cousins, there were 13 happy campers in all. It was a festive gathering which extended over many days.

There was plenty of lounging time...

...but also some intense activities. In the below "friendly" Bocce ball match, the judge (Uncle Calvin) had to resort to taking off his shoelaces to measure the distance between the balls in order to resolve a dispute between the teams. (One can also see contestant Aunt Christina - clearly not fully trusting in the process - on the ground closely inspecting the measuring activity.)

"Pull that string tighter! Tighter!"

A highlight for K-bao was of course spending time with her cousins, particularly J-Cuz, i.e. Cousin Justin. The two built Magna Tile castles, read Bible stories aloud and even tested their arm strength against each other (refereed once again by Uncle Calvin). K-bao and sister C-bao also had fun playing with Justin's younger sister, Cousin Kaitlyn, who is a few days older than C-bao.

"Don't let my expression (or my 2 hands) fool you, J - I'm only using 30% of my strength"

"Don't try this at home, kids"

As usual, K-Grandmum, saint that she is, spent most of her personal time cooking up great heaps of delicious food to feed the hungry crowds.

Happy new year!

Happy new year everyone! Thanks for a great year and look forward to an even better 2015!

"Looking hot, sis!"

Christmas Tree

"Hold on everyone! I'll decide what goes on the tree."

It's Christmas! For the first time in K-bao's almost-six years, the family decided to put up a real, live Christmas tree in the house.

K-bao and fam took a trip out to Home Depot to pick out the tree ("At least 7 feet!" insisted K-Mum. "Go big or go home!"), and also stopped by a few retailers to find lights and ornaments. K-bao's good friend Aunt Leslie and Xiao Ah-yi (Aunt Christina) then came over to help decorate the tree and drink hot chocolate.

"Blue is definitely my second favorite color" 

Sister C-bao also joined in the festivities.

Lights! Camera!

Naughty or nice? You decide

Fresh pine! But also fresh ants. And lots of pine needles everywhere. The K-folks will have to decide whether all of this becomes a family tradition. But it was fun while it lasted!

No Foodie

Upon arriving in Singapore:

• K-folks: "Now that we're in Singapore, K-bao, there are all sorts of new foods to try. What would you like? Singapore is about 3/4 Chinese with significant minorities in Malay, Indian and Eurasians. They have great noodles, seafood, curries, and soups." 
• K-bao: "Pizza."  

K-bao is normally a dawdling eater, but put a pizza pie in front of her and she becomes focused and efficient. Three slices is a bad day. Indeed, generally K-Mum is lucky to finish half as many slices as K-bao.

Here she is anticipating her pepperoni pie.

The Ceremony

It's finally here!

Aunt Catherine and Uncle Zech's magnificent wedding ceremony in Singapore is documented beautifully in the above highlight clip.

The bride was stunning, the groom handsome, and of course the little ones did their best to play their part.

The girls make their entrance at 3:19 in the video. Sister C-bao led off the procession, striding resolutely down the aisle without bothering to dispense too many petals, as if late for an appointment. K-bao, on the other hand, took her time, solemnly and gracefully.

In between them was a young lad, a relation of WZ Shu-Shu's, whose gleeful, clearly intentional pitches of the ring pillow was more than made up for by sheer adorableness. And of course, stately Cousin Elizabeth made up the rear, ushering her young cousins ahead.

The bridesmaids then made their appearance, with Matron of Honor Da Goo-Goo (Aunt Esther) finally preceding the bride.

All three young ladies were beautiful in their flowing white gowns. In all, a fantastic experience for young K-bao and her sister.

Below is the original invitation from Xiao Goo-Goo from many months ago:

Munchkin

K-bao also got to see her second cousin, Little C - a.k.a. "The Munchkin" - in Singapore. She had not seen the Munchkin (who is daughter of K-Pop's cuz Auntie Julie) in quite some time, as she resides on the other side of the world, but the two had the opportunity to sit next to each other at the reception dinner. After a few shy minutes, the girls warmed to each other quickly and ended up running around heckling guests and creating havoc on the dance floor the rest of the evening. Naturally, K-bao led the mischief.

A representative clip, with K-bao leading wind sprints across the dance floor.

Family time

K-bao got to catch up with quite a few family members in Singapore. Here she shares a laugh with K-Grandmum and some other women in the family. 

The group took a quick day trip to the wonderful Gardens by the Bay, which was not only beautiful, but beautifully air-conditioned.

Here are the various granddaughters on the same trip, huddled around K-Grandmum and having a good time.



One of the best meals of the trip for our little epicurean was the brunch buffet with K-Grandpop & K-Grandmum at the St. Regis. As usual, K-bao's eyes were several times bigger than her stomach, as she wandered around excitedly from station to station, collecting plate after plate.

Below is the last evening with the always-popular Shu-Shu (a.k.a. Uncle James). This expression on his face is pretty typical of his interactions with the little ones (see, for example, here), as he is usually fending off some overexpressive advances by his little nieces.

And of course, the star of the show, Xiao Goo-Goo (Aunt Catherine). Here K-bao and C-bao, along with cousin Elizabeth, are being hosted by WZ Shu-Shu's family on the eve of the big day.

She also saw Da Goo-Goo (Aunt Esther) just about every day, but didn't get as many pics with her.