Make a Gingerbread House

Erin, my neighbour popped over and we made fake Gingerbread houses out of cardboard.


Mom traced the templates and cut out the cottage walls and roof. Get the templates from here

For the Gingerbread house construction frosting, you will need:


3 egg whites

1 pound icing sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp cream of tartar


Mix all the ingredients and beat for 7-10mins at high speed until you get stiff peaks.



Mom didn't have brown cardboard, so we mix some coffee into 1/3 of the frosting to plaster the walls brown.

'Glue' all the walls together by squeezing the icing along the joints. See this page for instructions Step-by-step how to build gingerbread house walls.

TIP: Let the icing harden and the walls are firm before adding the roof.

Decorate with cereals, cookies, candy canes, smarties, etc. rule of thumb is anything edible.

Here's my finished gingerbread house
:

Visit to Good Samaritan Children's Home, Klang

Mom gathered my pre-loved toys and we took a trip to Klang to visit the Good Samaritan Children's Home. We were met by Mrs Ong who runs the orphanage together with her husband Pas. Ong. There are a total of 28 kids from age 1 to 17.

9 or them are under 6 years which my toys are suitable for. I saw a group primary age kids rehearsing a tambourine dance. The older teenagers work part time in a legal office for RM60 a month during the school holidays. Mrs Ong says some of them are orphans, some have parents or single mothers who don't care about them or the fathers have run off and the moms can't support them, some are brought in by the police, some are abandoned children. She needs between RM15-20K a month to support the kids and is solely dependant on public donations. Some months she has to call up friends to help and sometimes dig into her own savings.

I spent some time playing with the younger kids and even visited their bedrooms. 9 boys sleep in an average sized bedroom in double decker beds and on the floor while the girls' room are smaller housing 7 of them. In another even smaller room is Mrs Ong with the toddlers. Mom says I'm soooo lucky to have a small room of my own and I don't even use it. (still crashing into my parents' room)

I also saw many baskets of laundry upstairs. All along the wooden stairs rails were decorated with bits of red and green crepe paper giving the place a Christmassy feel. Mrs Ong said it was done by the kids. I distributed the Mandarins oranges we brought to all the kids.

All the kids were very well mannered and one of them, an Indian boy about 7 yrs old even asked me to come again when it was time to leave. He came to sit next to me on the swing.

Christmas Carollers at Aunty Doreen's

After dinner at Aunty Doreen's, the students Christmas Carollers came. They sang all my favorites - Away in a Manger, Frosty the Snowman, When a Child is Born and others. I sang Away in a Manger and O Christmas Tree to them. The carollers asked me to join them. no no no, when I'm older, maybe...

How to Build a Self-Designed Lego Train

I used parts of my Lego Holiday Train to build a lookalike of the Lionel Tinsel Town Express. Here's step-by-step how to build the bogey wheels:

Aunty Liza and Uncle Francis's Wedding Party

It was a Wedding Party with a difference! Held at Sunway Hotel's poolside, the theme was 'Riot of Colors' and most of the guests were dressed as such with the exception of Aunties Rebecca, Helen, Kathleen and Jennifer who were the 'Women in Black'. I had to change in the car as we came straight from attending the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra's Christmas Concert downtown KL where we had to dress 'appropriately'. We were early so I took a dip before the bride and groom marched in.

Aunty Liza's friends from Hong Kong and China besides US and Canada (Aunties Rebecca/Flisa) also attended the party and they will be off to Langkawi the following day to continue the celebrations.


Click above slideshow to view larger photos.

Christmas Train Rides in KL and PJ

Here's the dressed up Christmas 'Train' at Ikano Power Center - RM5 for a very short ride, just around the lobby area between Starbucks and Cold Storage.


Sunway's Christmas Train was better. At least it's on tracks. I got to drive it and it was cool to ring the bell! Mastercard holders get free rides or shoppers with RM100 spending or more.

Swim BBQ

To welcome my old playgroup friend Celine and Aunty Soo who came back from Sydney, Australia for the holidays, Mom organized a potluck BBQ. We played basketball, swam, learnt to use the skipping rope and fed mosquitoes, yuks. Pop n Aunty Sue Ann helped with the grilling, Mom played monkey with us at the pool while everyone else chatted and ate. Aunty Wai Han brought yummy satay and Aunty Sui's barbeque squid was BEST with her Thai seafood sauce, as voted by Aunty Juliana and Mom. Aunty Liz's rainbow trout was lovingly grilled to perfection and somehow 2 of them found their way to our kitchen that nite, hehehe.

Celine's got Aussie slang already after spending 1 year there. They will be leaving for Penang tomorrow and hopefully we'll get together again before they go back to Australia after Chinese New Year.

Click here to view or download photos.