Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Turning 35 & Christmas in Strasbourg

Happy New Year 2018!! It's the start of a year and I intend to start of this year by reviving my blog again!

We just came back from our skiing vacation with our friends from Singapore! Jen & I go a long way back! We've known each other since our Junior College days (18 years old!). She and her hubby are based in Scotland now while he pursues his Master's degree.

I think the Singaporeans outnumbered the Germans for once!

At the Stuttgart Christmas market
Pulled pork burger with melted cheese & jalapenos + chilli cheese fries!

Celebrating my 35th birthday in Strasbourg, France

Our December went past in a whirlwind. The hub had a crazy 4 weeks of work when everybody wanted something from him. I've officially entered my mid-30s! We celebrated my 35th birthday in Strasbourg with our lovely neighbours!! It was meant to be a party of 10 but everybody cancelled on me (due to illness), such that only our neighbours could come!

We really spent the day just eating and shopping!! What else right? We found a gem of Japanese restaurant that was rated as the top Japanese restaurant in Strasbourg. It certainly didn't disappoint! There's no sushi there though, just cooked Japanese food. So that was something that I didn't realise! It was an authentic Japanese chef so everything was cooked to perfection!

http://restaurant-matsumotoya.com/ It's a small restaurant, so do make a reservation in advance!


At the Strasbourg Christmas market

Karaage (Fried chicken) and that's Japanese balls!!! Oh SOO good!

The best Pork / Chicken Katsu with rice!!!

I went for the Ebi (prawn) don! TOO good!

Doriyaki and Matcha green tea ice-cream

We were at Matsumotoya for 2 hours before walking around town! Yours truly spent 2 hours at Naf Naf! They were having a sale!! Oh gosh. Naf Naf is bad for my wallet! I got myself 3 tops at 40% off though, so I did feel quite a sense of accomplishment! LOL.

Dinner was at a French seafood restaurant! http://www.brasserie-flo.com/

I spent hours online searching for the ideal restaurant for a party of 10! I know that not everybody would like seafood, so I wanted a good-rated restaurant that offered seafood and regular dishes too. But atlast, it was just 4 of us! So it turned out really cosy too!


At Brasserie Flo



Scallop risotto!!! This was the reason why I chose this restaurant!


What was this called again?

I had such a wonderful birthday present from my neighbours!!! They offered to babysit ALL 3 kids while the hub and I get to go on a date night!!! I mean, seriously. Their present was awesome!!! I never thought that couples without kids would do that for us! It helps too that their apartment is just opposite to ours I guess!!! lol.


Christmas at home

Gabriel had a tummy bug over Christmas. We went for a Christmas circus and left him & the baby at the grandparents. On our way home, he puked ALL over his carseat! Merlion-style! With our 2 guests in the car!!! *facepalm* We told our friends that this was the first time we had a child puke in our car in our 6 years of parenthood. We had to wind down the window for fear that the rancid smell might cause more nausea in the car!

We have the best friends ever! They helped SOOo much in the clearing up of the puke! I mean, only true-blue friends do that! I felt so bad that they had to witness this (gross) side of parenthood with us, but also so fortunate that we had 4 extra hands to make light work.

I insisted that ALL of us drank our Greens (from my company ItWorks) because I really didn't want anybody else to fall sick! It worked sooo well, I must say! Only Gabriel was sick, while Liam had a bit of a rumbly tummy. Everybody else was spared from the dreaded stomach flu!

Since Gabe and my mom-in-law were sick, we decided to have a quiet affair for Christmas. We went to church (without Gabriel) and had steamboat!! This was also a change of tradition because we usually have Raclette for Christmas eve. I must say that it was the best decision ever! Everybody's tummies were happy because of that!

First it was steamboat for Christmas eve

Then Swiss Raclette with scallops, smoked salmon, pork slices and prawns!!

We had a whale of a time!

Can't believe how big our boys are getting! *sob*


It was such a relaxing time because our friends helped a lot with the cleaning-up! Hmmm, Jen is a very clean person so she even offered to mop our floors!!! Hahah. HY helped a lot with the dishes. They were both so efficient that after we put the 3 kids to bed, we would come out to a clean kitchen and dishes that were cleared into the dishwasher! *dream*

We ended our 2017 by going skiing!!! But I think I will blog about that another day!!! Can I just say that even though our December was busy, it was such a fulfilling time!!! SO thankful for friendships that last the test of time! The older you get, the more you realise that deep friendships are hard to come by! I'm so thankful for my barnabas friend and more so for the fact that they went through thick and thin with us and our 3 kids over Christmas!!!

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