The Year of Hotpot

New Year’s Eve is one of the only two nights I would stay up for (the other is Oscars). We don’t do anything grandiose.  Dinner is simple and easy.  Kids are tucked to bed on their usual bedtime. The TV is on for the New Year Countdown in Time Square and Nathan Phillips Square. It is one of those moments I want to be awake for - the split second when one year ends, and another begins.

This year is our first full year in our new house (we moved on December 2012).  And a full house it has been!  Between March and July we have had a revolving door of guests, enough to forego the housewarming. One batch at a time, some overlap, and basement renovation in between.  While at it, we are getting on with the daily humdrum and also getting settled-in the new home ourselves.  It’s been very hectic but it was my pleasure to open our home to family and friends.

Our office also finds a new home, which cuts my commute by half. Though I miss the airport view, it has now been replaced by the very inviting shopping hub, Heartland Town Centre. I could easily make a quick stop on my way home – grocery shopping, buying dinner or “just looking”. So, pray this danger zone doesn’t scream my name whenever I drive by it, or Sorry, Mr. Hotpot! 

I still rise early each morning to make bento for my boys. They are now in the after-school program while I go back to full time hours. Although this has loosen some pressure at work, life took over on the home front.  My blog has gone to backburner.  I have not taken and shared as much photos as I had, but I have just as much special moments worth capturing, saving and sharing.  On the flipside, I have lived and relished in those moments as they are taking place. Check out my Instagram, for snippets of my everyday life. 

We took a raincheck on a big trip this year, but we’ve been out and about.  We’ve been to Mountsberg Maple Towne for maple syrup making, StonehavenFarm for pumpkins and corn maze, Crystal Beach, High Park and Niagara-on-the-Lake with our guests, Burlington Waterfront with my family, the Shrine Circus, Toronto Centre Island with friends, and Riverwood Conservancy for hike, among others.  I have taken Sashimi on his favourite train and subway rides in Toronto to a Jays game, Sugar Beach, ROM, and the new Ripley’s Aquarium. Sushi had a different birthday experience at the Raptors Game with his BFF. Meanwhile, Sashimi's favourite outing was the plane-ride to New Jersey. A nice 5-day break for me from the daily mundane to go eating and shopping with my sisters.

Back home, Dad is battling stage 4 cancer and has gone through 6 rounds of chemotherapy.  While this is to us terrifying and depressing, Dad is in good spirits.  Thanks to family and friends who are keeping him company regularly.  It is a good way of celebrating his life while he is still with us.  I am so grateful that he was able to visit me this year with Mom and my brother.   And I am going to see him in February in the new year.

This year marks our 10 years in Canada.  I am on the same job for 6 years.  Sushi turned 9, Sashimi turned 5, and I, another year older. In the winter I tried ice-skating for the very first time. Fearless like I was 5. And in the summer I was biking, with the determination of a 9 year old. One is never too old. And it’s never too late.  

I shall carry this on into the new year and there will be no deterent to try to new things. Be bold. Dream big. Believe I can.  Do something out of the ordinary. Go places I've never been. Take a different route to work. To the mall. Or to the gas station. Enjoy the drive. The everyday commute.  Because it is every day.

I will make new friends.  Be something to someone. Build extraordinary relationships. Love unconditionally.  Say thank you to the office cleaning lady. Or to the bus driver. Hug my parents.  And my kids.  Every day.  Live everyday like there’s no tomorrow.  Because life is short. And unpredictable.   

I will not sweat the small stuff. Rather, pick my battles. Take it easy. Appreciate the little things. Look at the sky. Wait for the rainbow. Marvel at the trees.  Stop and smell the roses. Value the ever day ordinary. 

“Write it in your heart that every day is the best day in the year.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Wishing you a good Every Day in 2014!
From the Hotpot Family

Gong Xi Fa Cai

Very touching.

T&T

Chinese New Year is around the corner, so lately I have been doing my groceries at the Asian market. I haven’t been to T&T in ages, but now that we’ve moved – danger - we’re darn close. Is it just me, but everything they carry makes you grab at first sight?

Crablets


Squid Tentacles
 

Jasmine Green Tea - did I just hoard?
 

These buns give me sanity some mornings. 

 

Haw Flakes.  Nostalgia. 

 

Did I say T&T does rip your wallet too??? 

Cheers to a bountiful new year! 恭喜發財!

Sushi's 2013 Resolutions

 

 

 

Looking Back & Forward

As of this writing, Mr. Hotpot has already unpacked the last box from our move. It’s a nice welcome to 2013. Also, Welcome Home!

We didn’t get this house with the pool, but this is the house that pulled the trigger  to move. We didn’t exactly want to upsize, we just wanted to have our separate space, detached from the neighbours. Then, we found the house that’s just the right size for our family.
 

And so this is the house we will call our home in the new year and into the next chapter of our life. Every time a meal is prepared, Sushi asks if we’re having guests over. He is most often disappointed, when nobody's coming. But our house has always been and will always be open to friends and family over simple to great meals, good conversations and lots of laughter, with or without any occasion.

We are thankful for material blessings. But my world does not revolve around them. My jewels are my 2 boys. During the move, we saw how much stuff we have accumulated over the last 6 years we were in the previous home. Like do I really need to save all the kids’ toys for someone until they pile up? Do I really need a number of purses when I only alternate three? Will I ever use all the toiletries I slink out of hotel stays? When I said space, I meant empty space and not room for more. Not filling in the blanks.  So this new year, it’s all about purging down to the bare necessities.  I shall go on with reducing, reusing and recycling. Not buying until I have rummaged my stash. Or it’s one in one out. I just did that with my new pan, and new grilling machine (thanks, Riaz!).

Year after year, my office announces job cuts. But luckily, after 5 years, I am still there, and happy with my job.  Granting me part time work hours has given me the opportunity to become better at my full-time and permanent career as mother and homemaker. Every day at the strike of the clock, I could only look forward to picking up my boys from their school.
 

This year we went diaper-free and daycare fees free. Weee! Sashimi went to big school this year for JK. Although with resistance at the onset and long interruptions (vacation, move & sick), he has matured tremendously. Same as Sushi, who this year has declared ladies’ washroom no more! Both kids will start the new year in a different school in the new neighbourhood.

Prior to our decision to move house that was followed by weekly househunting, we spent most of our weekends out and about. We’ve been to Blue Mountain, Erindale Park, Chinguacousy Park, Bronte Creek, Hilton Falls, Kelso Beach, Sibbald Point, Niagara, and did Tall Ship Kajama in Harbourfront. My personal favourite was the road trip to Quebec, including the long drive. It’s as if I left Canada, and everybody is French. What's not to love about Quebec. Quelle beauté!

Towards the end of this year, I was happy to go home and see my family again and make a side trip to Singapore. Finally! I never had the chance while I was still on that side of the world. So it was perfect timing. Especially with the newly opened Universal Studios. The kids had a blast!

 

And so did I!

It is very expensive to go back home, not to mention the entire family having to miss 4 weeks of school and work. But to be with family again – priceless! Most especially to see and spend time with my dad who has fully recovered from his lung surgery earlier in the year. .

It was the longest and saddest weeks of my life. I listened to “Take Me Out of the Dark” everyday around the time of his surgery. I am grateful for the outpouring love and support families and friends have given our family, especially to Dad & Mom, throughout this rough time.

At the end of each year, I would look back on the year that was and thank God for his bountiful blessings – good health, sanity, lots of energy, the abundance of the basic needs and just enough of the wants. But the greatest blessing is my wonderful family, especially my 2 boys unique in their own ways and the hub who leaves me to do what pleases me, and pleases me.  I don’t make New Year’s resolutions, but if I have to make one, that is to spend even more time with my boys. The best things in life are free, and what money cannot buy. That’s my mantra going into the new year.

Wishing you all a happy, healthy and prosperous 2013!

From the Hotpot Family


 

New Year Bento

Since back to school I am back to my daily bento fixing. As I've said, it's not always pretty. Most days I just crack my brain for ideas and combinations. And there's always a mix of store-bought, frozen and self-made. Most of the time, I am too hurried I don't take picture anymore. Here's my first batch for the year:

The sushi rolls are grocery-bought. It's the only time there would be rice on the bento, tsk tsk. I'd most often put a cheese slice into the croissants.

I shaped the octopi hotdogs. Potato croquets were baked from frozen.

Chicken strips baked from frozen. Mini tacos from Costco. I stir-fried the king mushroom.

This is my bite-size clubhouse sandwich, using chicken breast deli and cheese slice.

Which fits perfectly into the animal bento box.

I made the pancake with fresh blueberries. That's supposed to be a train. The apples are the cars. The little car container holds the artichoke dip for the carrots.

For the Chinese New Year

New year oranges. I think the grocers leave the stems/leaves on to sell as New Year oranges, and people like me buy them =]

Polka dots for money. But this is for my gadgets. I got this from Stylesense during its store closing.

Glutinous rice balls. Oozing peanut filling.

I tried to make 蘿蔔糕 turnip cake with shrimps, eggs and pickled vegetable. It's got a little mushy though. First attempt.

Sushi's bento. I shaped the apple to look like Chinese gold coins.

I'm also trying to keep up with making misua for the New Year morning.

Tikoy (rice cake). Another sticky delicacy for CNY.

新年快樂, 恭禧發財, 紅包拿來!

The Year That Was - 2011

Last year I made a request to cut down my hours at work. Thanks to very considerate management, it pushed through. I lost a bit of income there in exchange for more precious family time. I’ve used the word ‘sanity’ a lot since I became a mom twice over. This new schedule has certainly had me keep mine. In fact it has paved for better much blessed year.

Click Read More for my year 2011 in pictures.