Night bus tour in Bethlehem-Christmas City

Last year, we spent our Christmas in the hospital as little Sheri was born on 22nd December. Mommy could still remember that she kept baby Sheri company on Christmas Eve night in the nursery. She was sleeping so soundly then. So, strictly speaking, this is Sheri's second Christmas even though I doubt she could remember anything on her first Christmas.

This year, we went to a family candlelight festival at the United Church of Good Sheperd on Christmas eve to experience some festive mood. Surprisingly, Sheri was quite well-behaved while daddy and mommy enjoyed the Christmas caroling.


On last Thursday night, Daddy suggested going for a night bus tour in Bethlehem, which is known as the Christmas city, to see the beautiful Christmas decorations.


As it was pretty cold outside, we waited for the bus in the waiting room.




This was the Welcome Centre cum Museum in Bethlehem. The guide who brought us on a bus tour was dressed in colonial Moravian costume. Little Sheri was still pretty well-behaved at first, but she was getting sleepy during the journey and started become cranky. Mommy and daddy were busy trying to quieten her down as we did not wish to disturb the bus ride of the rest of the passengers. I guess we learnt our lesson. It is not a wise idea to bring a 12 months old baby for such a tour as we may not be able to control her mood at times. After much struggling with mommy, little Sheri finally fell asleep on the bus and we could enjoy the beautiful Christmas decorations at last. According to the guide, there is a certain historical meaning in the Christmas lights that they put up. The view of the Lehigh Valley from the top of the South Mountain and the 81-foot-tall Star of Bethlehem were just spectacular. It was a pity that mommy's camera is not very good at capturing night shots. Anyway, it was a very memorable trip as it was something that we have not done it before and it could probably be the last time that we could share the joy in celebrating Christmas in Bethlehem-the Christmas city.

Studio Shots

Last Wednesday, we brought little Sheri to the Photo Studio in Baby'R'Us for her one year old studio shots. I must confess that it is not easy to take pictures of little Sheri. First of all, it is not easy to make her sit still on the same spot. Usually, she will start crawling to us once she sees the camera. Secondly, it is not easy to make her smile on request. Before we started the photo shots, we did convey our difficulties to the photographer just to give her some mental preparation that it might not be a easy task for her. I must admit that they tried their best to make her smile, but little Sheri just stared at them in bewilderment. Finally, mommy had to jog on the spot and made some animal sounds just to make our little princess smile. So, it seemed that we had to work harder than Sheri just to take some photo shots. Poor us!!!

How much milk powder did little Sheri consume in her first year?

Oops! I did not know that I consumed 48.5 pounds (22 kg) of milk powder in my first year.

I am ONE!

Last Saturday, little Sheri finally turned one! Mommy and daddy organized a small birthday celebration for her in McDonald at Emmaus. We were fortunate to have with us a couple of friends to share our happiness on this joyous occasion. We were deeply touched by their presence as some of them had to drive for a few hours just to attend little Sheri's birthday party. However, little Sheri seems to be suffering from separation anxiety recently. She feels pretty insecure when she leaves mommy's arms. Poor mommy had to carry little Sheri all the time during the party. Anyway, we still went ahead with the celebration. Hopefully, she will have fond memories when she looks at the pictures in the future.

Um! I'm hungry. Can I eat the monkey?

Happy birthday to Sheri!!!

Little Sheri loves animals, so mommy and daddy deliberately chose a zoo design with animal figures for the birthday cake.

Some memorable shots with our friends before we cut the birthday cake.

Oki and Ervina with their adorable son, Nathaniel.

This is Tao He, daddy's senior.

Sheri's playmate, Grace, and her mother, Gayl.

Jeff and Jess and their two lovable sons, Han and Gerrit.

Our Taiwanese friends, Lin-Shu and Kuang-Yi.

Mary and her two adorable sons, Dane and Nathan.

Our Korean neighbour with their two beautiful daughters, Je-En and Je-Young.


Finally, it's time to cut the birthday cake.



At last, it's daddy and mommy's turn to take pictures with our beloved daughter.

One last shot before we left.

Finally, it's time to open the presents at home.

Godmother Sheri's present

Last Wednesday, we were surprised to find a FedEx parcel outside the house. Guess what? It's a birthday present from Godmother Sheri.

Thank you, Godmother Sheri! I love Cifford, the red dog.

Just like her godmother, little Sheri loves animals. So, I guess this is a perfect gift for her.

More presents from Singapore

Yesterday, we received another birthday gift from Singapore. This time, it is from daddy's mom and sister.

We are grateful that little Sheri is well-loved by so many of our family members in Singapore even though some of them have not met her yet. Time flies, Sheri will be one year old soon. This will be her first birthday in the States. Mommy and daddy are trying our best to give her a small celebration on this coming Saturday for reaching the milestone of one year. Hopefully, she will have fond memories when she looks at the pictures of her first birthday party in the future.

Wedding Anniversary 2007

Last Sunday, we went to Outback Steakhouse for lunch to celebrate our wedding anniversary. This was the first time that we celebrated our wedding anniversary with little Sheri. We had Alaska's crab, and prime ribs which was their speciality. After a hearty meal, we went to the mall. There was a shopping cart with a toy car attached to the front, so we decided to put little Sheri there for her to enjoy a ride. Without any hesitation, she started turning the steering wheel. I guess this is a natural response from kids.

After shopping, we pushed the shopping cart to the carpark since it was raining outside, and transferred her from the toy car to a real car. Pretty neat, isn't it?

Christmas is coming!

Time flies. Christmas is just round the corner. Unlike in Singapore, the people here can buy real pine tree as the Christmas tree. At first, we did think of getting one for the occasion, but we decided not to since Sheri is too young to appreciate the tree. Most probably, she may end up destroying it. Anyway, we saw a huge Christmas tree in the supermarket while we were doing grocery shopping on last Friday. Sheri loves to look at the shiny balls that were hanging on the tree.

Party time!

Yesterday, we went to attend Grace's birthday party. Grace is Sheri's playmate who is one month older than her. Somehow, we could sense that Sheri was not her usual self. I supposed it was because of her teething problems that was causing her to have mood swings.

A first picture of little Sheri standing on her own.

During the party, she had her first attempt of table food. She picked up some French fries herself voluntarily and started putting them into her mouth. Wow! That really surprised mommy and daddy. It looks like little Sheri is ready to eat table food even though she has only two teeth at the bottom.

Look at this greedy little girl!

Is there anything else I can eat?


Let's take picture with the birthday girl.



Don't take my party hat!

What a greedy pig! She was still licking the the cream from the fork after eating the cake.


A family shot before we left. Thank you for inviting us.

Teething.....

For the past few days, Little Sheri has not been feeling very well. Her cries are a bit different from her usual. I guess she must be feeling the pain from the upper front two teeth that are coming out. We gave her half a dropperful of Tylenol to ease her pain at night when she sleeps as the pain seems to be acute at night. Hopefully, she will get through this period soon so that mommy can have a good night sleep.


Mommy loves the rows of red trees outside our house. They look really pretty. Over the long weekend, we managed to take some pictures with the red trees when we brought Sheri out for a walk.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a long weekend last week because of Thanksgving on Thursday. Usually, we do not celebrate Thanksgiving, but we decided to join in the fun this year and prepare a simple Thanksgiving dinner for ourselves. Since turkey is the centrepiece of Thanksgiving dinner, we bought a 13 pounds turkey last week from the supermarket. Frankly speaking, it was not easy handling the turkey that we bought as it was quite big even though that was the smallest turkey that we could find in the store. Daddy deserved most of the credit in roasting the turkey as he was the one who managed to stuff the butter, garlic and herbs underneath the skin. We finally heaved a sign of relief when we pushed the turkey into the oven.

Apart from the roasted turkey, we also had pumpkin soup, boiled broccoli as side dishes. Here, the turkey is usually eaten with cranberry sauce , so we also prepared our own cranberry sauce using fresh cranberries.

After the 3 hours of anxious anticipation, Daddy finally brought the much awaited turkey out of the oven.

Wow! What a great feast! It's time to dig in.

Of course, daddy, being the head of the household, was given the honor of carving the turkey.


This was the first time that we roasted a turkey for Thanksgiving and it tasted pretty good.
What can be more satisfying than to have a sumptuous meal after all the fun and excitement in preparing the food. Happy Thanksgiving!