Heavenly Paradise@AdelineAng.com

Christmas baking was started three weeks ago. Sugar cookies, gingerbread cookies, and pinwheel cookies are the three main cookies on my list. Baking these cookies was a multi-step project; preparing dough, refrigerating dough, rolling out dough, cutting into various shapes, baking, cooling, preparing icing, decorating, air-drying, storing etc. Before Christmas, most of these cookies had been given away to family and friends. Of course, there’s always some for home consumption ;)

Recipes of cookies to be followed…

It was an extreme weather this year compared to last year’s green Christmas in Malaysia; 30+ degrees Celsius weather. Today, on Christmas Eve, it’s -20 degrees Celsius. It had snowed pretty much all day yesterday, light and consistent, just enough to have the thin coat of snow for us to enjoy a white Christmas.

I’ll have to say, taking photos in the -20 C weather, started from cold, very cold, freezing cold, numbing cold, burning cold… very painful “thawing” process to get my hands warm up to room temperature again after staying out for just a mere 10 minutes. Oh well, that’s not the point.

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas!!

First Christmas tree ever!

What’s your favourite chocolate? Smarties? M&M’s? Kit Kat? Lindor truffles? My favourite chocolate is Ferrero Rocher, the milk chocolates and dark chocolates are delicious! By the way, any Toblerone fan out there?

Toblerone chocolates come in white, milk, or dark chocolates. Take your pick!

Too small of a piece? How about turning this chocolate bar 45 times larger?

A Toblerone chocolate bar that weighs 4.5 kg! It’s 45 times heavier than the regular 100g chocolate bar. It’s humongous!

Good news to the Toblerone chocolate fans out there. Your chocolate supply for the year! :P

How did you celebrate Christmas? To me, Christmas a great time for traveling and and having a get-together with friends. Other than that, there is not much to look forward to, since I’ve no family here in Canada. To cheer up my Christmas spirit, I might give myself a gift or two for Christmas. I know, it sounds pretty pathetic…

Last year, however, I celebrated Christmas with Miles and his family. A truly Canadian Christmas celebration; Christmas tree, treats, gifts, food etc.

I couldn’t remember the last time I was excited about Christmas and anticipated for the Christmas morning to come. Even though I never truly believed in Santa as a young kid, I was always looking forward to receiving my stuffed Christmas stocking on Christmas morning.

It brought back my childhood memory when I received a stuffed Christmas stocking in the morning! I’ve never had that many Christmas gifts in the past. Unwrapping each gift brought great excitement. That was one of the greatest fun celebrating Christmas!

Christmas decoration on the dining table.

Turkey and ham, with homemade beets and pickles for on Christmas day.

Homemade minced meat pie.

Plum Pudding. A must-have Christmas dessert in Miles’ family. It has a similar taste to fruit cake.

Hard Sauce, goes with the plum pudding. It is made of butter and icing sugar, and tasted like cake batter.

Christmas tree with gifts from Santa!

Cracking the nuts can be fun; walnuts, Brazil nuts, hazelnuts, and almonds.

Christmas is just around the corner! For a Christmas potluck/Yankee swap at work, Miles and I made some gingerbread cookies with royal icing. Yummm…

It was my first time making gingerbread cookies and they turned out wonderful. Nonetheless, I’ll probably put an extra teaspoon or two of ground ginger next time around, for more “gingery” taste cookies :)

Gingerbread Cookies

Ingredients:
6 cup all-purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tbsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup shortening, melted and cooled slightly
3/4 cup molasses
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup water
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
1. Sift together flour, baking powder, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon.
2. In a mixing bowl, mix together shortening, molasses, brown sugar, water, egg, and vanilla extract until smooth. Next, gradually stir in the dry ingredients from (1), until they are well incorporated.
3. Divide dough into 3 pieces. Pat down to 1+1/2 inch thickness each, and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate dough for at least 3 hours, or overnight.
4. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Place cookies 1 inch apart onto a cookie sheet.
5. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 F for 10 to 12 minutes. Cookies will look dry when done, but still be soft to the touch. Cool cookies on wire racks.
6. Decorate cookies when cookies are cooled completely.

* Adapted from Allrecipes.com

Royal Icing

Ingredients:
3 cup icing sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
2 egg white, beaten

Directions:
1. In a mixing bowl, sift together icing sugar and cream of tartar. Using an electric hand mixer, beat in 2 beaten egg whites for approximately 5 minutes, or until mixture is thick enough to hold its shape.
2. Add food colouring into icing accordingly. Mix well. Insert icing into an icing bag and decorate cookies accordingly.

* Adapted from Allrecipes.com

Josie, a good friend of Miles and I celebrated her birthday last weekend. We wanted to prepare a birthday cake for her during a Christmas/birthday party at her place. The first question that came into my mind was, “how am I going to incorporate the two themes into the cake?”

Tier cake, fondant covered cake, layered cake etc. After a few days of discussion, we finally decided on a checkerboard cake. Mind you, it’s a festive checkerboard cake!

Josie’s wedding bouquet had her favourite white roses and orange lilies. To personalized the birthday cake, I handmade the flowers with fondant and gum paste as cake decorations.

It seems like a long process preparing just a 4-layer 8-inch round cake. Nevertheless, Miles and I had great fun preparing it, despite the challenging part where we had to put the rings of cake together. A good try!

We were glad that Josie enjoyed the cake. All the “wows” and ‘wahs” we received for the pretty flowers and a surprise festive checkerboard pattern as everyone savoured the cake.

Advent (adventus in Latin meaning “coming”), is observed in many Christian churches during the preparation for Christmas celebration. A practice introduced by the German Lutherans, the Advent calendar starts on the fourth Sunday before Christmas. An Advent wreath has five candles; candles will be lit one at a time on a Sunday during the Advent season, and the central candle is not lit till Christmas Day. 

First Candle: The Candle of Prophecy/Hope
Second Candle: The Candle of the Way
Third Candle: The Candle of Joy
Fourth Candle: The Candle of Peace
Fifth Candle: The Christ Candle/Christmas Candle

In the commercial world, Advent calendar is widely available. It’s fun for young kids. There’s a piece of chocolate underneath each window with date printed on it. It’s a surprise everyday; pop open the window to receive a treat as Christmas Day approaches. A “big kid” like me is having fun with it :)

圣诞夜的星空
一点也不空洞
灯饰璀璨照通
飘来美丽感动

微微吐气烟囱
炊烟气息颇重
街上一片闹哄
填补内心虚空

圣诞曲调歌颂
寒风吹袭不冻
高挂夜空楼钟
分秒缓步从容

圣诞夜的星空
看来很似长冗
世间关爱相送
不再饥饿病痛

人群一阵轰隆
欢呼季节相拥
雪片飘落寒冬
气氛平和轻松

圣诞夜的星空
细诉心情无终
人们尽兴放纵
陶醉仙境与共

It’s hard to believe that Christmas is just around the corner. Christmas Eve is a week from today, bizarre… Soon enough we’re going to bid 2008 goodbye… Oh, let’s not go that far, back to Christmas. What do you think about Christmas? Exciting? Joyful? Stressful?

I remembered being a little kid going to bed on Christmas Eve with great anticipation, dozing off when I finally couldn’t keep my eyes straight from staring at the Christmas stocking hanging by the bed… Waking up early on Christmas morning with great excitement and contentment, holding my stuffed Christmas stocking, even though I realized that Santa doesn’t exist…

Should you tell your kids that Santa is unreal? This remains as a controversial topic. “If you believe there is, then there is,” is a nice way to avoid shattering the Santa dreams in the little souls. Truthfully, there’s no need to hide the truth from kids. The sooner they find out, the less disappointment for them later on. I remembered little sis came home one day, when she was four, asking “is Santa real? My classmate’s parents told her that Santa doesn’t exist. Is that true?” Stunned by her unexpected question, I was speechless for a minute. Mom & Dad then explained to her that Santa is indeed, unreal. The older we grow, the more we know; or rather, the older we grow, the more we SHOULD know. That’s always the way it is!

I was carried away by the whole idea of Christmas celebration. Mom would prepare a fancy Western meal, with Dad serving us sparkling juice. The best meal of the year, besides the big meal during Chinese New Year. We never had a turkey for Christmas dinner. Why? It’s simply because turkey is not commonly found in Malaysia, and it could cost a fortune (exaggerating) to get one!

Thus, I was delighted to have a turkey dinner on my first Christmas in Canada! Since then, I’ve always been looking forward to a turkey dinner on Christmas. On top of that, white Christmas has always been wonderful in North America. It gets more meaningful when I learned how to cook the bird myself. Secret recipe, shh….. Despite the time and effort putting into preparing a cooked turkey, I enjoyed having fun in the kitchen and everyone’s great big smiles when savouring the delicious turkey ;)

Now that I don’t get surprise gifts in my Christmas stocking, I’m nice to myself occasionally by getting myself some Christmas gifts.

The Christmas Advent Calendar, supposed to provide you with ideas of daily activities from Dec. 1st to Christmas Eve. It’s something that I always wanted to check out. A piece of chocolate a day!

The first Christmas card (in blue) I received this year and a self-made 3D-Christmas card. Isn’t that cute? Of course, chocolates are always the highlight. Lindor chocolates in orange (orange flavour), red (milk), black (dark), yellow (white), and brown (hazelnut).

Believe it or not, here’s what I got for myself this Christmas. A powerful hand mixer and a set of silicone bakeware. Excellent tools for baking!

Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!!! Another surprise from my Secret Santa ;)

Day 8 (Dec. 12th): A note was found beside the entrance door on second floor around 9:15 a.m. I found it so funny that I almost laughed my head off. It reads:

Day 8th (Dec. 12th): A gift was nicely wrapped and placed under a chair in the hallway! A Christmas wreath and fresh pine scented candle!!

I’m truly spoiled by my Secret Santa. He/she took me by surprise with all these unexpected gifts. Thanks, Santa!

My Secret Santa showed no sign for the past two days. Guess what?? Here is what I got this morning at work – a note (again). I was puzzled for a second, before I was reminded by a co-worker about the weights for balance that we use at various labs. Ha…gotcha! I made a dash to where the weights were placed. Sure enough, my surprise gift was sitting on the counter!

Day 6 (Dec. 10th): A note found at the micro. lab entrance around 9:15 a.m.

Day 6 (Dec. 10th): Christmas cactus from my Secret Santa. How sweet…. Thanks Santa, for you’ve brighten my day ;)

神秘圣诞老人的心思，让我很期待圣诞节的到来。充满惊喜与欢笑的日子，只因有你的努力。谢谢你，圣诞老人！

一个提示
一句暗示
懵懂无知
迷茫错失

你的温柔提点
藏着秘密玄机
要我翻天覆地
伤动脑筋解密

你的心思 我都看见
心中感动 乐而不语

你的字迹 我能看透
乱中有序 几可乱真

你的手艺 还真贴心
给我造个 闪亮雪花

你的厨艺 还真不赖
甜巧克力 令人难忘

你的爱心 展露无遗
绿仙人掌 暖在心上

神秘礼物好神奇
无意之中都到齐
低落时刻的惊喜
好比滑稽儿时戏

神秘礼物很感人
咧嘴而笑无法忍
搞笑点子还真多
喜极不想再多说

神秘礼物花心思
悄悄送递无人知
真心诚意尽表露
感恩之情向谁诉

We’re in the last month of year 2008 and Christmas is just around the corner! Busy looking for gift ideas? Busy getting some shopping done? Busy wrapping gifts? Most people are doing these for their families. However, I’m doing these for co-workers and friends. Buying gifts for being a Secret Santa, for Yankee Swap and other gift exchange. Sadly speaking, I don’t have anything for my family this Christmas. Why? You know it, the shipping cost is more than the cost of gifts! Oh well, Mom, Dad, Bro, & Sis, I’ll have something for each of you when we get a chance to meet up again. Sorry about that :(

Alright, back to the annual Christmas Arts & Craft Show that was held at the Fredericton Capital Exhibition Centre on Smythe St. from Dec. 5th (Friday) till Dec. 7th (Sunday). I was there with five other friends to check things out last Saturday. I vaguely remember attending this event once, perhaps three or four years ago.

These are what I’ve got, under $15: two cute Christmas ornaments and a kiln-fired stained glass pendant. Gifts to be given away! I’m gonna miss them…

Here is the definition of Secret Santa from the Wikipedia: a Western holiday tradition in which members of a group are randomly assigned other members to whom they anonymously give a gift.

This year is my second time participating in the Secret Santa game at workplace. There’re ten of us in this game. The game started this week and these are what I’ve received thus far from Santa:

Day 1 (Dec. 3rd): A clue found at the micro. lab entrance around 3:20 p.m. Hmm… anyone in this building could have done that. Anyway, the first answer that came into mind was snowflakes! Since it has to be breakfast cereals, I’d guess frosted flakes! Ermm… am I getting frosted flakes for breakfast tomorrow then?

Day 2 (Dec. 4th): Snowflake! It was found on the computer desk in the morning around 8:15 a.m.

Day 2 (Dec. 4th): Looks like my Santa is working hard. I got this clue in the fridge at the sample receiving around 3:10 p.m. Hah… chocolate it is! I’m getting some chocolates next!

Day 3 (Dec. 5th): A Christmas tin loaded with chocolate fudge found at the water fountain outside lunch room shortly after morning break, around 10:30 a.m. Thanks for the fudge, Santa! However, I’d appreciate it more if it’s less sweet…. not a big fudge fan though. Ferrero Rocher’d be way better ;P