Hello 2012!

This year, 2012 rolled on in with little fanfare in the Ong household. Except for DD, the rest of us were all asleep!

At least we had an interesting day. We met Sophie and Zoe for a walk/run in the park before coming back to our place for dinner. I whipped up Udon Soup for the kids and Yaki Udon for the adults. They were both huge hits, for which I was thankful. Noey even ate the whole bowl of Udon by himself and Sophie and Zoe cleaned out their bowls. I love this Yaki Udon, based on the recipe for which I found on a cooking blog that I just came across: Just One Cookbook. This dish got the thumbs up from everyone, including the husband, so I'll be adding it to our regular food menu.

We rounded off dinner with homemade fruit yoghurt popsicles (inspired by yulingxpress -- thanks babe!), after which the munchkins ran around, played with toys and non-toys, and generally had fun the way that kids always know how. Noey had such a great time that when it came time to say goodbye, he gave both Sophie and Zoe big hugs and spontaneously threw in an "I love you!". We parents laughed over how we are rarely the recipients of such exuberance!

In their pretend house.

The last day of the year was just the kind of day I love -- we went out as a family, we met friends, I got to cook a well-received meal, and both the kids and adults got to enjoy good company. The only downer was missing the countdown when I fell asleep before midnight.

In 2012, I am looking forward to more such days. One of the things I would like to focus more on in the coming year is cooking. D's thrown down the gauntlet to me to improve my Chinese cooking and I am taking up the challenge. I've always found the lack of good recipes a challenge when it comes to cooking Chinese but I shall persevere!

I'm not good at making specific resolutions. Instead, I've decided to that the year will be about:
1. Focus
2. Faithfulness
3. Family
4. Food -- by this I am referring to improving my cooking!

We'll see how it goes.

Have a good 2012 everyone.