MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY HOLIDAYS 2010 !!!!!!

We had a very nice Christmas eve. with parents and sister.

Hubby, I and parents went to see a Chinese art performance by the company "Shen Yun" early in the afternoon. It was great. The performance was well-prepared and nicely decorative. The dancers were good and well-dressed. And the atmosphere was relaxed. All of us enjoyed the show and spent quite a bit of time discussing about it afterward. It is unfortunately that my sister did not go with us. I guess I should have bought a ticket for my sister anyway, then she would have no choice but to go.

We then headed to T&T Market to buy some food for dinner. We didn't want parents to wait a long time for dinner, so we decided to have Northern style spring rolls (everyone has to wrap the rolls themselves). Although it took an hour to prepare everything, Parents ate a lot; they must have enjoyed the food!

After the dinner, we spent a few hours to sing Karaoke with Parents. We had a very HAPPY time together (talking, singing and laughing).

After we drove parents home, we waited until Chirstmas Eve (11:55PM) to open the gifts.

P.S: How is my Christmas tree??? I am a picky person, that's why it took me 3-5 days to finish decorating the tree. I only used 2 colors: RED and SILVER. I've got compliments about this tree from parents-in-law. Hehehehehehe..............;)

Sister turns 19_ December 22,2010

Happy birthday to my little sister. Poor her, she has just turned 19 today, while most of her friends are ALREADY 19 years old because she was born at the end of the year.

We had a birthday dinner at home, as both me and hubby have to go to work early tomorrow. And luckily, my sister wouldn't mind at all, good sister !!!
We have home made Triple A (AAA) Canadian steak with sour-dipping salad and stir-fry Bella mushroom. After that, we still celebrate her birthday in traditional way which is with birthday cake and birthday gift.

Wish her all the best and a full year filled with happiness !!!

03.12.2010: RIM's Christmas Party: Great and fun !!!!!!

Like the previous parties in two years ago, Hubby's workplace RIM (Research In Motion) hold a Christmas party at Westin hotel. I was so excited to join in from the beginning of the year (I meant that the party was in the end of the year December but I was expecting in January).

And my expectation was paid off. This party was much much better than the one which was in 2 years ago.

Although the dinner started with a great appetizer: Corn soup, the salad and the main course weren't good. Finally, we still had a good dessert "Cheese cake". The dessert was decorated very nicely. I and Mrs. Tee (Hubby's boss) were satisfied with the taste also.

But Mr. Steve (hubby's co-worker) didn't like the cheese cake at all, that's why he left the cake like this:

During the party, RIM also gave away many prizes based on the ticket number which was placed underneath the plate of each guest. Because the table behind our table was empty, we took all the tickets of that table. But it is said that when we wanted more, we only got few. That's why our table only won ONE prize which was the backpack including some cutlery for the pinic. I told Hubby to put the backpack in the basement until next summer when we might go camping or swimming on the beach.

This year, we all enjoyed the party a lot. After dinner, we all stayed for dancing no matter what kind of music were playing. On the dance floor, we took few pictures of some guys who were performing a "super crazy but super funny" dance styles. And there was a guy who spent time to make a fake BlackBerry carton box to put over his body in this special party.

And latestly, on hubby's behalf, I'd like to introduce some of hubby co-workers together with their partners

Happy 27th birthday !!!!!!

I am officially 27 years-old now (meant that I am getting older......and older :(

For this birthday, I had a very good lunch with family (Hubby, Sister and Parents-in-law) and with some of my good friends. And I have also got a lot of birthday greetings from many friends on Facebook. Thank you very much to all of you (family and friends). I love you guys a lot a lot and a lot.

Hubby booked a private room at Sea King, a Dim sum restaurant for my birthday. We all had a good lunch and enjoyed time talking to each other. Wow, it was such a long time to gather family and friends together since Hubby's birthday which was in July.

I made only one wish and I hope it will come true in this 27th year.

Belated Happy PAPER ( 1-year wedding) anniversary: 29.09.2010

I have to say "belated anniversary" as I only get time to update my blog today.

Although we didn't go out for dinner on the anniversary day (it was Wednesday, a weekday), we did have a good dinner. Hubby left office and drove straight to the Vietnamese market in Kanata to buy Tofu (and Vietnamese subs), and to Costco to buy Broccoli and beef. As Hubby rarely paid attention on what kind of beef I usually buy to make a stir-fry meal, he bought the beef called "beef stew" ;)

He went home a bit late than usual (around 7PM) and cooked right away (as I finished work at 7PM and I would be home at 8PM).

Though Hubby didn't cook for a long time (probably since he has met me for 5 years ago), I and my sister were able to eat what he cooked.

Hubby said that he didn't buy any flowers as I didn't buy any vase for the house, and of course if I let him to go buy a vase, he won't find the vase I like (I like the Crystal vase which is sold at the Bay, but I cannot buy it now and gotta wait until Christmas time when the vase will be on sold, it is quite expensive now, around $300)

Uhm~, I gotta wait for next year then I will have flowers on our anniversary day.

Anyway, thanks a lot Hubby for what you did as I were happy on that night.

Day 7: Last stop of the honeymoon trip: Montreal,QC: nice meeting with close-friends

As hubby decided to drive all the way from Rivere du lop to Ottawa, we left the motel early.

We stopped by one of the little town near Quebec (I forgot the name of the town) to have lunch. The restaurant is named Valentine, what a beautiful name !!! Having lunch in this restaurant, we've met the kind and hard-working owner, and we also discovered how the hand-made french fries were made. She peeled off the potatoes' skin and put them into a "hand-metal presser" (sorry, I don't know what that machine is called). Hubby enjoyed the home-made French fries a lot :)

After lunch, we decided to visit one of our close-friend family who currently moved to Montreal to settle down. After a lot of out-going and in-coming calls, we did meet that family at their place. I were so happy to meet them (although they did come down to Ottawa to visit us in June). And we did have a good dinner together in China town in Montreal. The husband and his wife tried to convince us to stay one night in their place, but hubby wanted to go home (he was saying that he had missed the home a lot already, yeah "home sweet home")

By the time we got home, it was another day already (12:15AM). Hubby scared my sister by going to the back door and knocking many times. Poor my sister, she was so scared and run to close all the windows' curtain and about to call us on her cell phone. ;)

Generally, we did have a very good honeymoon. And I had to say thank to my hubby for the very loooooong drive (Ottawa-Halifax-Ottawa + stopping at many places on the way = 3200 kilometers). Love you much Hubby.

Day 6: Moncton,NB: amazing Magnetic Hill and huge Moncton zoo - Riviere du loup,QC

We went to check out the Magnetic hill in Moncton this morning. This place is so amazing. We put the car in neutral going forward, then the car was automatically moving up. We were so excited; we tried again going backward. Hubby said that the backward trial was more interesting ;)

After the Magnetic hill, we went to the Moncton zoo which is one of the top 10 largest zoo in Canada. This zoo is huge and we saw a lot of animals that we didn't see in Winnipeg zoo. The only two animals that we didn't see in Moncton are red-head birds and Polar bear. But hubby reminded me that that Polar bear has died for a year as he was too old. Poor that bear !!!
At Moncton zoo, we were also impressive by the way they named the streets walking around the zoo.

We also came by Moncton shopping mall in order to try to find some more souvenirs at the last minutes. But we couldn't find any thing specially representing for Moncton. And we left Moncton to Riviere du loup, QC at very late afternoon (because we had to wait for a hour for lunch in a Vietnamese restaurant in downtown, and also took another half an hour just for my coffee at the busiest Timothy coffee shop :(

On the way back to Riviere du loup, we also stopped by Hartland, New Brunswick to check out the longest covered bridge in the world.

We couldn't bid the hotel on pricelines.com for hotel/motel at Riviere du loup because there wasn't any 3 stars hotel listed on the website. We didn't want to bid any 2 stars or 1 star hotel/motel as we had experienced from the horrible motel at Fredericton,NB on day 2 of the trip. Hence, we decided to drive to Riviere du loup and then drive around the city to find the hotel. But as I mentioned above, we left Moncton so late and also came by the covered bridge, we were worry that by the time we were at Riviere du loup, all the hotels closed already.
While hubby was driving, I tried to call many places based on the tourist guide and Google listing to compare the price. Finally, I reserved one room in a 3 stars motel with the reasonable price ($89/night without breakfast).

This was a small sized motel (only 16 rooms), but the room was clean and well-equipped (had a small fridge, Internet wireless and AC). Honestly, I had to say that we were so lucky to be able to book this motel at the last minute :)