Flashback: 2011 Xmas Party with Ze Familia

It was Christmas and my immediate family and I just came back to KL from Langkawi the day before, just in time for me to get my cookies and milk ready and wait for Santa to climb down the chim-chim-cher-ee! We were having a long-awaited celebration where all my maternal family would gather and have fun! We missed out on the fun last Christmas 'cause I was celebrating in South Africa and yes, I wished I was here but opportunities are hard to come-by and I'd not trade anything for my South African journey, that's for sure! Plus, it's not everyday you get to celebrate Christmas with a foreign family, in the comforts of their home, spreading Xmas joy in another country, no? 

Anyway, all four families came together at my second aunt's house for dinner. My grandma was over the moon, of course! LOL So one by one, families arrived and so was the food! Oh my goodness, this year's platter of foodies spanned over an array of yummy, delectable tastebud goodness! There were huge baked shrimps, tomato chunks on baked potato with melted cheese, salad, juicy fried chicken wings and a whole lot more which I have trouble remembering. Oh the highlight was definitely the roasted lamb leg my uncle pre-ordered from Tropicana. Mmmm...

When you think of Christmas, one of the elements that's pretty prominent is of course, the presents! I don't know about other families but what my huge family does is each of us buys a present, and we number each of them. Then, we'd shuffle the numbers and put them in a bag, this year, it was my hat. LOL From youngest to oldest, we'll go up front and pick a number randomly and see which present your number gets you! It's really fun 'cause we'll never know what we'll get. We could even get our own present! And every year, I try to make my gift a really quirky one. This year, mine was a two pairs of boxers! 

(clockwise from top left)
Eva, the youngest in cousinland showing her stuff on the piano, ain't she sweet? /  Presents to be exchanged / Tango, anyone? / Bon appetit. / Super humungous shrimps in the oven / Gingerbread for each family
A lil' impromptu performance of 'Super Bass' while waiting for everyone to settle down.
Rex!dove, before and after the party? :D
Outfits!
So, my cousin, Jessie who's the eldest among us cousins suggested both of us prepare games! I was definitely being all semangat and was totally up for it! You know me. So, both of us had a game each. Hers was this guessing game, where one person will describe a movie/celeb and we have to guess it. and her second game was charades. Mine was a mix of Charades and a game of Chinese Whisper, combined and revamped! haha I played this during one of the co-curricular activities in school and was hooked. It's actually a game of Chinese Whisper where  we had to pass a message to the person behind you and at the end of the line, the last person had to guess what the message was. But in this case, instead of whispering the word/sentence, we had to act it out! So, it definitely spiced it up a little and made it a lot harder, yet a ton of fun!

Groups were divided into families and we had to name our group. Funny thing about older people naming groups, we'd think that they'd come up with some great-bombastic-mind-blowing name but that's not the case. They'd come up with the lamest yet funniest names ever! We didn't even need to start on a game to be laughing our butts off, the naming process had the laughter going on already! My family was 'WOW-WOW DOG' pronounced as Whoa-Whoa-Dawg (in relation to the rhyming with our surname, being 'Wong'), Jess's family was 'LIMBO' (in relation to their surname, 'Lim'), Third aunt's family was 'LIMBEK' (being 'LIM's as well). We were laughing really hard for this one as it sounded like LEMBEK (which means 'weak' in Bahasa). And last but not least there was the Chan family, 'MARI-MARI CHAN', like the famous Malay folk song 'Chan-Mali-Chan'. Hahahaha I'm even laughing whilst typing this, man! We even had a scoreboard to see which family scores the most points at the end. But of course, there wasn't any prize. It was all in good fun! 

More laughter awaits us, as the games begin! 

GAME 1: Guessing Game

The Guessing game was kind of a failure 'cause not all the families knew the categories of the words needed to be guessed. Like, movies, music, celebs etc. There were words like, Sean Connery, Elvis, Michael Jackson, E.T. Harry Potter etc. And, it seemed a bit unfair as there was an age gap between the kids. So, that was that. But it was extremely fun, being the family who's always winning! Hahahaha Yay, WOW-WOW DOG! Dad and mum even created a war-cry for our name == 

Here's them doing the warcry. Clearly, me and my brother was to embarassed to follow suit.
Though we did it at the end! LOL


GAME 2: CHARADES


Here's Shyuen acting out Christmas Tree, Santa and chimney, I think. There was one I really remembered, erm.. she was supposed to act out 'CANDYCANE'. Being all creative, instead of the conventional way of acting licking the candycane, she literally was the candycane itself! Hahahahaha Smart girl! 



GAME 3: CHARADES + CHINESE WHISPER

I think we all enjoyed this one the most! 'Cause it involved every member of each family to come up front and act. And not to mention, some of the words I put into the hat was really funny! Gosh, self praise is no praise. I know, i know. haha! Anyway, I'll just let the pictures do the talking! 

First up was WOW-WOW DOG then LIMBO then LIMBEK and lastly MARI-MARI CHAN! Jess had to fill in my place as I was the coordinator and I knew all the words in the hat. It was perfect as then there were 4 people in each group! Grandma was watching the madness the whole time in her Queen throne! Haha The word is at the caption. Try guessing it!


"Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer"
Somehow, my dad managed to turn innocent lil Rudolf to some violent reindeer at the end! hahahaha Jess got the word. LOL

"NINJA" (sorry for bad quality pictures, I compressed them too small a pixel)
"JACKIE CHAN"
"BALLERINA"
"SUMO WRESTLER"
"EGYPTIAN"
After a few more rounds, we decided to switch it up a little. We were like screw the groupings and let's mess things up! We pulled up the Chan siblings for a word. They certainly have not lost their inner-child, that's for sure!

"KING KONG"
Then it was the in-laws! 

"BASKETBALL PLAYER"
When we realised we still had just two more words left, it was perfect. One for all the cousins and one for all old people  the folks! As we lined up, from youngest to oldest, I felt really good that you know, 19 years ago, it was just me and Jess. Now, there's like 9 of us, all together! FUH! And we are all pretty close, I'd say!!

The kids went first. Then the folks.
"SWIMMER"
"CINDERELLA"
When I knew that the folks got CINDERELLA, I was pretty dead-on about them not getting the word. Especially when my dad's at the end of the line who had to guess the word. Hahaha! It started with my aunt, then my uncle just changed every action and pointed to the clock on the coffee table, and infused some of my aunt's actions and made it his own! I was like, That's not how the game's supposed to be played! hahaha but who cares! It got really funny as they took quite some time to get it right. When it came to my dad, he didn't get it at all at first and he was being "Hmmm, clock...hmmm...shoe...aiyooo..." Until at a certain point, I didn't even know whether he knew the answer and wanted to buy time and create anticipation or he just plain doesn't know the answer! haha but lastly he got it! LMAO ROFL XDD

25th December, coincidentally was my third aunt's birthday as well! So, we surprised her with a cake! It was from RT Pastries, I think! But whatever, it tasted goooooooood! Sang the song and of course, took tons of pictures!

Birthday woman and her big-girl cake!

Birthday woman and her cute family. 
Her bridesmaids, all grown up :) Ngawww
Of course, everybody wanted in! One normal smiley face picture and another funny face picture! Damn, I have a really sporting family! Love them to pieces! <3

Ohana.
The cake was delish! If I'm not mistaken, it was a peach cake! Something unconventional, not the ordinary tiramisu or blueberry cake, like we normally buy. After that, it was PRESENT-EXCHANGING TIME! The time we all have been waiting for. Well, at least I know the kids were! Hee! I got an Xmas mug :)
Happy with their presents! Though Shyuen have to wait till she's 21 to enjoy hers, legally! ;) Hahaha
The Grinch.
My third aunt, being all Santa Claus-ish, bought gifts for each and every one of us, kids and for each family! I got a lip gloss for Xmas and an early birthday present which was a charm bracelet with the first charm being words of "Dreams Will Come True". I really loved it! 





Game masters of the night!
Bro and granny on her Queen throne!
My little munchkin!
That was pretty much the end of our party. The after party was pretty sober. We all chit-chatted and chilled at the hall. It was definitely one of the most memorable Christmases ever! Not only we all gathered together as one my family, but we all got to have a lot of fun together! Isn't that what Christmas is all about? :) Being grateful for what we already have, ohana. 


Caught red-handed, eating Smarties at the end of the night. Haha!
2025Briefly Noted