I Heart Christmas

Despite Fadz trying to put a damper on my parade by reminding me that Christmas is (a): a pointless religious festival because Jesus Christ was NOT born on December 25 (b): it has become too commercialized and (c): too many damn people squeezing in Orchard Road doing God knows what (usually just sitting around and stoning), I refused to be let down and kept the festive spirit.

I simply adore Christmas. Ok, so I'm one of those people who try to celebrate every holiday - English New Year, Chinese New Year, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Children's Day, Teacher's Day (used to, anyway), Deepavali (until Rajeeve upped and went to bloody England), Hari Raya Puasa, Christmas and Hari Raya Haji. Yes, as you can see, I'm not very discriminating. Ahh, the benefits of being atheist. I do it for the people, for the people I say.

But I really love Christmas despite it having become a frenzy of shopping for gifts and whatnot. I love the holiday for the happy feelings (usually) invoked by knowing that it's the holidays, it's bonus time, people are happy and chilled out. I have wonderful meals with the people I love, receive presents that are thoughtful and labor to find the perfect gift for my loved ones. Seriously, what's not to like about the holiday?

So I spent Christmas Eve with the Fadz man. We do it every year. It's our thing. So even though he was incredibly grumpy and mean and Scrooge-like, I finally cracked through his thick skull that I really want to remember Christmas as a good one and he gave up being sullen. In fact, he was downright positive and cheery. Jolly good chappy.

We decided to go to this Lebanese restaurant at Holland V, Al-Hamza, for our Christmas dinner. Let me just say that I'm deeply sorry that I ate lamb chops. In case you didn't know, I'm the leader of a new religion, Pro-Lambology. No, not pro in the sense that I practice eating them. But rather, because lambs are so fluffy and adorable, I have taken it upon myself to never eat lamb. So far the religion's total following is 1. Oh well, I'm sure it'd catch on. But yeah, I broke the number rule and ate lamb. Whoops.

I love the decor of the place. As expected, the patronage was mostly ang moh families, ang mohs with Asian girlfriends, or ang mohs with Asian wife/girlfriend and Asian family members in tow.

I loved the falafels! Amazing fried chickpea thingamajigs. Definitely a must try. The lamb was pretty good, but the other reason for me not eating lamb is because I think it tastes funny. Oh well. It was pretty good, but seriously, I don't find it as a great loss not to eat lamb.

We then took a slow bus ride to Esplanade, careful to avoid Orchard. Our bus did pass through Orchard, and can I just say it was utter chaos. Not as bad as last year, with the stupid idiots spraying foam everywhere, but the human crush was appalling. Esplanade was crowded, but in a pleasant, hey, there are people around.

We are such gluttons. Even after eating a full meal at Al-Hamza and finished off a plate of diabetic but amazing Lebanese desserts, we still had room for more. A new shop at Esplanade has opened, Earshot, and it's a pretty cool concept. The food is not bad, a new chillout joint.

After that, cos I wanted to count down in town, we walked around aimlessly to pass time. At midnight, we were standing in the middle of the Padang, all alone, and shared a Christmas kiss. Yup, quite quite perfect.

Merry Christmas, baby. Hope to do it again next year. =)

Christmas was spent with the folks. After the opening of presents (whoopee!), my mum made us play mahjong (humpf, lose money again). Of course the highlight of the day was Christmas dinner at the Fullerton Hotel. The service was impeccable. The food brought tears to my eyes. And I overate, but it was for a worthy cause. And I love my dress!

Hope you guys had a good one too!