As I continue to insist on family photos and dressing up for CNY even when we are at home, I manage to get some decent shots for CNY.
This year, I put more effort into matching our CNY attire. Why? You may ask me. Because hmmm, those ready family sets are super expensive, and I didn't want to spend a fortune on it yet. I want to still match our clothes. Hunting by myself for 5 people of all ages was definitely a task that took up a lot of my brain RAM, and I actually did it always after the baby was asleep at night. Having said that, it is actually something I still enjoy, cross comparing with the many online shopping platforms.
So today, baby girl was dressed in red tutu dress and she looks adorable so I took some photos.
Not everyone appreciates and thinks this is necessary because why would people like me spend hours and hours on browsing for just those few moments of photo taking? Honestly, I also don't really know but I like it when I see our clothes synchronized in a certain theme and I love twinning clothes with my children, used to be with my boys which is harder to find the exact same or similar type but now with my girl, it has become slightly easier. Just by a bit, hahaha.
Anyway, I still appreciate my family's efforts, though none like to take photos like me, but they still gave in to my requests.
Moments are hard to capture, and much effort was put in to get the photos after many many clicks. Sometimes, I need to bribe, sometimes I need to persuade, and sometimes need to "pre-warn" or prepare them earlier, but sometimes some still run away or not be in the mood. But it's all worth it when some turn out OK after so many attempts on very active children with little patience. These small moments of them growing on different occasion are really fleeting. They are going to zoom me by, so though I may be exhausted mentally and physically, I still push myself to take these photos.
Okay, enough said about all these reflections within my inner self. Here is how we spent our day 3 of CNY.
We rested in before meeting my mum-in-law's side of relatives who are namely her sister, brother, and nephew's family whom we seldom see. We so happened arrived at the same as my brother-in-law's family, so finally, a photo of the youngest generation in our clan with their latest addition of a girl to 4 boys.
We met up for dinner at this place called Butter Kaya in Sama Square, where we have been for our Christmas gathering. Food was delish! Service was also good with very observant servers. My daughter was curiously checking out the place.
Then it was eating and chatting time, and my second boy bonded immediately with his removed cousin and kept running around with and played games together.
The baby girl went to the grandma to get acquainted with her grandaunt and granduncle while I saw that my second son eats his dinner.
Finally, a group photo together for this gathering.
I used to be sometimes lazy, so I stopped initiating for group photos. Though the real moments of bonding may lie in the chatting and catching up, (I dont know about others) but sometimes we may feel something is missing without a group photo to remember the event in future days. Sometimes in order to remember if so and so attended or met us, we need to check back some photos hence why I now push myself to take the photos even if my one hand is carrying the baby because others may be too engrossed in conversations and forget.
We then went to the supermarket to pick up some breakfast and cooking ingredients before heading home. Upon reaching back, it was rather late, but my secondborn wanted to play some pop pops and sparklers, so we did, and he went to bed satisfied.
Meanwhile, in Kuching, on my family side they were also taking big group pictures. I applaud their effort because life is so uncertain and the parents and aunts and uncles are growing older so we must seize every moment and take them photos!
Was too shy or too reserved and maybe lazy to take some photos so I now regret not having many photos with my own grandparents. When I started searching in my albums and collections, I sometimes wish I can have more or have the latest ones with them. My youngest sister recently told me if she needs to find a certain old photo, she would go to my FB and true enough, I did document it therr and she would be able to locate that particular photo for comparison purposes.