Christmas has always been one of my top few favourites in my list of annual celebrations.

I feel blessed for being able to be grow up celebrating the love, warmth & the festive spirit of Christmas.

My first Christmas dinner of the year was an intimate party thrown by GUINNESS® Malaysia!

That evening at Dirty Nelly's Pub @ KL Life Centre was a warm and cosy one. 

I was glad to gather amongst my good friends & associates (some of which whom I've not seen for a while!) for a delightful buffet spread of a Christmas dinner and of course…

unlimited pouring of a perfect, frothy pint of GUINNESS® draught.

Apart from chugging it, my favorite thing to do with my pint of GUINNESS® – the frothy moutstache! 

During dinner, we were each given a little Christmas gift from GUINNESS® Malaysia!

It was a miniature snow globe with the GUINNESS® mascot, the iconic toucan inside. 

There are three different variants altogether. Might wanna keep all three as a novelty collection, no? 

Limited edition snowglobes!

You can get yours by purchasing your GUINNESS® at participating outlets/pubs

Drinking more GUINNESS® & giving myself more moustaches!

Guess who was the special guest of the night?

It's local singer-songwriter-music producer, Vince Chong! 

Vince Chong serenading us LIVE with certain selections from his new album

Several covers of traditional, classic Christmas songs like 'Silent Night', 'I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus', 'Winter Wonderland', 'When A Child is Born', 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas amongst others, were performed for us.

He also included his original track, 'With You This Christmas' as well. It was co-written by himself (and legendary local jazz artist Michael Veerapen's son, Daniel Veerapen!) 

Congratulations on the release of your debut Christmas album CD, 'With You This Christmas'!

The songs were lovely. Those interested can get it via CzipLee Bangsar and CanaanLand Bookstore for RM28. It's also available on iTunes & Amazon! 

Thank you, GUINNESS® for having me. I had a great time with good company! 

***

Year in and year out, a typical, traditional Christmas celebration was something that my family & I never fail to organize with other friends, relatives & loved ones.

We used to have Christmas carolling, stuffed turkeys, home-cooked traditional Christmas fare, Christmas tree decoration, massive gift exchange, hanging Christmas stockings up for Santa, exchanging Christmas greeting cards, candy canes, wearing Santa hats and reindeer horns during our family Christmas dinners and more.

This year, we decided to do it differently 

For our Christmas eve dinner, we celebrated the countdown and gathered together for a…

Chinese Seafood dinner LOL

I know, how odd! LOLOLOLOL 

But we still did have some strain of tradition left in us! Certain things will always remain.

We blasted Christmas songs at home the whole day and had a small gift exchange – sorry for my dreadful present-wrapping skills! It's what's inside that counts, right? HAHA 

The lovely Christmas cake that mom decorated 

Our Christmas tree at home!

Here's a close up

And some of the presents under our tree!

The next afternoon, we took a trip downtown to TAO Japanese Cuisine restaurant in located in Penang Times Square for our Christmas lunch. 

Japanese cuisine to celebrate Christmas? Ummmmm… what?

I know, this is so unbecoming of us!  I really hope we don't go out on a tangent like this next year.

Surprisingly, that was all the photos I took. There were at least ten times more the amount of food on our table, but I decided to put my iPhone down to actually concentrate on my family lunch 

Ever since the advent of smartphones and Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and others, I don't want our family mealtimes to end up like this –

HAHA. Guilty?

Some of us at the table! I don't know where the rest went LOL

With mom & godmom 

Best grandmother in the world! 

My series of Christmas celebrations ended with a couple of beer pints & cocktails; Killkenny, Guinness & White Russian 

BestieJoyce, Konzy, Mike and I headed to Zenzi Bar @ Upper Penang Road with a few others.

BFF and I 

With the boys Konzy & Mike

Drinkies! 

And that wraps up my unconventional Christmas this year. 

To be honest, I do miss the good ol' traditional Christmas celebrations my family and I used to hold annually without fail. Hmm… maybe I'll take over the plannings next year.

Move over. It's my turn! 

After all, I'm pretty big on Christmas.

Plus, it gives me an excuse to make a perfect roast with plenty of stuffing, bake some amazing pies, puddings & desserts as well as wrap pretty presents that my family won't ever say no to 

Here's to hoping your Christmas was well-spent with warmth around the people closest to you!

Lest you forget the real meaning of Christmas, it is the spirit of unparalleled love, great joy and togetherness.

Mary's boy child, Jesus Christ, was born on Christmas day.

So Christmas, is basically our celebrating God's love to us all – the birth of Christ.

MERRY CHRISTMAS, DEAR READERS! 

May your days be merry & bright! And may all your Christmases be white 

(As you know, Malaysia doesn't snow… so.. fake snow will do for now)

Yay! So I took a break last weekend : made a roadtrip down to Penang for the Freedom 360 party.

They were such awesome hosts! I truly enjoyed my weekend; more of that later!

For now, let's get on to the party!

Yes, I advocate freedom.. for life! 

So after a dinner and drinks in Gurney, my childhood friend Edwin was supposed to drop me off for the Freedom event but I somehow brainwashed him into coming along to join my friends and I at the party!

En route to Penang's most popular clubbing district – Upper Penang Road!

Saw this huge balloon sign – YAY! We were approaching! 

We arrived just before 9PM and it was waaayyy to early for anyone to start partying.

But good thing we did, considering the amount of people that's gonna be here, parking would be a pain!
 

the early bird gets to take pretty pictures with pretty background!

I love this piccie! It glitzy and glamourous… and sparkly. Squeeeee 

Met up with Angel, who gave me warm, welcoming hugs! 

And ooh look! We 're both dressed according to the Freedom colour theme : BLUE 

Took a piccie of Ed at the Registration Table!

Bumped into some more friends there. 

And before we knew it, t'was time to take agazillion shots by the Freedom photowall

I love how they have so many cute props to choose from! Added fun like this always catches my attention 

With the bestie, Joyce.

Take #1

Take #2

She was my +1 for the night. Glad she could come; my best friend for 4 years and counting! 

Spotted a friggin' awesome digital photowall that kept changing everytime I tried to take a picture.

OMG MANAGED TO CATCH THIS WITHOUT IT BEING HALF SCENED WITH ANOTHER SCENE!

Let's see if I managed to catch the ever-changing LCD screen with me in it.

AND I DID YAY!

Sorry, was too amused and excited by it 😛

Okay, okay, more piccies on the photowall with the other buddies!

With Ed!

With Andy!

And finally, with Mike who assaults me T___T

After lotsa laughter and photo-taking outside, we finally entered the club. 

Rebranded to Fame, this club bears memories of my angsty teenage years; which saw my first few years of partying. It was then known as Glow. Where are you peeps off to this weekend? Glow. What about you? Glow. It was always Glow back in the day.

We were *still* too early! 

The spacious dance floor with the DJ prepping it up!

While waiting for our friends, Mikey and I sitting on the huge bass speakers – because we can

Bestie Joyce and I with a couple of the Freedom mascots 

Before we knew it, the party escalated to full swing!

The crowd came in by tenfolds, drinks were flowing like there was no tomorrow and the DJ was already pumping it up hard! Now, that's what I'm talking about  

Bestie and I – bottoms up, babe!

And then my camera somehow landed in Mikes possession and…

well… THIS PHOTO happened. Nevermind….. 😛

Anyway, where were we?

Right, dancing away, emptying our drinks by the bottles and camwhoring!

Don't stop! Keep it moving, put your drinks up! 

There's a reason why Penangites rock. And we pretty damn sure know we do 😛

Lainey came soon after! 😀 Yippeeee she came in blue too 

 I just love people who *actually* follow themes set by a party. Now, that's the spirit!

 I 

Accidentally taken without flash – but I love the silhouette of the photo!

Okay! Picture perfecto 

The DJs were spinning up a storm!

Hailing all the way from Denmark, DJ Kid Fresh was terrific! Our homeboy DJ Def did a really good job too

Together, their remixes of R&B and Trance/House made the night one to remember.

"Dance the night away, grab somebody, drink a little more" – Jennifer Lopez

Oh, we will 

We'd be partying like rockstars till the morning light

Super random photo of me. But I likey! 

I was dancing halfway while Edwin pointed his iPhone at me.

With Huai Bin and Lainey 🙂

Ohh geez, my face is slightly turning crimson already? Nnnooo.

One for the road!

I had an fantastic time at Freedom 😀

Thanks for making my weekend in Penang one helluva amazing one, as usual.

Had the bestest time ever with the homies – like we always do!

But this time round, they threw me a belated 21st birthday celebration in our all time fave spot, MOIS Penang

Had one of the most insane party nights of my life!

Having them around me makes me cherish the word friendship even more. We're here for each other in times of laughter, tears and even trouble. 😀 Watch this space for more crazy pictures of my birthday parteh!

Oh and hell to what I said about not getting hammered tonight. My ex-boss Selva of MOIS Penang bought me another Flaming Lamborghini in addition to our 2 bottles of Jack Daniels. Plus Minny & Tannie's never-ending Tequila shots too! 🙁 ohnoes!

ma gurlfriends

More to come in a few hours! Imma head of to gym now. Mom's honking outside the house now.. grr

Come back tonight okie? 🙂 Toodles!