If you like this post, subscribe to my RSS feed via reader or via email, or follow me on Twitter for daily updates.

We dragged ourselves out of bed on a Sunday morning to go to a golf tournament. Can you believe that? But only because my three teens were once budding little golf players and Hip2bDad is trying to inspire them to pick up the game again. I say, anyone would be crazy to send their kids out into this unbearable heat to chase a little ball!

Anyhow this was a one-off. And you know why we prefer to stay away from these events? Because they’ve got all these stupid rules about what you can and cannot wear and do! And quite frankly, on a hot day like today, we’d rather not be strutting about in the sun wearing polo shirts with long pants and proper shoes !!

I parked the car miles away and we hopped on a small shuttle bus to get to the main entrance of the golf course. Then we hopped onto a golf buggy to be transported to the main event. The girls got a big kick as they often do when they caddy for their daddy and he lets them drive the buggy into bushes and trees!

After asking about 10 completely clueless people for directions, we finally stumbled on the food tent where we stopped for some breakfast. One thing’s for sure, the food they serve golfers makes me look like a top-notch celebrity chef, booyah!

We passed many interesting people, most notably the scantily-clad air-heads hired by the companies sponsoring the event. I think I understand a little better now the scenarios that must’ve led Tiger to his downfall predicament.

And by the time we got back to the parking lot, I found someone had parked behind my car (obviously someone with a brain the size of a golf ball) and I couldn’t get out!! Thank goodness for the golfer who ran around my car telling me how much space I had to maneuver. It took forever to inch my car out of that impossible space!

All in all, the morning put me in a really foul mood for a Sunday. I’m going to take an indefinite break from golf. That’ll be all. I won’t be taking any questions.

We were having a super laid-back week last week… for a change . No school, no taxi runs, no hurry. So me and the teens decided to mosey on over to Tony Roma’s. Huge big lunch orders. This yummy onion loaf on the house.

Lots of laughs. Good service. Um, a little too good apparently. The maitre’d came over (surprise, surprise!) and asked about our meal. Good. Hmmm. Great. Hmmm. Yep. Hmmm. Those were my responses answered with my mouth closed. Well, almost.

On any other day, I would’ve flashed my big ol’ smile and rattled away. But not today. Even though the service was really quite good and deserved a big smile of satisfaction! Darn that parsley in my teeth !!

What would you do? Use it to scare away an over-zealous insurance marketing agent? I would !

We had a small trickle of visitors yesterday so it was all nice and manageable, nothing like the hordes of 20-30 relatives who used to descend on us like a swarm of locusts. Most of those cousins are now either working or studying all over the globe.

Today I’m going to be cooking our Kickoff Lunch. It’s the first meal of the new year that traditionally business families and their staff would enjoy as they kick off the new business year. It’s a tradition in our family as far back as I can remember.

So yep, Chinese New Year is, as some of you may know, one big feast stretching over 15 days so you can imagine how much food is involved . From big meals at restaurants (which we try to avoid unless invited) to crunching cookies, cakes and all things sugar-laden at every house we visit.

After lunch, we’re off to visit a couple of relatives and as usual, there’ll be lots of gossips and thank goodness conversations will typically stay clear of problems and negative stuff like checking out jointsupplementreviews.net for minor ailments.

It’s pretty quiet this year. I like it this way. At least we have time to savor the week-long school break, laze around all day, gobble heaps of mandarin oranges and tangerines, watch some movies at home, have a few laughs.

So here we are, sitting around in sauna weather waiting for the Year of the Tiger aka the Big Food Fest to begin. Dare I say the sun is a ridiculous 95+ degrees that feels like 120 degrees and I’m sweating like a pig (do pigs even perspire?) from a humidity of, oh, only 95% ?

To all the ladies who wanted to trade in their snow for my sauna in my previous post, great choice! This here is the best natural weight loss system ever. Yes, this is typical Chinese New Year weather tailor-made to counter the effects of the Big Food Fest!

So while I’m languishing in perspiration wishing I could dive right into that,

let me just say I can’t believe how laid-back I am about Chinese New Year. I didn’t bake a single cookie this year because my oven’s kaput since Christmas and I haven’t gotten around to buying a new one yet. Talk about procrastinating.

I’m so glad I only have two traditional meals to cook for the five of us – the reunion dinner on CNY Eve which is tomorrow night, and the kick-off lunch on the second day of CNY – and that’s it. Easy-peasy! Stay tuned for more updates and pictures when I’m done slaving and serving, or follow me on Twitter for fat, juicy titbits on the fly .

If you’ve been following my tweets on Twitter, you might just have caught on to what happens in my house every weekend. Yes, my three teens would set up their laptops in a row and play their computer games.

It does get quite noisy as they cheer, jeer and laugh at each other. I jokingly threatened to send them for rapid detox for opiates, more like rehab for computer addicts, if they make too much noise.

My smart alecks argue that this is their family time . They’re too stressed out by the extended school hours this year, they say. They don’t get to spend much time together and this is how they destress and stay sane.

There was a time when we hardly had any leftovers when we ate out. My three caterpillars would lick their platters clean. Lately though, that’s not been the case. It’s certainly not because the serving sizes have gotten larger. More likely, my caterpillars are past the chomping phase and waiting to morph into butterflies.

Forget weight loss products. With leftovers, Mom gets more than her fair share. And a new form of after-dinner entertainment is born.

People often wonder what a Hip Mom does at this time of year. Well, first off, we don’t celebrate Christmas but all the same, we can’t help but be drawn into the festive swing of things. Maybe it has to do with the huge, brightly lit Christmas trees or the long school holidays or the year winding down to a close.

Whatever it is, this is the best time to shop, eat out and unwind. After all, we have all year to put our noses to the grindstone! All work and no play makes us grow old faster. So, hi-ho, Prancer, Dancer, Silver … no, not you, Silver, you’re with the Lone Ranger !

This year, I sent out only 10 Christmas e-cards to close friends and family. I used to send a lot more but seeing as how many people even bother responding, I’ve slashed my list down to just that. Of the 10 I sent this time, 6 people opened their cards and only 1 person (my Scottish girl friend) bothered to reply. So much for the Christmas spirit !

On a more positive note, I’ve unfailingly received a Christmas text greeting from my car salesman every single year for the past 10 years. In fact, the dear man (bless him!) sends me greetings for every celebration including Valentine’s Day. Either he has a major crush on me or he’s nagging me to buy a new car .

Christmas Eve, we had dinner at a friend’s. There was a whole spread of homemade soup, salad, spaghetti and lasagna, turkey slices with cranberry jelly and turkey stuffing, lamb slices with mint sauce, mashed potato, and Christmas cake and pudding.

I took only 1 slice of turkey and 1 sushi roll of stuffing but ended up finishing up everything else on the girls’ plates, out of politeness. Suffice to say, my picky eaters decided the food was just a little too ‘different’ from my cooking .

Christmas morning, we had McD’s as I needed to make a quick trip to the mall to grab some last-minute fresh mushrooms, carrots and tomatoes for my Christmas dinner of chicken and shrimp linguine with roasted carrots. And that was it! Nothing too hip, just a quiet Christmas day!

While we were lining up for coffee at Coffee Bean recently, I spied my two teens, Raine and Skye, eyeing this guy. Oh, he’s so cute! I want him! No, you don’t! He’s mine!

WHAT ??

Yikes, thank goodness, it’s only Mr Ginger!

I have to admit even I find gingerbread men adorable. When my kids were very little, I bought them a box of Pepperidge Farms gingerbread and ended up gobbling up the whole box myself because my picky eaters didn’t like the taste.

Anyhow, Raine and Skye looked so excited about this little gingerbread man, I asked if they would like one and their eyes lit up immediately. The beautiful thing about my 3 kids is that they rarely, if ever, ask us (or anyone else) to buy them things.

At any rate, tis the time of year when we do most of our shopping and eating out, and since we aren’t going on any expensive caribbean vacations or anything, why not a gingerbread man ?