The Little Family: Happy 5th anniversary!

5 years ago, at this time (close to mignight) on Nov 23, Eve and I were in our bridal suite with our closest bunch of IDA friends. All the other guests had left by then, but true to form, this group had stayed on and accompanied us as we ate our late night supper rolled in by in-room dining.

Last night, coincidentally, this same group of friends had come over to our place, as CP had come back from Indonesia for his mum's birthday. This time round instead of in-room dining, YM had brought along some buns from a famous pau store. Instead of the hotel champagne, we had a bottle of Bailey's and Choya to share. In place of the hotel room, the gang accomodated us by meeting us in our humble HDB flat just so we could meet up with them, whilst Faith slept in the room.

Eve and I had not realised how surreal it was that we would have this same group of friends on a last-minute rendevous till 2am last night just laughing and talking. Such is life after 5 yrs together and Eve and I wouldn't have wanted it any other day. The sweetest memories are the ones we share together, and it doesn't take a fancy restaurant or big party to make us realise that we have constantly been blessed - by having our friends, our family, ourselves and now Faith in our lives.

It is 1 now and as I write this, Eve is asleep, having been exhausted by Faith who had a 2-hour afternoon nap - and probably as a result, had some problems getting to sleep tonight.

It is nice just thinking how the last 24 hours have passed - after our friends left at 2am, we joined Faith in bed; I woke up at 9am for my usual badminton session while Faith and Eve slept in till close to 10; when I came home, Eve and I brought Faith over to mum's place - just as we always do on the weekends. And after that, we went to AMK Hub where we treated ourselves to a nice lunch - nothing fancy like last year's Saint Pierre dinner - this time round to "New York, New York" - a restaurant almost like Swensens - but serving better food at less than $20. After that, it was off to NTUC - like we always do. And then, it was back to home to do our X'mas tree - we wanted to surprise Faith when she got home that night. And after that, it was dinner at the former Oasis restaurant - now in Toa Payoh - it is amazing how porridge could taste so delicious especially in a rainy weather.

In short, a simple anniversary day, yet another nice one. Life's simplest pleasures are indeed the best ones.

Yet, I cannot let this day go without doing something special for Eve. While there has not been any flowers or gifts or a fancy dinner - we do have lots of memories of how far we have come and how different life has been even if we look back one year. Here's just a few to remind us - when we look back come next year 2009.

From bloom to bloom...