What a year it has been

2013 has been an incredible year...

- We put in an application for my fiance visa early January (which was approved literally 3 days before the wedding in October).

- Andrew experienced his first Chinese New Year with my extended family (and his last collecting angbaos).

- We climbed a lot of spiral staircases in Paris and had our engagement photoshoot in cold, cold weather.

- We held our Chinese tea ceremony and lunch in June and my father-in-law flew all the way to Singapore for a weekend!

- We hung out with my friends in Hong Kong and visited a lot of rooftop bars.

- I left my teaching job so that I could prepare for my move to New York.

- We flew my family in to New York for the wedding and the Tans and Savinos met for the first time.

- We got married on a beautiful autumn day in Long Island surrounded by our family and friends.

- We settled into our cosy lovenest in Midtown and started our Eating through the Alphabet adventure.
- We celebrated our first Thanksgiving and Christmas as newlyweds!

We are so grateful for His blessings and the love and support of everyone around us and cannot wait for what 2014 has in store!

Chistmas on Mulberry

Because Chinatown and Little Italy are located right next to each other (with the former slowly taking over the latter), it's impossible to tell where one ends and other begins. 

I was pretending to be back in Singapore, dragging Andrew around like a hapless tourist when we chanced upon a Christmas parade on Mulberry Street.

There was a Chinese dragon dance troupe, colourful floats and marching bands, poppers and confetti and plenty of revellers along the street soaking in the festivities. It felt like Chinese New Year and Christmas both at once!

Can you believe that we are two days away from Christmas? 

Photos taken on my iPhone 5C

Coney Island

Back in October when the weather was a lot more pleasant, we took a train to the end of the N line and found ourselves in Coney Island. 

Coney Island used to be the biggest amusement area in America and a trendy seaside resort in the first half of the 20th century, but it started declining in popularity after World War II and fell to years of neglect.  

Andrew had never been himself, and he didn't even know it was still running. The area had clearly seen better days, but there was still a good crowd of young families, local dwellers and tourists  alike enjoying themselves. 

We didn't do much except wander around taking photos and ate our ice-creams while walking along the boardwalk, but what I wouldn't give for that weather again!

Photos taken on my Canon Kiss X5
P/S: Coney Island is a seasonal center that operates between Easter and Halloween. Rides and attractions are generally open on weekends, except from Memorial Day until Labor Day when they are open all week long. Find out more about Coney Island here.

A Singaporean yum seng

My father-in-law wanted to bring a little Singapore into our New York wedding, so he gathered my father, my sister, her fiancé and my best friend to lead an impromptu yum seng.

For the uninitiated, yum seng translates to 'drink to success' in Cantonese and is the equivalent of "Bottoms up!' or "Cheers!". The yum is dragged out for as long as the crowd can hold and ends with a triumphant seng, and this is done three times with different auspicious sayings for each toast.

It was, as expected, a boisterous affair and the crowd loved it... best idea yet!

Wedding photography by Brian Calabrese Photography

Cheek to cheek

Because we were always long-distance, the only opportunity we had to practise our wedding dance was when we were in Singapore waiting for my visa to arrive. It was too last minute to sign up for dance classes so we decided to rehearse in our hotel room. 
Andrew had Frank Sinatra on Pandora and we were deciding between "Fly me to the moon" or "Come fly with me", but for some reason I really wanted "Cheek to cheek". In my mind, he was the Fred Astaire to my Ginger Rogers and we would look like this-

Unfortunately Andrew complained that I bopped too much and it wasn't long before we dissolved into fits of giggles and gave up. 
Thankfully on the actual day, we had a professional emcee and deejay and the most amazing wedding guests who got on their feet and boogied the afternoon away. No one seemed to notice that I have two left feet, or maybe they were being nice to the bride.
"The music was hot!" my mother enthused after the wedding. I had never seen her dance before, so it was great to see her having such a wonderful time. (But I am still not sure about her using the word 'hot'.)

Wedding photography by Brian Calabrese Photography