Alright, the title is a lie! It’s a four-some Christmas & New year. Besides us three, there is my visiting mother-in-law as well.

This time last year I was getting ready with Nicolas to be onboard a harbor cruise to watch fireworks of the new year’s eve.

Today, four of us are getting ready for the dinner at a friend’s place followed by fireworks watching.

For me, most of 2012 can be summed up by one word. Nina.

As much as I have been trying – and marginally successful – to stay ‘me’, life is different now. For one, holidays suddenly became really quite special, in their traditional sense. All these gift wrapping/giving/receiving, tree lighting, songs seem to take on a new meaning. I, being a non-Catholic Chinese, have been enjoying times like Christmas, but for totally wrong reason (hey it’s day off). Now, it’s my/our turn to nurture the idea of Christmas/new year/holiday/ into the mind of this person. The responsibility – and the joy – lies entirely on us, her parents.  It’s a daunting thought. Like parenting.

During the last weekend of 2012, I have asked Nicolas to work together (well, mostly it’s he who works) on two projects.

Firstly, we painted a wall in the house to chalk board black.

Secondly, we repaired the chair that we have wanted for years. Like the first hugely successful renovated chair, this one is also a road-side pick, with great bones but out of love for too long. Like the first one, it needs to be dissembled, fixed, glued, nailed, assembled, sanded, painted, and painted again.

The results?

Here is a simulated painting (by me, on Surface) of the two chairs (the yellow one being the new one) on the chalk board.

It’s a painting that I like.

It’s simple. It’s naïve. It’s colourful. It’s a new life out of love. It’s beautiful. It’s spontaneous. It’s far from perfect, but perfect at the same time.

I’d like to think that’s how my 2012 has been. With my trilingual family.