KEEP IT IN THE PHAMLY

This year didn't start out so great, but overall it has been a fun year. Some of my (blog) highlights are:

1. I learned I'm a mouth breathing, noisy eater.
2. I kept up my weekly dance but not dance-dance classes Groove Therapy with Wanida Serce. Though, I didn't keep up with ballet because I moved to another part of town. Instead I'm going to sign up to the local gym next week. Shock-horror.
3. I got to see a Vietnamese American actress star in a western teen movie for the first time - To All The Boys I've Loved Before. Time's are changing y'all.
4. I got a new phone, and I didn't know it has automatic face blur on the selfie camera for the past 9 months even though in the original post, you can clearly see how crispy the front facing camera is compared to the self-facing camera. D'oh.
5. But of course, my top highlight, is living with the boyfriend who makes every day extra fun.

Not all of my gifts are joke gifts. Some of the time they are thoughtful and meaningful. Not this one though. This gift idea stems from pure selfishness. I needed an excuse to take photos of my camera-averse Boyfriend every day and now I finally have it.

When I lived in Melbourne I'd visit The Phamly 3-4 times a year and talk on the phone with Mum Pham every couple of days. Boyfriend's mum lives in Perth, which is about as far away from Brisbane as you can get within Australia so quarterly visits aren't so easy. They talk regularly, but for his first year in Brisbane his mum could only visit us once. She got to see where he lives and meet me and Dad Pham, but it's hard to learn what someone's life is like in one weekend.

When her birthday was approaching... then came...then went, and Boyfriend had only called her to wish her happy birthday because their family don't do gifting, my brain started to tick. We had to do something for Xmas. Life is too short not to show people you love that you appreciate them.

What would Mum Pham have liked if we lived far apart and we hardly ever got to see one another? Lightbulb! 'A year in the life of' photo project about Boyfriend for his mum. I pitched the idea as a daily calendar so it's sort of practical but mainly so she can learn more of his Brisbane life. We could send her prints in monthly packs so the moments captured would be recent and relevant. It's something she will look at every day to remember that a) she has a son and b) he loves her and misses her.

Boyfriend normally yells no to gifts, but he was fully behind this idea. He got to designing the calendar pages, while I took on the difficult task of photographing my favourite human going about his life. We found an iPad holder (like a compact cookbook holder) at Kmart which fit prints in size 6" x 8" nicely. He sent the iPad holder and photos for the month of January. She opened it today for Christmas, and it made her cry - hopefully, they were happy tears and not because I didn't think to set my phone camera to the highest quality for better prints. Oops.

Merry Christmas everyone, hope you have the best time showing your loved ones how much you care!

It finally happened. I'm a senior team member. Not because of career progression, but because I've been alive so much longer than most of my colleagues I have more work and life experience, which makes me appear more grown up and responsible. Doesn't mean I am though.

I like me a quirky office antic like Work Bestie, Tuna Breath and Corny Chips. So when this year's office Xmas party delivered unto me the happiest team photo I've ever seen or been in, I just had to do something with it for the team.

Enter Vistaprint - I've never used the site before, but Little Sissy Pham loves a good, thoughtful photo printed mug so I knew they are decent for a budget printing business. I couldn't do something classy like a mug for the boys in my Development team though. No, they don't use mugs. They live on a well-balanced diet of kombucha, Pepsi Max and beer - all of which come in bottles and cans.

Instead, I opted for photo printed mouse pads because it's somewhat practical, and relevant for our computer-life team. I thought they'd laugh the gift off and eat the accompanying chocolates only, but all the boys are using their mouse pads with glee. Even the guy who isn't in our team but made it into the photo loved the mouse pads so much that I gave him my one. Don't you worry, I'm getting myself another print of the photos - this time on a mug because I drink tea like an adult whose body would shut down if I drank a can of Pepsi Max a day like my Work Pham.