Merry Christmas

Phuket, Thailand

We are home. But not fully recovered. I'll fill you in on all the boring details another day. But I will tell you that I'm still dreaming about it.

A caterpillar moment

We had a quiet moment yesterday. Just for a minute. The kids found a caterpillar in the sandbox. They watched it, poked it and were quiet. Just for a minute.

Noah is off of school for winter holidays. His preschool was on the local calendar so they take a break from November 20th until January. Then they have school all summer. We've been busy with our regular outings. Loving to have Noah all day, and also having few moments of quiet. Maybe that's why I noticed this one.

This week was particularly free of quiet moments. We tended our neighbors' girls for a couple days. Every time we got in a taxi the driver would say, "You have 4 chil ren?!" We painted sugar cookies, made cotton Santas and had so much fun Noah could barely stand it.

We also had a church Christmas party to help plan, Christmas shopping to do, David a stable at the church to build, planning for our trip next week and I started doing private Speech Therapy on Wednesdays and Fridays.

After our trip, I intend to have more quiet moments. Make fudge and peppermint bark. If we turn our air con down low enough maybe a cup of hot cocoa with a candy cane in it. Wrap Christmas presents and make cardboard ornaments.

And go back to this park with the boys to climb this tree. Hopefully we'll find a caterpillar.

A quick trip to Manila

Our church organized a trip to the Philippines to visit the temple over Thanksgiving weekend.

So we left the boys with some brave friends and flew to Manila.

The temple was beautiful. and peaceful. and so powerful. We spent an entire day there.

We stayed in the temple housing. hostel style. One small room with 4 bunk beds for the women and another for the men. Fish and rice for breakfast. or BBQ flavored spaghetti. Bring your own bottled water. Definitely an experience. But what a great spirit was there. The housing was full of Filippino people there to attend the temple. Arriving bus by bus. It was fun to talk to them and their cute kids.

The next day we hired a driver to see a few sites in the morning before we headed to the airport to go home. It was interesting to see the Spanish and American influence on this Asian country.

5 things we saw on our Morning in Manila

#5 Traffic.

Jeepneys - the public transportation in Manila. decorations and stereo system included.

Pedicabs - motorcycles or bikes

On our way into the city our driver got hit by a jeep. He stopped in the middle of the street and backed up traffic to negotiate a price to fix it. No police report or insurance claim. The driver of the jeep just gave him cash.

#4 Poverty

Heartbreaking.

#3 Fort Santiago

We visited Fort Santiago and learned more about the Spanish conquistadors who ruled the Philippines for a long time and the Spanish-American war. We also learned about the filippino hero, Jose Rizal. inspiring.

#2 The Manila Cathedral

We visited the Manila cathedral to admire the architecture and the stained glass windows. and the pretty purple bridesmaid dresses of a filippino wedding in progress.

#1 Politics

On our way to the cathedral we had to zig and zag through a politcal parade in the middle of the street. "Hello my blue eyes!" the teenagers shouted as we passed. The Liberal Party leaders were filing their candidacy for the upcoming election. There were all sorts of people there in bright yellow tshirts. Even a huge fillippino celebrity - Dingdong Dantes - I'm sure you've heard of him? me either. And us poor gringos just wanted to be tourists.

This video is a crowd of screaming teenagers surrounding Mr. Dantes

We heart Pinoy.

Trick or treat

What a duo. Superman and Clark Kent.

Singapore doesn't celebrate Halloween. But there is a neighborhood right by the American school that does. Jack o lanterns, spider web decorations and all. So that's where we headed to do our trick or treating.

There were a few curiosities in the trick or treating bucket when we got home. Jell0 in a cup, lots of hello kitty marshmallows and Durian flavored candy. Durian is a huge stinky fruit only found in south east asia. But its so stinky its banned on the MRT (the subway), in taxis and in restaurants. Noah was brave, tasted it, then spit it right into the trash.

Dave went dressed as Jim Halpert dressed as facebook. Isn't he cute?

But back to Halloween.

A few streets get blocked off for the trick or treating. And thousands of people show up. Yep, thousands. Americans, Singaporeans, Australians, people that aren't even dressed up. Our friends said they gave away 3,000 pieces of candy. It's insane.

And crazy.

But oh so festive.

Sit down and carve yourself a jack o lantern

Around here candy corn and pumpkins are hard to come by. But if you know the right store to shop they can be found.

Our October has been busy frosting cookies, crafting haunted houses, hanging paper bats, making garlands. Reading Halloween books for bedtime (our neighborhood library had a surprisingly good collection). And of course carving pumpkins.

These two bad boys were picked up for us by a friend. Her kids go to the American school, where pumpkins covered the soccer field for just $15 each. Such a steal. Half price of what they would have been at the store. Yikes.

A discovery was made

There is a shopping cart return in the carpark in our basement.

Seriously.

This is now my grocery shopping routine:

Walk to the mall next door with Gage. Up the elevator to the Giant on level 3. Gage puts in 20 cents for the cart. Put Gage in the cart. Get a week's worth of groceries as fast as I can before 2 year old gives up. Buy a stick of Mentos for screaming 2 year old while waiting in line. Bag and pay for groceries. Back down elevator. Walk next door to our condo. Up elevator to level 13. Push shopping cart right into my kitchen. Unload groceries. Back down elevator to the basement. Push cart into cart return . Get 20 cents back.

Awesome.

Museums

Noah had a field trip all day to the zoo one day.

So Gage and I went to The National Museum of Singapore.

And met Dave for lunch.

It was nice to have Gage to myself all day. To cuddle his cute cheeks and chase him through the grass.

We strolled through and learned about Singapore's history, about the origins of some of the local food, and saw an exhibit of 19th century Singapore landscape paintings. Gorgeous. It's amazing what this country has gone through in the last 100 years. From 3rd world fishing to 1st world economy.

In the Antwerp exhibit, Gage puzzled with me over the modern art and oohed and aahhed with me over the original Rubens...

...actually, realistically, a museum with a 2 year old? He lasted for about 30 minutes in the stroller with me showing him colorful things then I let him watch Wonder Pets on my IPod.

But Dave was a much better date.

The Singapore Art Museum has free admission Friday nights, so we tagged along after a British tour guide and saw a collection from Southeast Asian artists.

We have officially hired a babysitter every Friday night. Its a whole new world. We have a whole list of things to do and see. Including finishing my own dinner and having adult conversations. :) Our babysitter is the sweetest Singaporean lady you ever did meet. She's in her 50s and speaks English and Malay. Noah's already asking her to teach him how to count.

Mount Kinabalu

The scruffy man is home. He was in Borneo for the weekend.

To climb this.

With his buddy Chris who is in town on "business"

Up half way one day. Bunk on the mountain for the night. Up the rest of the way for sunrise (with only mild altitude sickness and snowy winds). Then back down the next day.

My turn is next. Anyone want to go? Cheryl? April P.?

Backseat Mandarin Lessons

Picked Noah up from school and got right in a taxi. We headed to the Chinese Gardens to meet a friend.

My camera died right after we got there. So did my phone. So instead of showing you gorgeous pictures of the amazing koi ponds and pagodas. And instead of telling you about Gage so happy at the turtle museum with hundreds of turtles to feed,

I will show you this video

Chinese Lantern Festival

Let's take a walk down the street.

And watch the dragon dancers. Don't forget to light your lantern.

The Chinese Mid Autumn Festival just ended last week. We made it to Chinatown a few times to see the celebrations. and to eat noodles.

Noah's school had its own little lantern parade. Noah brought his light-up lantern and wore his party clothes. He also made a lantern out of recyclable materials to proudly display.

And mooncakes! How gorgeous are these? The Chinese characters on top tell you what flavor they are. I can't recommend the traditional lotus paste ones, but the melon one was really tasty and Dave enjoyed his oreo mooncake.

At night everything lights up. The streets are filled with people, food and interesting vendors - jewelry, fruit stands, dresses, souvenirs, ancient mahjong boxes, herbal medicines, spiderman lanterns. An amazing festival.

(thanks to Cheryl for the pictures)