Merry Christmas from our home to all of you!

Dannette's first strapless dress!  She was so excited to pick this out!

Halie on our new leather sofa

Christmas is winding down here.  The excitement of the day has worn us all down and Halie is now tucked into bed for the night, or at least the next three hours until she is up again to eat!
We all had a nice relaxing day. Dannette even commented that it was nice and not as boring as she had imagined so John and I must have done something right!

Our Christmas Tree a real North Carolina Douglas Fir! You can also see a bit of our new dining table.

Halie looking at one of her many new books!

Dannette received a Manchester United Football(Soccer) Jersey from Santa

Halie enjoyed the gift wrap as much as the gifts. You can see her new Sand and Water Table that Santa brought.

We started the morning out with unwrapping gifts and emptying stockings to see what Santa had brought.  Then onto a breakfast feast prepared by John.  Of course, pancakes were included : )  The rest of the day was low key and really just spent playing with new toys, getting Halie down for naps and preparing our Christmas dinner.  I prepared a Christmas dinner similar to what we would have had if we were back home with family....turkey, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole and my famous mac and cheese.  We haven't yet had dessert but we plan to enjoy a pecan pie later on this evening.  I was pretty happy with how dinner came out considering my oven is literally no larger than an American full sized microwave.  This took quite a bit of planning to ensure I didn't make too much food and that all the baking dishes could be squeezed in at the same time.  It came off quite well and we are all stuffed with just a little food left to spare.

Tomorrow will be an eventful day as we have yet to pack and head to Bali in the late afternoon.  The weather is predicted to be similar to here mid to upper 80's for the week with the usual 30% chance of rain. We are all looking forward to an adventure!
Enjoy the pics. For those of you who may not realize, I included a Xmas gift for all of you in the blog today.  This is the third in a series of three posts, so be sure to check out 'older posts' to read the rest of what I posted today.





MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL OF OUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS, WE MISS YOU MORE THAN YOU WILL EVER KNOW!

Halie has taken to making this hilarious face, I thought you would all enjoy seeing it.  It cracks me up every time!

More Halie with the new face :)

Finally, even after the mad faces her sweet angel face always returns.......................................

Underwater World - Xmas Break Outing

What a cool octopus! I had to put this pic first as I knew how much my mother would LOVE it :)

We have been pretty lazy this week.  Dannette is off school for 3 weeks and I have two weeks of vacation.  This past week we haven't done much as I think we are all tired of the crowds and there isn't that much to do in Singapore that does not involve shopping.
We did decide to try out Underwater World, Singapore's version of the Shedd Aquarium. It is very small and is only enough entertainment for about an hour but it is out on Sentosa Island and between the trip to get out there and visiting the aquarium we had a nice day out.

Splashing around in the sensory pool

Here are some pics of Dannette and Halie in the sensory area. You are able to touch stingray and starfish.  It was actually quite nice.  They also have a moving walkway that takes you underneath the tanks so that you can get a personal view of the underwater life like sharks!

Enjoying the jellyfish from Mommy's back

Halie touching a giant stingray after feeding him

Christmas Lights on Orchard

Last weekend we took a double decker bus tour of Orchard Road all lit up.  It was so much fun! Even Dannette and John who were making fun of me for wanting to take the bus tour enjoyed it.  Dannette enjoyed it so much she asked to go again! They are similar to the double decker bus tours of London with the upper deck exposed so you get a great view and they played Xmas music during the tour.
The lights are amazing. Here's a peek:

Getting ready to board the bus

Ferrero Rocher Tree in front of the Heeren Mall

Say Chocolate!

A View from the bus

Tanglin Mall - the winner of the best decorated mall.  The tree is made of 1000s of CDs! Below the tree they have a Winter Wonderland where each evening they release "snow" for a snowball fight. The snow is actually soap flakes.

A view of how insanely crowded Orchard Road is in the evening at this time of the year in front of the ION Orchard Shopping Center.

Paragon Mall decked out in Gold and glitter

Flash Mob - Singapore Style

For anyone who doesn't already know what a flash mob is, it's when a large group of people gather and blend into a crowd.  Suddenly, a single person starts by singing.  Slowly the singing grows by adding people and typically includes a choreographed dance. 
Dannette's school recently did one.  Here is the YouTube video in case you are interested.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvvQeaKQHH8

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas

We are now only two weeks away from Christmas and I think it is finally starting to feel a bit more like the holidays.  Shopping for our gifts is in full swing and the live Christmas tree arrived today!  Just having the smell of the Christmas tree helps make things feel a bit more spirited. Shopping for gifts takes significantly more time and effort as we are not familiar with the shops. Even simple things can be baffling and more complicated.  Take for example this evening when we went out to dinner we decided it was a good idea to pick up wrapping paper, tape and twine (more on the twine in a minute). Wrapping paper had to be purchased at Watsons, which is like CVS or Walgreens but only non-medication related items so cosmetics, basic household items etc.  They however sell gift wrap but not tape.  That of course would be sold at the bookstore!  Oddly enough bookstores here also double as a sort of stationary store so this is where you have to buy tape, binders, pens and pencils.
Now to the twine.  Store number three to get three items. The twine was necessary as after I spent several days searching stores for ornament hooks, someone finally took pity on me and explained that they don't sell ornament hooks in Singapore! Apparently here you use twine or string to hand tie a loop on each ornament to hang from the tree!  If anyone has pity for us, please snag some ornament hooks after Christmas and save them for me.  I will fly back with them in July when we come to visit so that we have them for next year.  Luckily, our wonderful helper Cecilia is tying each of the ornaments now so that we can decorate the tree tomorrow.

We are hoping that tomorrow is decently clear as we hope to get to the beach. We are in the rainy season currently so its been difficult to be sure that we can make outdoor plans as many days wind up being overcast for a large part of the day and then end in a huge downpour. Our back up plan is to finish the Christmas shopping.

Finally, I had another day off this past Friday and John and I took Halie to meet Santa.  You might be interested to know that although there are hundreds of malls in Singapore they don't have Santa!  I actually had to do some online research  to locate the one mall in Singapore that has a Santa in the basement for you to visit.  The line was nonexistent as you could only visit with Santa if you purchased a photo package. Halie did well at the outset and was quite curious to see him.  After a bit though she decided he was bit odd and tears ensued.  She rallied though and we got several nice photos.  No smiles as she was too serious being on his lap but I think the one we chose is adorable.  We hope you enjoy!

Living Life in Singapore

We have now officially been in Singapore for over two months and the routines are starting to set in.  Riding the bus, calling cabs and lugging groceries home from the market have started to feel normal. The Xmas shopping has begun and we are all looking forward to our upcoming holidays and vacation.
Dannette continues to enjoy school.  This past week her basketball team won their game and Dannette was able to compete in her first swim meet.  She competed in three events, 25m breast stroke, 100m freestyle relay and a 25m back stroke. She did quite well and even took 2nd place in the 25m back stroke!

Work has  gotten extremely busy lately. Its probably not more work than can be achieved, its just being compressed into only 3-4 days per week as I have been taking each Friday off to use my vacation time. In January I will be headed to Malaysia for two days the week of the 10th and Hong Kong for three days the week of the 24th. Luckily, these are short trips with flights of no more than three hours so they should seem easy.  In between trips we also have our first visitors coming for three days.

Life at home has recently gotten easier as we have now hired our full time helper. Her name is Cecilia and she is from the Phillippines. She joined us on Saturday.  It will certainly take some take some getting used to as John and I consider ourselves to be quite independent.  Thus, having someone hold an umbrella over my head when its drizzling or chase after us to clean up as we eat off a plate is a little different.  As John tells me today, we are going to have to get used to "lazing it up a bit". The benefits though of having someone here to help take care of the basic household chores so we can enjoy our experience here will be worth it.
I heard that Chicago got snow, I kind of miss it.  Not the whole winter of snow, just that first snow fall when everything is so perfect. Hope everyone is well.  Talk soon!