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!