Feliz Navidad, Again!

Christmas is here at last- hope you all have a wonderful day. Yesterday, on Christmas Eve, we had our third delightful visit to the golf club pool, followed by a pretty extravagant and wonderful sushi dinner courtesy of Jim's dad. We also concocted a Santa tradition for these parts where instead of stockings (which people don't really wear here) hung by the chimney (which we don't have at this house), we left wicker baskets out on the patio. Naomi wanted to make sure they were outside of the locked part, but Jim convinced her that if Santa can get down chimneys, he can fit fit toys through an iron gate.

The girls woke up, opened gifts, and were generally quite pleased. It turns out I didn't need to panic and buy one more toy for each like I thought I did- all the little minor toys I got as stocking presents seemed to be more than enough for them. Later in the morning we went to church, which I especially liked because I cannot get enough singing of Christmas carols. Also, hilariously, in this Methodist church nearly entirely made up of Chinese people in Malaysia, we ended the services with "Feliz Navidad." Hee.

After church we went to an open house for an old school friend of Jim's. It was great for Jim and him to catch up, for me to meet his lovely wife and get an Indian buffet lunch, and for Muriel to have the run of the place and eat a big plate of unbelievable Indian mango. For Naomi, it was not so great. She kept complaining that he stomach was hurting, and because she had eaten some cake before any other food, I thought she might just be tired and over sweetied. So she lolled about, with her mother meanly nagging her to please try and sit up a little, until she finally remembered our new holiday tradition for 2009, which is that on every major holiday, you must throw up on your mother.

Thanksgiving, you may recall, ended with Muriel vomiting on my head on my parent's sunny back porch. For Christmas, Naomi did her part by puking all over my lap. I had a dress on, and we were sitting on a chair over a beautiful Persian rug, so I (heroically, if I may say so) did whatever I could to make sure the spit up stayed in my lap. Fun! Credit to Jim, too, who grabbed a couple of plates when it all went down. What a mess. Naomi and I spent twenty minutes in the bathroom with a box of tissues (because paper towels are not widely used here), and then made a long awkward exit waiting for Jim's parents to come get us.

We came home and showered off- sure enough, Naomi has hives all over. She is allergic to some tree nuts, and must have had one in the piece of fruitcake she tried. I gave her a Benadryl and put her to bed. Poor baby. She seems to be feeling a lot better, I am happy to report, though I will also admit that I am checking on her a bit obsessively.

So, Naomi is sleeping, Jim and Muriel are out meeting up with a bunch of his old school chums, and I am eating some of the (insanely huge bag of) chocolate the kids scored at the open house. Tomorrow we had back to Singapore...leaving behind my new favorite place, the pool at the golf club. But the girls will be happy to be back with their cousin, and we with their parents.

Peace on Earth, good will to all!

What Day Is It?

When I was sixteen, I went to Germany for a month, along with one student from every other state. It was a fantastic trip, but I will never forget hearing from two of my friends when I got back that I was different, not as much fun, something like that. This came to mind when I was thinking about what to post, because on a trip like this, out of my routine and away from home, my everyday self feels far away and quiet. No chattering inner monologue to tap. Lucky you guys. It means I should focus on the photos more, but I left the camera in the room with a napping tot, and I will not wake her for anything.

So, for the roundup- Sunday morning was the wedding of Jim's cousin. We had to be there at 8:30...early, right? It was a bit of a dash. The girls wore beautiful dresses Jim's mom had bought for them, along with some wreaths of baby's breath on their heads. Attaching those wreaths was no easy feat, I'm just saying. The flower girl part went reasonably well, if you don't mind your flower girls looking spacy or sullen or fraught with concentration. There was a little jam up in the middle, but they got moving again and everyone made it to the front. The bride was beautiful and kind, the groom was handsome and magnanimous. It didn't rain on the outdoor event. There was a little buffet after that included some tasty tuna salad croissants. All in all, a lovely morning.

The girls got quite sweaty and undone, of course- it's hot here, if I haven't mentioned it. We went home to change before the tea ceremony for the groom's side. When we came here for our wedding celebration, we had a tea ceremony too. The tradition is that the bride and groom serve tea to all their older relatives, starting with the parents and then the oldest on down to whoever is just above them. The groom serves, the bride serves, and then the relatives hand over a gift. When we had ours, it seemed like everyone was giving us (me!) jewelry. So we thought we had it all figured out, and went out the day before to buy a gold bracelet for the bride. At the ceremony for his cousin, though, everyone just kept handing over the red packets (Hong Bao), and we started to feel like we had really missed the boat. Jim's mom explained later that since gold prices were so high, most people were just opting for cash. Oops.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention at this time that Muriel has fallen in love for the first time, madly, deeply, with the brother of the groom. She referred to him as "the Big Guy" the whole time, and waved and flirted and was just generally obsessed with him the entire day and evening. When I get my act together with the pictures, I will post the evidence.

The best news of the day was that the girls took about a five hour nap. They got up in time to get dressed for the reception, which began at what is normally their bed time. Fortified by the nap, however, they were ready to party. The reception was quite grand and enormous, with a seven (roughly?) course meal, a giant curtain with the names of the bride and groom in sparkly gold letters, a slide show of photos of them looking like Hong Kong movie stars, and a visiting corporate logo bear who handed out stuffed toys and candy to the kids. That last part kind of put it over the top, but really, it was a good party. The kids went to sleep near midnight- a clear record.

Yesterday we visited Jim's grandfather at his house. The cool, clean terrazzo floors and relative lack of impediments in his house were irresistible to the girls and their cousin; there was a surplus of dashing around and chasing and screaming. And ineffectual shushing and scolding.

This morning we went for a swim at the golf club Jim's parents belong to. It's really a lovely place, and they had a kiddie pool, which meant I got to just wade around a bit and not really commit (I enjoy a swim but I sort of have to be in the right mood). Jim ran into a high school friend and her husband and children, visiting from Sydney. It was fun to chat with them by the pool. Afterward, we had lunch on the veranda of the golf club- alfredo noodles for the kids and curry laksa for the parents. I think this brings us entirely up to date.

I have a few things to figure out and accomplish before Christmas...which is in a few days. There will be more visiting, more eating out (always more eating out!), more shopping, and if I get my act together, some photos posted in the near future. Ho Ho Ho!

Malaysia Day Two

Today: Wedding rehearsal at a lovely resort, dim sum, shopping mall, big giant rehearsal dinner type thing at the groom's parents home. The kids stayed up hours past their bedtimes and basically had candy for dinner, so wish us luck tomorrow as they participate (and play minor supporting characters) in an 8:45 a.m. wedding. Yee-ikes.

Who says a family of four can't fit in the back seat?


Sweaty children at a wedding rehearsal.


Sweet nourishing bao!

One delight of foreign lands is the sometimes wacky signage and marketing concepts. At the mall by Jim's parents' house, against the backdrop of "Sparkling Christmas," one sees the "Call of Duty" tournament. Merry Christmas- get ready to shoot!

(Full disclosure: actually posted on Malaysia day three...more on that day soon, I hope!)

Singapore!

So much for my post-a-day ambitions. It's day two of our trip, and I'm writing this from the 24th floor of an apartment building in Singapore. There's a view of downtown from the living room window (when it's not too rainy to see that far), and an even better view inside, of two little girls playing with their super cute three-year-old cousin whom they met for the first time yesterday. It has been so good to stay with Jim's sister and brother-in-law (and their daughter), though I am afraid we are kind of awful guests, voracious and noisy and sleeping at all the wrong times.

The flights were...OK. I will summarize with bullet points:
- The international terminal at Vancouver, oh all ye Olympics-bound travelers, is pretty swank. Enjoy.
- Japan Airlines, please, please give your passengers on ten hour flights more food. We waited so long for that second meal to arrive, and when it became clear that all you were giving us was a half sandwich and two teensy cornichons, well, let me just say that it was a bit of a disappointment.
- All Nippon Airlines, while I am at it, if you are going to try to fix a seating issue, only to divide up a family with tiny children into one pair of seats and two singles (?), please, when you finally get the situation sort of resolved, be judicious about asking the tired, worried family to hurry into their seats. Good food, though.
- General advice for long trips with small children: you need WAY more snack food than you think. Go overboard packing snacks. At the Tokyo airport, in a sleepless haze, I ended up buying a can of Pringles to avoid that panicky feeling I was getting near the end of the last leg. They were the only food I could recognize that wasn't a cookie, or a distressingly named mystery food (like "Corn Chocolate").
- Obvious advice for international trips: you are supposed to know the address of the place you are staying. You can save yourself (and the poor relative who is picking you up in the middle of the night) a good twenty to thirty minutes of customs line time.

One more short flight this afternoon- to Kuala Lumpur. We are sad to leave our hosts behind, but happy to see Jim's parents and other relatives, and get ready for his cousin's wedding on Sunday. Plus, his sister and brother-in-law are coming for the wedding, so we will see them again tomorrow.

Hopefully the next post will include some pictures. Keep on keeping on!

Watch This Space

In a couple of days we will climb on board what I truly hope is a luxurious jet plane and wing our way to the East. Except that of course we will be flying westward to get there... whatever. The point is, we're spending Christmas in Singapore and Malaysia. This is very exciting because we get to spend time with Jim's family, in particular his sister, brother-in-law, and niece (who is three and whom we have never met), and of course his lovely parents, who hopefully have forgiven me for being such a grump near the end of their last visit here. We will also get to see his extended family, because his cousin is getting married. Which reminds me that we are supposed to have bought some presents for some of the little relatives, and I don't know if we have yet... yikes.

The part I am not looking forward to of course is the plane ride. We keep pitching it to the kids as a super fun adventure, but I am not quite in that frame of mind yet. Better start working on that frame of mind... we have drawing pads and sticker books and unusual snack food and a new little computer that will play movies (and a headphone splitter for the girls). It's really only a ten hour flight followed by a seven hour flight- I can't really count the hour long flight to Vancouver.

We are going to have a computer along, though, so I am going to make an effort to post often. In the meantime- Happy Holidays, you guys!

Tonsillitis!

As gleeful as it makes me to get a real diagnosis from a doctor, you would think I would choose to actually go to one more often. Today's appraisal of my wretched horror movie throat has me dancing to the pharmacy counter, because the charming Aussie-accented doctor I saw assured me that tonsillitis (what I got) is not only treatable with the awe-inspiring Z-Pack (or in my case, its generic cousin), but is also NOT THAT CONTAGIOUS! As he said, it's between me and the bacteria. All weekend I have been agonizing over giving this illness (that I thought was maybe strep throat) to my kids right before we start our 23 hour plane journey to the other side of the world. It has been yucky- I feel sick in all the traditional ways, but my throat hurts so badly that every time I swallow there is pathetic whimpering. I picture that times two on a full day plane ride, and it quite literally gives me heart palpitations.

But no longer! I have started my generic pack, and feel the full confidence of the pharmaceutical industry coursing through my veins. Both girls have finished off their own virus-induced maladies, enough said about that. We will be healthy and happy and bursting with love or whatever when the plane takes off. Whew!

Which leaves me plenty of time to brag about the kind of spectacular Holiday Open House. What a turnout! Dearest oldest friends, check. Neighbors, check. Friends acquired through kids' school, check. Church friends, check. Coworkers, Jim's and mine! Check! All total we had thirteen kids, and they ran around and begged for cookies and played with each other and made foam sticker ornaments and begged for punch and ate cheese and cucumbers and chocolate. Mostly it was my kids begging for treats and punch, actually. Two of the kids (7 and 5?) from across the street came, and stayed when their mom left, and at one point they announced to me that Muriel was their particular friend. Lest anyone think I am exaggerating her party girl affect.

And now, in the week remaining of home for the holidays, I have a fairly clean house full of flowers and pointsettias and snack food. Hooray! The only down side of the party is that I also now have FOUR half-finished bottles of wine in my fridge, and in my tonsillitised state, I am completely unable to do anything about them. I am working my way through the cookies and cake leftovers, thank you very much.

Sophie's Choice

Naomi is home from school with the stomach virus thing. I will keep my feelings on the stomach virus to myself... She has kept herself mostly busy watching "Super Why" and drinking soup from a straw and dozing. Our extra time together has afforded her extra time to pursue her new hobby- giving me completely random choices.

The choices do NOT go together. It is frequently difficult to make any kind of connection between them. They are presented at unpredictable intervals throughout the day.

Real examples:

Do you like ice cream or cats?

Do you like oranges or stars?

Do you like number one or number 4?

Do you like water or broccoli?

Do you like chairs or markers?

The reassuring upshot is that I have figured out there isn't a penalty for liking one thing over another. But can't I like both water and broccoli?