Dear Santa

We are headed to Phuket, Thailand tomorrow for 7 days of relaxation! We are meeting our friends Mark, Kelly & Grant there. I taught with Kelly at Bonny Slope and they have been living in South Korea for the past 18 months. It will be so wonderful to see familiar faces and spend Christmas together. The flight is an easy 1 hour and 45 minutes. We'll be relaxing at the pool in 24 hours.

To prepare for Santa, we made cookies last night (hope he doesn't mind week-old cookies) and watched Mickey Saves Christmas. We're getting in the holiday spirit over here, even with the heat and humidity.

Cookie baking...Notice my sweat. I mean, holiday glow

Best part of making cookies....Drew feeding Daddy some dough! 

The boys' notes to Santa with the cookies in a Tupperware so they'll survive the flight :)

Waiting for their cookies to be done...notice Luke is keeping track of time on his CALCULATOR :)

This was Santa's letter to Luke. The kids got to write letters at school. I love the line about the basket. When filling out the letter, I asked Luke what he did to help others, he said "Well, I helped my brother one time when he got stuck in a basket." Haha!

Legoland!

On Monday we hopped on the bus at 10am to visit Legoland in Malaysia. We spent the ENTIRE day there, and had the boys snuggled in bed at 10pm. What a day! We are glad we went, but have no intention of going back. It was stormy, humid, and quite crowded. Drew was too little for most rides, so we had to try and explain that to him more often than we wanted. The wait time was at least 30 minutes for most rides, which made it difficult when only one could ride. That said, they had a TON of play areas for the kids and they were all covered, so we could wait out the rainstorms. Fun day, but a one-time-fun sort of thing. 

Beautiful morning as we left Singapore

Another country in our passports...Malaysia!

Christmas tree made of Legos

This area was INCREDIBLE. It was called MiniLand. Here is the Taj Mahal made of Legos. Some of these would take ONE person FOUR years to build.  

The Great Wall

My child climbing into the Great Wall...

Here's Singapore!

Singapore Flyer

A Lego Airport. There he goes again...

                               

The boys watching a Lego Pirate Ship float by. Adam stated many times that putting these Lego exhibits together might be "the worst job in the world!" :) 

He stayed strong until 5pm...then he was OUT! 

Night Safari

The Night Safari is something we heard about long before we moved here. And it lived up to its hype. What an amazing place. The boys LOVED seeing all of the animals as we rode the tram throughout several 'continents' and the animals that live on them. No flash photography allowed, so you'll only see pictures of our little monkeys.

We went Saturday night. Considering the sadness, it was wonderful to be together.

Luke checking his map to see where we should go :)

I love this picture. So did several others who were also taking it. 

Fire Dancers - Luke was quite concerned for their safety. 

On the tram - first one leaves at dark

Christmas trees can be found outside almost every attraction/business here. 

Sadness...deep, deep sadness

I have been behind in posting for a few reasons. One, because our days have been filled with activities since going on holiday. Two, given what's happened in the states this past week, I've needed time with my boys and in my own thoughts. I've read the thoughts of many others, but I have wanted to collect my own. I've cried (oh how I've cried) and I've hugged my sweet, sweet boys so many times they are starting to run when the see me coming.

There are no words to express the sadness and shock I felt upon waking up on our Saturday morning.  I have a 5 year old. I am a teacher. It hit so close to home. My thoughts have remained with those families every day. The holidays will now take on a new meaning for them. A meaning they were forced to have because of one very evil human being. But where there is darkness, there is also light. Like most people, I'm searching very hard to find the light. I think I see it, then it gets turned off. The light may not shine for days, weeks or even years, but we HAVE to make that light shine again. Faith in humanity. In decency, respect, tolerance and love. It's there....we just have to find it. And when we do, it has be so powerful that it overcomes the darkness.

That darkness I'm talking about, children don't know it. By nature they find the light. They are pure, innocent little beings until someone takes that away from them. When Luke saw me crying that very dark day, Adam told him, "Mommy is sad because little kids were hurt today. They were hurt badly." With a little thought, Luke replied, "Did they fall down? Are they at the hospital?" That's innocence  His world doesn't know anything more. And it doesn't need to.

For now, my light is my children, my family, my friends, and my students. They bring me joy, happiness and gratitude. They show me GRACE even when it doesn't seem there is any to be found. We need to get this right as a country. How, I don't know. And I'm not going to pretend to know.

I do know that I am so, so thankful for the blessings I have in my life. I'm sure we've all counted them a million times in the past 4 days.

To all of my blessings back home, I love you.

xo

Luke's 5th Birthday

I'm a little behind with this, but here are some highlights from Luke's 5th birthday. On his actual birthday, Adam and I were lucky enough to take brownies to his class to celebrate. He requested Michelle's spring rolls for his birthday dinner, followed by presents and chocolate cake. The following weekend he had 4 friends from school over for a birthday party. I love that he was able to have a swimming party in December!

Luke and his classmates

Words can't express how much love we feel for this little boy

Drew was quite excited to help with the present opening :)

Drew & Ella hanging while the big kids play

Luke requested McDonald's for his party lunch. The kids were pretty excited :)

Luke was given the backpack on Drew's back for a gift. Drew didn't take it off all day. He even snuggled on the couch to watch cartoons with it on. Lucky for us it even has WHEELS so Drew insists on taking it to the airport. 

Soccer themed party

I have always loved birthdays, but since becoming a mom, they have even more meaning. It's hard to believe Luke is 5. He has brought so much joy and laughter to our family. The independence and confidence he has gained since moving to Singapore is amazing. We can't wait to see what the future has in store for him. What a gift he is.

A glimpse of Nursery

We got a CD today of 148 pictures of Drew from the last few months in the Nursery program. We are so blessed that he goes to such a happy, fun, exploratory place each day. His teacher, Miss Shamani, is wonderful and he LOVES going each day. Couldn't ask for more!

Brother even gets to visit!

Cooking for his friends - shirtless of course.

As you can see, he gets A TON of hands-on experiences each day. What a great place for 2-year olds!

Today was so much fun at school. There was a Christmas performance for our students, and to fit everyone in, they did it in sessions. As it worked out, Luke & Drew were in the same session. After the performance, I happened to bump into both of them in the hallway. The excitement and expression on their faces was priceless. You would have thought it was excitement to see me, but nope...they had just seen SANTA! Santa made an appearance at the performance, sang with the kids and as Luke informed me, "Mom! Santa knows me now. He was on stage and he waved RIGHT AT ME. HE KNOWS ME MOM!"

I do love that we can openly celebrate Christmas here. It's not a bad word, we can talk about Santa and we can even wish people a Merry Christmas. Not to mention decorated trees, lights and snowflakes in all the classrooms. I find it ironic that Christmas gets a big push because we're an American school (that's just one reason) when in fact most schools in America can't even mention the word. Sad.

We are on holiday in less than 24 hours...yay!

xo

Gangnam Style

I'm not sure if this song is as popular in the states as it is over here...but I can't help but love it. And I laugh every time I see one of my students doing the dance down the hallway. No one has a clue what this guy is saying, but everyone loves it.

One of the funniest moments since we've been here was at the water park when Dick & Vicki were here. Adam and I were with the boys in the wave pool and Gangnam style came on quite loud. As the music started to play, Drew jumped up out of the water yelling "NANUM STYLE!!!!" There was excitement ALL over his face. He grabbed his little wrist and danced his way across the pool to Daddy. He had people laughing hysterically, including his mom.

That could have started a wave pool flash mob. Next time.

On another note, we had a great time seeing Santa yesterday. Luke was concerned that we wouldn't be home for Santa, but Santa assured him he could travel to Phuket. :)

We are on holiday as of Friday! Can't wait!

It's strange to be getting ready for Christmas in such a warm, humid climate. I laughed at our Santa picture...shorts and t-shirts. Christmas decorations are up everywhere, Christmas music is playing in all the stores, but it still feels strange. Not bad, just different. Certainly not the typical weather we're used to, but we are really excited for 7 days on the beautiful beaches of Phuket with our friends.

There will be lots of pictures coming in our time off...we plan on 3 weeks of F.U.N.

xo