After a year and a half, we finally got to make a very quick trip back to the States! (And after 4 and a half months, I'm finally getting around to this post!) Here are just a few of the things we packed into a very busy three weeks:
We enjoyed the changing seasons with a leaf fight!
We celebrated a few birthdays.
We were lucky enough to be there for Grammie's Biannual Gingerbread House Party
We took the Polar Express to the North Pole for a visit with Santa!
We spent the day playing in the snow with friends!
We celebrated Christmas - a few times!
We took a little trip to Disneyland!
We went hiking with Grammie.
We learned to ride a bike!
And we spent as much time as possible with family and friends!
We had a great Holiday Season in Jakarta! It all started with a surprise package all the way from Phoenix!
Nanny flew in from Arizona and gave Emilie & Dustin quite the surprise! Everyone was so excited to see her! She even got to help us with a few Christmas traditions.
Nanny helped us get some Christmas baking done. We had a fun afternoon decorating cookies. Although, decorations were a little difficult to find. We were able to find heart, star, and bear cookie cutters as well as yellow and green food coloring! Nothing says Christmas quite like a green frosted bear!
On Christmas Eve, we set out with Debi & Andy for a delicious Mexican food dinner at our favorite (only) Mexican food restaurant in Jakarta!
After dinner, we sang Christmas Carols all the way home. I'm sure our driver, Pak Firman, was convinced we had all lost it! Then we were able to take part in one of my favorite Christmas traditions and looked at Christmas lights!
Can you guess which window is ours?
The kids were allowed to open one present from Grammie. They snuggled up in their new PJ's and we watched It's A Wonderful Life (Thanks Grammie!). We drank hot chocolate, read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, set out cookies, milk, cheese & sugar for Santa, checked Santa Tracker and snuggled into bed.
On Christmas morning, we were excited to see Santa found us in Indonesia! Apparently, Emilie and Dustin were very good this year!
We got through all of Santa's gifts as well as Nanny & Papa's and took a little break for some RotiBoy breakfast. Then we dove into FaceTime so we could open presents from Grammie & Papa Touchdown and Cathie while talking to them face to face. After an exhausting morning, we did a little clean-up and headed to the Christmas Buffet downstairs with Debi and Andy.
Next, it was time to put the Christmas Turkey in the oven. We tried to do ham for Christmas dinner, but the only thing I was able to find was a 5 lb. ham for $100. We opted for Turkey instead! Debi and Andy joined us for fun evening of eating, presents and were even GREAT sports about participating in our annual Talent Show! Everyone participated - Emilie & Dustin performed a dance, Andy did a poetry reading, Debi & Dustin performed a stunt they learned at circus class, Jennie played Jingle Bells on the piano/ipad, Nanny read an original poem she wrote herself, and Chris performed his ever popular bump on a log routine!
We spent the next couple of days on FaceTime trying to celebrate with some of the people we missed back in Phoenix. We were even able to participate in Grammie's Annual White Elephant! We had a great Christmas! We missed being able to spend the time with friends and family in Arizona, but we were extra lucky that Nanny was able to be here with us!
Living in a country that is nearly 90% Muslim, we did not have high hopes for Christmas this year. We have been surprised at the amount of Christmas cheer around Jakarta. The malls are all decorated for Christmas and we have been able to find things like decorations for our apartment and wrapping paper for our presents! We were especially excited to see "Santa's Ice Village" going up in our closest mall! It was set to open up December 6th and we were waiting with baited breath (I was a little curious to see what Santa looks like in Indonesia). For 50,000 Rupiah (approximately $5.00 USD), we were able to...
Meet Frosty...
Touch the magic tree for 8 seconds while making a wish...
Meet Santa's Reindeer and get our picture taken with...
SANTA!!!
Lucky for us, there was a Santa citing at the American Club!
Dustin got to perform in the Nut Cracker!
It was interesting to hear some of the things American kids, living in Jakarta, ask Santa for - Things we can't get in Jakarta like candy canes and Chips Ahoy cookies topped the list. D-Man asked for a race track!
