Final Goodbyes

Before the end of the year came, we had to say good bye to cousins, aunts and uncles as they returned to the States and we longed for summer or future gatherings. 

It was a fabulous time with cousins, so there was sadness as the goodbyes arrived and we had to move on.

So we ended our time with a final family picture to remember our fun times together.

Banana Boat

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2010

Our final two days in Bali were filled with lots of rain.  Fortunately on Tuesday afternoon it did clear enough for the kids to have one of their big highlights of the trip-- a banana boat ride around the Nusa Dua coast.

When reflecting on the highlights of the entire trip, this was listed by several kids as the biggest hit of many great experiences. 

Visit to Ubud

MONDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2010

 

We had a day trip to Ubud.  The fun of shopping and seeing the idyllic rice plantations was somewhat inhibited by Nzol getting sick (stomach flu) and the bad traffic in Bali. 


But a huge highlight for Gabi was running into one of her best friends in school.  As we stepped out of the car to visit a silver and gold factory, there was one of her best friends, so they had the chance to enjoy seeing each other and make plans for play dates when we all returned to KL.

Gabi and Rania enjoyed shopping in the Ubud market while the boys took the opportunity to return to the hotel for some beach football and swimming time. 

Scuba in Bali

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 26

Tracy, Nzol and Doug had the opportunity to go diving in Nusa Perida, an island about a 1 1/2 hour boat ride away from Nusa Dua, Bali, where we were staying. 

We had two great dives and some spectacular coral and good funny memories.  Photos are on an underwater camera, which I'll have to upload soon!

Christmas in Bali

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2010

Santa even found our kids (again!) in Bali.  Stockings were full when we woke up in our hotel in Bali!

Kids were excited to find special treats and fun things in their stockings.

Christmas Morning

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2010

Santa came early to the Woodward house as we were preparing for our upcoming trip to Bali. The kids were up an excited for our own Christmas. Once Auntie Tasha, daddy and mommy were up, it was time to enjoy the presents.

On Wednesday, we had a super fun day at Sunway Lagoon, though Grandpa and Grandma took the underwater camera. You can see our trip there on Doug's parents' blog.

Wednesday night we also had a nice adults-only dinner at the Mandarin Oriental. Photos of that were also captured by Doug's parents blog post.

Petronas Towers Skybridge

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2010

Mark, Marta and Dad spent hours (3) waiting in line on Tuesday morning and were able to snag us some of the last tickets to go up the Petronas Towers Skybridge.  As there are no advanced tickets, it is quite a long wait, and there is now a nominal (10 RM) fee for each person. 

Thanks to their perseverance, we were able to enjoy the view from the Skybridge.  We tried to take a bunch of family photos (best examples seen below), but with all the intense backlight of the afternoon sun, many of the photographic results weren't quite what we were hoping for.

Christmas Dinner

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2010

What an incredible blessing to have Doug's family all together for Christmas.  Grandpa and Grandma were really proud to have everyone around the table.   The dinner lived up to its billing with Awa's (the van lady) delicious ham, frozen fruit desserts, Swedish Tea Rings & the ice cream desert with mint chocolate chip ice cream, oreo cookies, melted chocolate and frozen whip cream.  With the heath chips on top (instead of nuts), it was even more delicious than normal. 


After a delicious Christmas dinner, it was time for opening presents, and the kids were mighty excited about all their presents!

Each of the kids drew another kids, and the adults also had a gift exchange.  Grandpa and Grandma claimed some exemptions with special gifts, and a hilarious moment occurred when Marta was the recipient of two gifts, but Doug was left out. Marta claimed this was all just par for the course as several years earlier she had been left out.

What a great privilege for the kids to spend Christmas with aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents

KLCC Swimming

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2010

 After our visit to the KL Tower, it was swimming (for the kids) in the wading pools at the base of the Petronas Towers.  Micah, Daniel and Eli had a great time with our kids as we enjoyed a swim.

KL Tower Pony Rides

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2010

In one of the more incongruous groupings of urban attractions, a ticket up the KL tower also qualifies for a pony ride at the base of the tower.  So the kids enjoyed a short little jaunt around the parking lot as they got to ride ponies.  Being city kids, the chance to ride ponies is quite slim, and you know that our pony-loving girls will jump at any opportunity to be around ponies and horses.

Additionally, your ride up the tower also qualifies for the small wildlife exhibit at the base where you can see some snakes, turtles, birds, and other small animals.  The girls (and Eli) got to pose with birds as part of the fun.

KL Tower

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2010

 

We took Mark & Marta & kids & Tasha up the KL tower as part of their first Sunday in KL.  The audio tours were initially quite fascinating as the kids enjoyed their own video player and spent more time watching the short video instead of looking at the views. But all the kids did enjoy seeing the buildings from way up high.  

We initially thought about having brunch in the restaurant, but with the Christmas holidays, it was all sold out.  So instead we enjoyed going up the tower and seeing the sites.

Christmas Pageant

 

For St. Andrew's Christmas Pageant, the kids had some starring roles.  Gabi was Mary, and Rania was an angel.  One of Gabi's good friends was Joseph, so it was a fun experience.  As the pageant was a bit less than previous years, Doug gave a short Christmas message to wrap up the service.  It was fun for our girls to participate in the Christmas story, including the singing of the concluding song. 

After the Christmas pageant, there was a celebration of December birthdays (including Jesus), and a big party for all the participants.

KL Christmas Decorations

The malls certainly end up with some dramatic decorations for every holiday season, and Christmas is certainly no exception. Tracy and Doug had a nice night out at the Pavilion mall in KL. Good evening of a movie (The Social Network) and nice Vietnamese food over looking the Christmas decorations for dinner.

Indeed, it is interesting how much of KL's culture abounds around malls. In fact, on this night, we met a friend who was doing the 12 malls of Christmas -- taking in 12 different malls and their Christmas decorations over two days. Sounds a bit crazy to us!

Tropical Wildlife

It doesn't count for much, but living in the tropics we do have occasional (and always unpleasant) encounters with monkeys who try to sort through our trash and are way too aggressive.  We do have beautiful flowers and trees around our grounds.  And we certainly battle mosquitoes.  So, it doesn't count as much more than your typical garden snake, but seeing our first snake around our house was just noteworthy enough to make a blog post.

Birthday Girl

We had fun celebrating Gabi's birthday.  Instead of the big celebration of last year, Gabi had the chance to invite a few special friends over for a birthday celebration.  It was a fun time with family and a few friends. 

It is amazing to see how big Gabi is getting, and what a wonderful daughter! We are constantly amazed at how blessed we are to have such a wonderful family. 

Track & Field Day

Reeve had a phenomenally successful Track & Field Day at school. He came home with a bunch of ribbons, and the PE teacher said he came close to breaking some school records with some of his performances.

Here he is providing some of the ribbons demonstrating his success!

Gabi also had a field day (Run, Jump & Throw Day), and grandpa was kind enough to take pictures and blog about the experience.

Rania @ School

It is such a privilege for our kids to have super teachers this year.  Rania's teacher has a class website (for the ISKL community), and frequently posts poems, rhymes, videos and photos.  Here is some of the fun pictures from Rania at school.

She often comes home telling us a poem (the Muffin Man for the letter "m" was a recent hit) and sharing some of what she learned.  She sure does love her friends, too -- and praying for them each night is part of the bedtime routine.