Hong Kong Disneyland!

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2009


We had a wonderful day #1 at Hong Kong Disneyland. What a great place -- super clean, very nice and helpful staff -- our girls were constantly getting stickers from the staff at various rides. They had fake snow blowing through main street -- and with the cool (low 60s) weather, it was almost believable by Malaysia's tropical standards.

We saw a Broadway-quality mini play of the Lion King -- with some great singing and beautiful choreography, dancing, and a jaw-dropping set. The kids really liked the "fire" display when some of the actors came out juggling fire. Fun stuff!

Also, the evening was magical as the castle was lit up -- and a nice fireworks display added to the fun before we returned to where we were staying in the Disneyland hotel.

Mrs. Fullerton's Birthday!

We were thrilled to have Brent and Cheryl Fullerton in town with their kids. And to make things even more fun, it was Cheryl's birthday! So it was a day of shopping, seeing a movie (The Princess and the Frog), eating out, and birthday cake. Happy Birthday, Cheryl.

An Early Christmas

We had a wonderful early Christmas celebration. Grandma Julie wanted the kids to open presents from her a week early, so we had a fun celebration with the kids getting to open their presents! They love another chance to open presents and thrilled to get presents from Grandma Julie!

Run Jump Throw Day

As part of the end of the semester celebrations, the students had Run, Jump, Throw Day at Melawati! Mom and Dad got to escape from our duties for a quite glimpse in at all the fun. They had the ring toss, softball throw, long jump, ball toss, a mission impossible obstacle course, hurdles, and lots of fun events! What a great event for the kids -- and how gratifying as parents to see the kids having so much fun and enjoying themselves so much!

Gabi just clears the hurdles en route to a world record.

Gabi makes a record toss.


Gabi navigates the mission impossible course.


Reeve concentrates on his ring toss.

Satay

Last Saturday night, we weren't quite sure what we were going to do for dinner -- so it was a 3 minute ride down to a nearby stall -- for some fresh food. At the time we decided it would be fun to take a picture of the yummy satay. Not sure if it quite has the same yummy taste when translated into a photograph for visual consumption.

We are thrilled to have so much delicious local food easily accessible. That is one of the many benefits of living in Malaysia!

The Birthday Girl

It was fun to have a low key birthday celebration. Gabi loved opening more presents, of course, and was delighted with presents from her grandparents -- including a wonderful gift from Grandma Julie!

Happy Birthday Gabsters!

Gabi's Christmas Presentation

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2009

One of the highlights of elementary school is certainly the Kindergarten (prep senior in ISKL lingo) Christmas performance. Gabi had several speaking lines and did a great job as all the classes rotated through showing how Christmas is celebrated around the world. Gabi's class focused on Mexico. Feliz Navidad!

Family Christmas

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2009

How ridiculously fortunate we are to be able to have such a wonderful Christmas celebration in Malaysia. With Doug's parents heading out of town next weekend, we celebrated our family Christmas a bit early. After church, we had a nice morning swim (notice the kids wet hair), and then we got to have a delicious ham, twice-baked potatoes, fruit salad, green beans, Swedish tea rings, and grandma's oreo cookie desert! What a ridiculous treat to have all these things as part of a Christmas celebrated half a world away from what we think of as "home."

And what a great reminder of the power of the incarnation -- we even got to hear Doug's dad preach this morning at St. Andrews!

We even were mildly successful in getting a family picture that didn't have too many grumpy components.

Gabi said that she wanted a dog and a stuffed animal. We'll the Woodward house isn't quite ready for the dog, but. . .combine the two and Grandma came up with a great idea!


Reeve was absolutely thrilled to get some Match-Attax cards, which warmly reminded his daddy of the many years of Christmas when the highlight was a set of baseball cards, and I could spend hours sorting the cards and looking at them. Topps sure knows what to do.

Gabi's Birthday Party!

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2009

We had a fun party for Gabi to celebrate her birthday -- a few days before the actual day, but better to celebrate on the weekend before. Gabi had her class and some other friends over, and it was a haul of presents, lots of fun, and good times!

It was nice to have the large patio area for cake, games, play, and the kids also had fun running around the house, and eating pizza.