Merry Christmas!

It goes without saying that we were sad not to be home at Christmas. This was my first Christmas not at home, though Kyle missed Christmas last year because he was living in the lab at that point. We'd toyed with the idea of a quick getaway last minute but because Christmas is a public holiday in Singapore, there weren't a lot of options available late in the game. Instead we ended up having a really awesome Christmas with friends here. Kyle even brought home a tree last week (in the third picture) that we decorated with candy canes.

We had four other couples and a baby over for a huge Christmas dinner: lasagna, a Christmas ham, salad with feta and blackberries, baked sweet potatoes with candied pecans, mashed potatoes with wasabi and macadamia nuts, sweet and sour green beans, spiced carrots, cauliflower dum, sauteed beets, guac and chips, spinach dip and veggies, a great cheese with crackers, rolls with apple butter, brownies, a cranberry walnut tart, pumpkin cheesecake, homemade gingerbread lattes, and wine. We have a traditional Christmas log cake in the fridge we didn't even bring out!

We played games and ate and visited and ate some more.

Our littlest guest wore her very best Christmas dress, and crashed halfway through the party.

Needless to say, we won't need to leave the house for food for the rest of the weekend!

We hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas as well!

Christmas Eve 2009

Thursday night, Alli and I ventured out to celebrate our 2nd annual Christmas Eve tradition of sushi. We've taken a big step in the last year-- well yea, the move to Singapore, but more pertinent to this topic-- Alli has been convinced of the wonder that is raw fish.

There are a couple of sushi places right in our neighborhood- decent places, but we decided to step it up a tiny notch and check out Sushi-Tei, opting to visit the branch on Orchard Road. We had no idea what we were getting into.

You see, where we come from, people are doing one of two primary things on Christmas Eve- they are either attending a church service, likely including candles and carols, or they are with their families. Okay I guess a close 3rd place is last-minute Christmas shopping, but in my experience that is a last-ditch activity, rushed through so you have something to give, then hurrying home to be with family. Apparently not so much here. As you can see below, most of Singapore chose this night to visit Orchard Road. Some amount of this was heavy shopping, but there were tons of other people that were just out. Sitting in random locations and people-watching. Others wearing what I know only as New Year's Eve hats. Based on what we saw, I fully expect that there was a countdown at midnight, followed by Santa sleighing down the road (I have checked with a couple of locals who ensure there is in fact no countdown, that people just choose to go hang out and see what they can see). It was people squeezed into all of the available space, such that moving down the street from one mall to the next proved a formidable task.

But anyway, we pressed on, and were pleased to find that the crowds had not overtaken our choice of dinner locale.

The sushi was good, with Alli even sharing these delights here:

The sake wasn't bad either.

...but of course sitting down to a slow dinner to talk, reflect, plan, and take stock of our blessed lives, that was the best part.

Favorite of Large River Mammals

I got this as a little Christmas happy.

And this is what the packaging says: