Christmas Break - In Photos (Part I)

Ah yes, Christmas has come and gone! For us it has been a different experience, that's for sure. I have yet to see a single giant blow-up Santa in anyone's yard, waving at random passers-by, or any of those weird mechanical - electric rain deer. Although not near as pronounced as North America, you can tell it's the Christmas Season here in Central Java, but you don't really see much of Santa. What a shame, but after seeing him a few times at the annual Barden Xmas Party, I can imagine that big ol' red suit gets hot and itchy near the equator. Yes, our kids still kind of believe in Santa (what horrible parents we are), although I think secretly Luke is somewhat confused about the details of how it logistically all works out...in just one short night. Plus, no one in his class believes in Santa! At least you can still call it Christmas here as it won't loose you votes to 'believe' in an 'organized religion'. In fact, it is common here when filling out government forms to have to write your religion...Christian, M*slim, Buddhist, etc. There's no "none of the above" box to tick off either.

 What we did do for Christmas was wear sandals and summer clothing. And, our neighbour did shoot off some fireworks, I hear that's a standard procedure for holidays in Indonesia. We also walked to a pretty nice local restaurant and ate out (yes, we ate out on Christmas Day), it was quite lovely! I had a fried noodles (Mei Goreng) dish that just about burnt me a new esophogus. Amy had a specialty fried rice dish, she gave it two thumbs up. The kids...I can't remember what they ate. To top it off, we barely got rained on! Speaking of rain I should mention the lovely brunch get-together we had with the other MAF families on Christmas eve. It was awesome, but it sure did rain! I rode the scooter all 3 blocks home and just about drowned.

So, being that it came so quickly after we arrived, Christmas was different! But being together  as a family is an awesome way to celebrate the birth of Christ, no matter where you are.

Last week Luke had his last day of school until the new year. And after Luke's Christmas play, we were treated to a tour of his school room! Here's Luke showing us his school desk and also showing little brother (below) just how cool and sophisticated Grade One is...Especially when it comes to producing top notch Christmas decorations for the whole family.

 Luke and his school buddy Daniel eating up some delicious cookies, and just generally looking cool.

And Charlotte looking cute. She is very mobile now and we now just entered another "barricade" stage in our lives...That being where we use whatever is available to prevent Charlotte from crawling out the door, eating electrical cables (since she has two new teeth she might break through the insulation), gnawing on Christmas ornaments, etc. In our case, that means half full rubbermaid bins around the Christmas tree & turned over chairs.

A few pic's of the kids opening presents.

Yes, the boys are in their underpants...It's not exactly 'Canadian Cool' in the evenings here, and the excitement of Christmas morning resulted in the whole getting dressed process to be deleted from their busy present opening schedule.