Santa Found Us!

So it turns out that Santa Claus found us despite the fact that we had relocated to the other side of the planet - he's really amazing!  Grammy and Papa arrived from their hotel to three Virkler kids just dying to start opening presents.  After some breakfast and a few pictures, we attempted to slowly open presents which actually sort of worked this time around.  Each year we feel like maybe the Christmas morning routine is a little more calm and maybe presents are appreciated a little more before a child races to open the next one.

Grammy's Kimono

The X-wing Fighter - Santa found a way to get it to Singapore!

Cowgirl Boots - perfect!

Surfing memories

Beauties

A new watch - so excited!

Yes, your shattered phone has been replaced ....

... and your brother got one too!

Grammy's beautiful new jade necklace from Papa

Henry testing out his new binoculars!

After opening presents and playing with them (and cleaning up the mess), we all took showers and got in our finest to go to High Tea at Raffles Hotel.  As a former British territory, Singapore takes High Tea very seriously and Raffles Hotel is famous for it's event.  We took the MRT there and after getting a little lost and finally hoping in two cabs to get us there, we were seated at our table and offered an assortment of teas, Singapore Slings, champagne and finger foods.  In addition there were hot sandwiches, curry puffs, fruits, and other sweets to enjoy.  This was supposed to be an early dinner for all involved (we had a 3:30 reservation) and everyone needed to eat a lot to get their money's worth!

Ella and Henry looking wonderful

Showing off a new gift (in a seat he shouldn't have been sitting in!)

Seated for High Tea

Note the proper form while sipping his tea!

Family photo

Twas the Night Before Christmas....

After exploring Singapore Christmas Eve morning, Grammy and Laura prepared a great Christmas Eve dinner.  We took the opportunity to dress up and get some fun family pictures out on our deck (thanks to Naida for taking them).

Ready for Santa

First picture of us all together in 5 months!

Posing with Naida

Just the Virkler clan!

Enjoying Christmas dinner (with our blow-up Santa)

Sporting some fun Christmas masks ......

.. and the kids as well.

Grammy and Papa Arrive for Christmas!

After weeks of counting down the days, Grammy and Papa arrived on the 23rd for 2 1/2 weeks!  I'm not sure whether the kids were more excited or Mommy.  We wanted them to see everything about our new lives here and the places we go and the things we do and eat and think are funny.  The problem was we had only three days to cram it in before we were leaving for Cambodia and Thailand- yes I know, not exactly a "rough" problem to have!

On our first day we headed to the wet market at Tiong Bahru to show them where we got our fresh fruits and vegetables (and maybe gross them out a bit with all the very fresh and funny looking meat and seafood you can get there).  We used public transportation which was adventure for them and we managed taxis, buses and MRTs while they were here.

After a quick, local lunch in one of our food halls we headed out to the Gardens By The Bay down by the marina.  These gardens include two conservatories with the first one we visited being a 2 acre Forest Dome that replicates a tropical mountain region.  It includes a cloud mountain that allows you to climb up levels into the forest and see how the plants and temperatures change.  Very cool with some amazing orchids and other plants.

The other conservatory was a 3 acre Flower Dome (the world's largest column-less glasshouse) that had been transformed into a Christmas wonderland.  The decorations definitely had an foreign Christmas spin to them but they were fun to see and the temperatures in both domes definitely made it fun to put a sweater on for a couple hours.

They are finally here!

Mastering public transportation (as long as they don't lose their cards!)

Amazing flowers

I think we were all excited to put on sweatshirts!

Many very cool statues in the domes

Hamming it up of course!

The evening ended with us eating dinner at the top of the one of the Supertrees at Indochina.  The view was wonderful and the space cool although everyone was definitely a little tired.  Grammy and Papa were impressive considering that they landed in Singapore at 1am that morning!  So excited to have them here!

The Supertrees (we ate at the top of the one in the middle!) lit up at night

Sumner's Science Fair

Fourth Graders at SAIS have worked for several weeks on a Science Fair project.  Sumner's topic was pulleys and whether the number of pulleys used affected how easily he could pick up his school backpack.  The project was done almost entirely at school because his teacher wanted to make sure the kids were doing the work and not the parents - a great idea that I whole-heartedly support since it didn't make Sumner's project look different from someone whose parents spiffed it up for their child. He worked hard on it and I attended the Science Fair this past week to check out the results.  He stood by his board along with all 100+ other fourth graders and parents walked all around asking questions about different projects.  Very proud of him!

December Activities

Stamford American International School does holidays big-time.  I mean, I've never seen so much decorating for Halloween before in my life - the PTA goes all out complete with Haunted Houses, school dance, parties for each school division and even a Parent Flash Mob dancing to Michael Jackson's Thriller (it did NOT include me!).

Christmas turns out to have been no exception.  An enormous - maybe 10 feet tall at least - Elf on the Shelf moved to a different place on campus each day.  We're talking about places that must have required a crane to move him to - ie, standing beside the school mascot bronze lion with a lasso around the lion or standing on top of one of the buildings waving.  Not sure that the students appreciated how much effort went into all the decorations but all I kept thinking was that these wonderful parents clearly are looking for an outlet for their creative talents!

The most interesting part of this is that it all revolved around Christmas - where at our school in NC, you didn't even talk about Christmas specifically but just talked about the Winter Break and the holiday activities but nothing focused on a specific religious holiday.  Everything at Stamford revolved around Christmas for three weeks and this is despite the fact that there is definitely a larger percentage of the school community who are not Christian here versus back in the States.  What's wonderful about Stamford is the fact that there are children there from so many different racial and religious backgrounds and so many different nationalities are represented (it's about 35% students with American passports).

So one Saturday the PTA held a Christmas Fair where families were invited to do crafts, eat, play, laugh and shop on the school campus.  It was an impressive effort and the kids had a lot of fun trying to pretend they were someplace cold.  Here are a few pics ....

Can you see the snow?  More foam blowing around campus!

We loved this sign

December always brings holiday parties and luckily we were still invited to a couple despite not knowing that many people.  Drayton, of course, decided he had to wear his "christmas" pants to the parties.  Let me describe these pants for you - wide waled, corduroy red and white striped slacks, just perfect for Tropics.  But Drayton can be stubborn and wasn't going to be dissuaded from wearing his holiday pants - I had already tried to discourage him from bringing them to Singapore in the first place!  He wore them with a big grin each time and tried to not look like he was sweating profusely.

In front of our real, live Christmas tree

Even other "creatively" dressed party guests at the party thought that Drayton's pants took the prize for best/hottest!

The American Club where we are members does a Toys for Tots party very similar to the one held annually at Hope Valley Country Club where we used to live.  We brought toys for the marines to collect and donate to kids and needs and then visited Santa and had dinner.  It was fun to be able to continue our tradition in another country.

Decorating Christmas cookies....

Visiting with Santa (with the Marines standing by)

Carols sung by the tree (and swimming pool!)

The official lighting of the Christmas tree (I was just relieved no one fell into the pool)

In front of the American Club with it all lit up for Christmas

(Fake) Snow in Singapore

90 degree weather makes getting into the Christmas spirit more than a little difficult.  You hear Christmas songs being played in ever store and even blasted from street corners and there are holiday decorations EVERYWHERE yet it still feels weird.  In an effort to feel like "winter" we decided to check out the Christmas decorations down at Tanglin Mall - the ones that promised a "winter wonderland".  We walked down after dinner on a Saturday night - it's less than 2 miles there - and waited with a group for the 7:45 "Avalanche" that was scheduled.

At 7:45, there starts a rumbling noise and suddenly these large pipes on the ground start pouring out white foam soap - tons of it.  It's piling up a foot thick around the pipes and kids are running through it and jumping in it and then about 15 minutes later it starts shooting out from sprayers above the crowd.  All the kids are running around, covered in foam and thoroughly soaked.  At the end, the sprayers shut off and there are hoses set up for kids to hose themselves off.  Luckily we had been warned to bring a change of clothes so kids stripped behind towels and we walked back home laughing.  

Definitely not a winter wonderland like we might imagine, but in the Tropics, it's probably the closest we'll ever come!

Imagine our surprise when it started snowing in Singapore....

.... that's our surprised looks!

Avalanche has started!

Luckily, Sumner had heard that you might want googles to avoid soap in your eyes!

It really does look like snow!