d17

ty's class christmas party.
sang songs.

played games.

opened presents. ms. rachel had all the kids bring one toy or book from home that could be recycled as a gift for another student. what a fabulous idea.

d16

west coast mall. i should have read the flyer better.
they have an event where you can play in "snow". except. it's only on the weekends.

oh well. they still had the bouncy house up and had free shave ice.

oh ty. i just love your grinch face.

d15

sais christmas assembly
ty's grade, kg2, sang all hanukkah songs.

d14

our first (and maybe only!) carollers.

the two sisters on the left are half vietnamese|caucasian. i loved that they had a paper to remember their rendition of rudolph.

their paper says, "pls put money here if you liked it" and lots of hearts at the bottom. they were fundraising "to give money to the poor." ty ran and got this bag of money and without hesitation poured the whole thing in. what a sweetheart.

d13

adding to the decor.
covered the glass on my frames with christmas fabric.

d12

wrapped friend's presents.
: silly bands that i got in the philippines :

d11

steve's work christmas party, i guess.
at straits kitchen at the grand hyatt hotel

i loved the walls.
what a cool idea to use all different mouldings and paint them one color.

d10

i brought zero christmas decorations with us. thankfully, my momma taught me how to sew...sew (ha ha) i whipped up this tree skirt, based off of this tutorial. i am sew (sorry, couldn't resist) happy with how it turned out!
a couple dozen cookies later, we arrived at the church to view a live nativity. it was amazing! the spirit was so strong and the stake did a fantastic job portraying each aspect of the birth of our Savior. my favorite room was the angels.

there was an entire room of nativities from around the world. i loved the one from california (pictured bottom left) with rocks shaped like the nativity. very cool.

d9

letters to santa



it reads:
dear santa,
dear ty (i have no idea why, but he always addresses things to himself)
i am a good boy
camouflaging coat ("what makes me invisible")
flipping ("wheel truck") car
bakugan ("what's") blue
gold
lego book
<3 ty

ps. ty had swimming today. that's why he has no shirt on.
rhett is neked because he just ate dinner.

d8

another mall show : mr men and little miss
and my first visit to takashimaya.
i wish i had a wide angle lens to catch all of the merchandise leading up to the show. here's a glimpse.
i tried to get the boys to go down and meet the characters afterwards, but no dice.

d7

d6

d5

d4

sais christmas party.
i'm glad we caught santa before he got in a taxi. i guess he gave the reindeers the night off. :)

making a christmas craft with friends, jacob and julian.

d3

the malls here have themed christmas events.
parkway parade's theme is toy story. perfect.
it was even better that our friends met us there to play.



please notice rhett's over the shoulder look. watch out derek zoolander.

d2

finally got a library card.
02 december : read christmas stories.

d1

i love getting into the holiday spirit by doing something christmas-y every december day until christmas. it doesn't have to be big; just something for holiday cheer.

when we first arrived, i was scouring craigslist for furniture. i came across someone selling their christmas tree + ornaments for s$25. i jumped on it. and i'm glad i did, since i heard that christmas lights alone go for s$20|box.

01 december : decorate the tree

just in case one ornament gets lonely, rhett added friends on the same branch.
whistling a happy tune.
the tree is the perfect height for ty
we put on every last decoration.


don't forget the bottom branches.
our perfectly, imperfect tree.
my sweet boys.

ty's first field trip

ty's school is in the process of getting accredited as an international baccalaureate school. they have these units of inquiry which then determines how they will learn all other subjects. ty's first field trip was to visit different homes to see how people live. i got these pictures from another mom.

ty and julian : best friends
it's so interesting that ty goes to school with kids from all different backgrounds. julian's mom is indonesian, but from singapore. julian's dad is egyptian, but from canada. they most recently moved from germany.

primary program

his part was: i know Jesus loves me because He is nice to me and He blesses my family.
:)

he also got to sing a solo of his favorite song: I love to see the temple.
he did great! when i asked him about it afterwards, he said that he was happy, but his "heart was going really fast."

i couldn't be a prouder momma. i feel so lucky that he's a part of our little family.
i love you ty.

STEVE'S INNER STRUGGLES

I read once years ago in the Readers Digest that "only a true friend will tell you when your face is dirty." Telling someone they have a black smudge on their brow is one thing, but what about when someone has gunk in their grill? The other day at work I was deeply conflicted when a coworker had something large and green stuck in their teeth. I was just unsure whether or not I should say something. After considerable inner turmoil and struggle, I didn't. I wanted to, I kept looking at it (doing my best to keep my glances opaque), but I opted to keep my mouth shut--after all, I'm not sure how cross-culturally that would have been received.

Tonight Malia and I were discussing if someone stank of some foul stink, would you tell them? How close does the family or friend need to be for you to let them know that anyone with a properly functioning sniffer would find their scent repulsive? Malia has no reservation to begin to dramatically dry-heave if my 'B.O. is a ten point O' or if my breath is 'hummin'. Is the relationship between hygiene feedback and love positive and linear? Should I interpret her theatrical gagging as an expression of endearment?

Well what if someone unknowingly rips their pants and you can see their underwear? Do you tell them? Malia was 100% unaware of the below. Probably because there is no cool breeze in Singapore to alert her to the unfortunate wardrobe snafu. From the look on Rhett's face, he too was aware, and even were it not for his inability to speak more than 15 comprehensible words, I tend to believe that he too was disconcerted over the predicament of whether or not to say something. It was really hard for me to stop her from walking into the mall, store to store... I almost didn't. I wanted to wait until after our errands were through--knowing that the public display would compound the fun factor. But amid my thoughts of the humor in humiliation, only one thing stopped me--for better or for worse I have covenanted to love her. And while I hesitantly decided to express my love in the form of informing my wife about her indecent exposure, I'm at least glad that I was holding the camera so I could share this moment and my inner struggles with the world through the miracle of the internet.