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MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

cinnamon rolls

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amazing dinner and nativity with the wagners. jessie made one of the best turkey's we've ever eaten!

the perfect nativity skit
above photos by jessie...thanks! :)

christmas eve present, jammies.

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snow city.
we broke out the jeans and hoodie, the first time we've needed it since being here.
snuck a couple of shots with my iphone. ty and i had a blast going tubing.

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we waited for the sun to go down.
watched an impromtu parade
then...
bubbles...
bubbles everywhere...
singapore's version of snow.



at tanglin mall

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made our stockings, but missing grandma littlefield's.
santa hatted our family

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even the airport gets festive here! christmas at changi airport.

i've never seen a santa quite like this one.

40,000 VARIETIES OF RICE FOR A NICE PRICE

Whenever we peruse a recipe of something we're considering making, we'll often find 1-2 ingredients that we've not yet seen in Singapore or are difficult to find. The day this picture was taken we were unsuccessful in trying to find tortillas. But then there are other ingredients that have variety you would not believe! There are entire isles in grocery stores here dedicated to countless varieties of soy sauce (really, I'm not kidding!)... and as you can see--there are a gazillion varieties of RICE! This pic doesn't even show yet another entire section behind those shown devoted completely to the world's most popular grain.

If you were to ask me as a child growing-up in rural Pennsylvania if there was more than one variety of rice, I would have responded with "sure--there are three: there is He-Man rice, chicken-flavored almond rice, and then there's plain rice that you eat with porcupine meatballs." It was not until my oldest sister married this guy that liked something called "rice pilaf" that I was introduced to an entirely new kind of rice. The next variety entered my life when I married a Hawaiian and was introduced to Calrose Short-Grain rice (and was also taught you need to wash rice!). From there I met a few more varieties along the way of life until now moving to Singapore and being completely blown away--seeing I'm pretty sure at least 10,000 of the 40,000 varieties that exist (according to Wikipedia) on my local shelves. Even the 7-11s here have 4-5 varieties.

Singapore has no natural resources. No oil, no amber waves of grain, not even harvestable lumber. Because of this everything is imported and everything is expensive! Even a sizable portion of the services are imported (e.g. electricity). And so we'll easily pay $18/gallon for milk or $23/lb for hamburger and you may need to sell an organ on the black market in China to buy a car or house--BUT you can get 40,000 varieties of rice for a nice price.

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we used to get costco's gingerbread house kits every year.
this year, we went the crafty route. i found this at art friend, my new favorite craft store!

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we invited some of steve's co-workers over for a little white elephant christmas party.

the friends

ice cream sundae spread
. dark chocolate fudge sauce . cinnamon caramel . passionfruit syrup . vanilla bean sugar . mini chocolate chips . sprinkles . fresh mint . granola . toasted almonds . crushed oreos . coconut . mini malt balls . macadamia nut toffee . rosemary spiced pecans . candied orange peel . honey vanilla apples . homemade peppermint marshmallows . chocolate sticks . bananas . maraschino cherries . brown sugar marscapone whipped cream . arnotts royals .

vanilla bean movenpick ice cream

got the "fireplace" working a little late.

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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

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

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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.

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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.

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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.