It was difficult to be away from all our friends and family, but we certainly made some great memories here. Our Christmas in the tropics will certainly be unforgettable. Want to see what I'm talking about?
1. Tree Trimming
We didn't want to get a big tree this year, but I was surprised to find that there are plenty for sale here. Of course there are, everything is for sale here. A few florists had lots with trees for sale--even Ikea had real trees! We opted instead for a large houseplant. Okay, it was a little "Charlie Brown's Christmas" but we dressed it up well. And there was never a more loved tree.
We brought our initial ornaments from home to hang.
We added some plush elephant keychains we bought in Thailand. Later we picked up a small keychain from the Singapore cable cars that take us to Sentosa and after Christmas we added a keychain from the bee farm we visited in the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia. Did you know what great ornaments keychains make? Yeah, I didn't either but when you can't find ornaments, you improvise. Oh, we also brought the kids' stockings from home.
2. Orchard Road Christmas Lights
On the Friday before Christmas, we finally checked out what was happening on Orchard Road. The theme this year was "Christmas on a Great Street." This is the ceiling of the mall where we parked our car. Not a bad start. It's kind of weird, but our family hasn't explored Orchard Road much at all since we got here. It's the fancy shopping district and it's gorgeous and busy. We have gone to Plaza Singapura at the far end of Orchard and because we live nearby when we take the bus anywhere, it often cruised along this section, but this part of the street was new to us on foot.
Most of the street is already lit up throughout the year.
But these dripping lights hanging from the trees are fantastic.
We have found a new Christmas tradition: eating ice cream outside in dresses. Okay, maybe just this year.
The lights on the stairs change colors. Pretty.
I posted some of these dances on Facebook. We watched an Indian Christian church perform several dances to songs about Jesus sung in Hindi. This is another thing that will probably only happen this year for us.
The kaleidoscope!
Had to visit the nutcrackers.
3. Cookies
Grandma Barbie arrived less than 2 weeks before Christmas and brought some cookies she made at her house. The kids had the task of decorating them and were thrilled to oblige.
We made some icing and then added different colors, taking turns.
Some of the icing made it onto the cookies, but most of Wyatt's icing went in his mouth.
The girls sampled the taste some too.
Look at all that product. Yum! Now how do you hide these from the ants?
4. Santa Claus, the Musical
We decided to check out this musical so we could sing along with the carols. Before we made it to the Grand Theatre at Marina Bay Sands, we took the double-decker bus to Daddy's office at Centennial Tower. These are some pictures of the view from his office.
There was some cake involved.
And we opened the cool Christmas present from Ab Initio.
To get to Marina Bay, we had to take a short walk through some shopping malls. Ah, Singapore. We did appreciate the air con though! Here is a pic of the Esplanade.
We got to cross this cool bridge.
We grabbed a quick bite to eat (after the cake) at the very nice food court at Marina Bay Sands. Wonderful!
Then, we checked out the show. There could not have been a better activity for the children. They were jumping out of their seats with excitement, singing along, and cracking up when they something silly like penguins tap-dancing. They were a riot.
I think it was almost 11 when the show ended so we quickly made our way back through the mall to find the taxi stand where the queue was insane. We decided to walk to a bus stop instead.
That meant we got to cross that bridge again, but this time with all the lights on. Very cool!
Wy and Z stand on the lights. E explained that Christmas colors are red and green because red represents Santa's outfit and Rudolph's nose and green represents cocktails. Hmmm, not sure about that one.
And back on the bus home.
While we were out, our own building had been covered in lights.
This picture is not from that night, but I'm not sure where else to put it. We bought some cool outfits at Mustafa Centre.
5. Christmas Eve at Gardens by the Bay
Usually on Christmas Eve we have a fondue dinner and then check out the Christmas lights in Somerville, but this year we had to change it up. We opted for a picnic at Gardens by the Bay. You might remember this place from one of our first posts in Singapore. We came here one night with a picnic and it happened to be a night that the Symphony Orchestra was performing and in the middle of all that, jet planes were going crazy above us practicing for the then-approaching National Day. Seems like a lifetime ago. Seems like yesterday.
It was a great night to be outside because the kids were certainly in goofy moods. See?
There was a lot to explore.
Here was our picnic spot. We had bread, cheese, apples, and grapes, but decided not top open the wine until later. Good call.
The sun was setting as our picnic ended.
We walked around some more looking at all the beautiful lights.
And then there was a big Christmas light show!
The best part about the whole wonderful evening though was the ending. As we were getting ready to leave, I saw some of those glowing kites that often fly around the Marina Barrage and pointed one out. The kids immediately starting screaming and running for the car, telling everyone to look up at Rudolph's nose. They almost had me convinced they were so excited. It happened to be a time when a lot of people were leaving and the girls were citing that as evidence that it had in fact been Santa's sleigh they had seen because everyone was rushing home to get right to bed.
They didn't exactly go right to bed, but it wasn't too bad. Usually it's after midnight when Ted and I can get to sleep on Christmas Eve. This year it was more like 11. We needed our rest for the big day, too, because not only did we have presents to unwrap and meals to make, but we had a big trip to Malaysia to pack for as well.
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