8 + 7 = 24

View from our hotel room.

Breakfast of egg sandwiches from Krispy Kreme, some roti chanai, and donuts of course.  And so cheap!  We were very excited about buying yummy cheap food on this trip.

It has also become a tradition to hang with the Patch family around Christmas time.  Two years ago, DC.  One year ago, Jakarta.  And this year, KL!

After breakfast we headed over to the KL Bird Park.  I'm sure anyone who saw us laughed at the 4 adults and 9 kids cram into 2 very small taxis.  The taxi drivers didn't seem as cool with it as they are here in Jakarta.  And the system in KL was all weird.  There wasn't really a meter.  There was either a set price you paid in advance, or if you hailed a taxi, you negotiated a price.  We had a few taxi "incidents" here.

Here we all are at the bird park.  It was hot.  And humid.  Am I used to it?  No.

G and his maps.

There's a good chance if you asked me if I thought the bird park was worth the money, I would say no. Then I look at these pictures and remember how awesome it was to see those bird guys put birds all over our children.  All over our excited, freaked out, a little bit scared, somewhat terrified children.

I think Y's look was enough to let those guys know it wasn't a good idea to put a bird on him.  Of course, A was terrified too, so they put a bird on her head.  It was awesome.

Mine weren't as scared, but they were a little freaked out.  Especially after the one Rhon was holding pooped!  I will laugh for years about the look on her face!

More holding of birds.

You had to pay for the bird food.  Everyone except G.  He kept going back for more, and the worker just gave him what he wanted.

Then we saw the bird show.  I wish you all could have been there.  There is nothing I could write that would make you understand just how awesome this show was.  And not in the birds are cool and what a great show kind of awesome, more like Asia-awesome.  I just want to remember how the host kept saying things like, "Let me show you a really cool trick" in a thick accent.  It didn't sound scripted.  Oh, and how the bird was supposed to know how to add, but he got it wrong.  More than once.  So awesome.

Taking a break after the show.

We went to the mall again for food.  This time we went to a Taipei street food-type area.  We got sausages, scallops, waffles on a stick, and lemonade that was like 10¢.  And for dessert we got Fruit Dings. 

These are the fruit dings.  I don't really know how to describe them.  It's like pieces of mild, fruity pudding, only firmer, mixed with a sugary syrup.  And they add other goodies like jellies and fruit.  We had an awesome day, but eating the fruit dings might have been my favorite part.  We joked around about everything, laughed a lot, and talked about how strange our experiences are.  How strange fruit dings are!  Those people are all so cool.  G too.  For some reason he's not in this picture.

Pocketses

The day after Christmas we went to Kuala Lumpur for a few days.

It's becoming a tradition to get a cream puff from Beard Papa's when we are at the Jakarta airport before we leave on a trip.

He's our Beard Papa!  buh dum chsh!

We got there pretty late, so we just took a stroll around the mall near our hotel.

Of course we went to Subway.

Kuala Lumpur did a much better job with Christmas decorations.

A few of the kids have a tiny (huge!) fear of Gollum.  So what better way to conquer that fear than to find a huge picture of him and pretend you are kissing him?  No better way.

They Were Dancing For Me

Our last Christmas in Jakarta...

Nate and I stayed up way too late trying to wrap presents and put the bike together.  (No Walmart doing it for you here!)  Those dang front brakes were not simple!  Since we didn't have TBS to play The Christmas Story for us over and over, we did it ourselves.  I think we got through it 3 (four maybe?) times.  But it was fun.

The kids were instructed to stay upstairs until we said they could go downstairs.  I slept late.  Hehehe.  But they obeyed, and waited patiently.  Nate made the kids close their eyes while coming downstairs.  They made it safely.

Stockings.

I wanted to get the kids real American bubble gum for their stockings.  So I went shopping online.  Amazon had lots of Bubblcious, but you have to buy bulk.  And there were so many flavors!  So I ended up getting like 150 packs of gum.  I accidentally bought some Bubble Yum too because I forgot to take it our of my cart.  They've been blowing a ton of bubbles. :)

Skyping with Grandpa.  He's holding Logan and Piper!  So fun.

Sidewalk chalk!

Aside:  That's the garbage cart in the back.  A couple guys come and pick up our trash 3 or 4 times a day.  They sort through it, and take it away.  It's strange.

Pogo stick!  Mads has been asking for a pogo stick for years.  Years!  I finally got him one.  The girls liked it too.  Mads wasn't able to get it right away, but he's awesome on it now.

Kinex!

Grandma sent a Charlie Brown book that recorded her voice reading it.  It is awesome.  The boys loved it.

Of course there was cooking!

I Am Surrounded By Dwarves

Nate had been reading The Hobbit to the kids, so we thought we'd take them to see the movie.  We went on Christmas Eve.  The kids were lucky because they were showing it in the premier theater.  So they got to experience the comfy seats.  They don't show kid movies in the premier.  And I know The Hobbit is not a kid movie either!  I saw the cut off head rolling across the ground!  It was a little more expensive than we thought it was because the Indonesian government decided THAT DAY that Christmas Eve was a holiday.  So we had to pay holiday prices.  Annoying, but not surprising.

We went to the new mall in Kemang.  It is 5 minutes away!  So nice.  And we had lunch before the movie.  We had fish and chips at Manhattan Fish Market.

Nate ordering drinks.  He likes getting a coke with lychee jellies.  This time he got a triple shot, and he got one for all of us.  We all loved it too. 

So excited!

On the escalator on the way home.

When we got home, we had some cheese fondue to continue our Christmas Eve dinner tradition.

And chocolate for dessert, of course.

We also do the traditional opening of one present before bed.  PJs.  Rhon is acting.  They are all fake surprised.  They knew what they were since they saw me making them.  I should probably try harder to be secretive, but who wants to lock themselves away and be alone sewing for hours?  I chose to hang out with the fam while I was doing it even if it spoiled the surprise.

I used batik fabric.  It's a special Indonesian method of making fabric.  It's everywhere.  Everyone wears it.  I thought that fabric looked Christmasy and batik-y.

It was a great day.  One of my favorites.

Four Calling Birds

Nate and I had a surprise for the kids, so we went to the mall.  Plaza Senayan.  The malls in Jakarta try to get a bit of the Christmas vibe by channeling the commercial side of it.  Outside the malls, it is pretty much nonexistent.  The malls don't do a great job.  In fact, most of it's pretty weird.  Especially this...

What?!!  Flying horned hyena?  With a long tail?  Oh man, we could not stop laughing at this thing, or figure it out.  Either way, it does not belong where kids wait in line to see Santa.  It's just freakish.

And here's Santa.  He looks less than thrilled.  And it looks like his wearing pjs.  And his helpers looked like they were wearing bath robes.  All hilarious.  I do love how tropical flowers are mixed in with the poinsettias.  It doesn't scream North Pole to me, but I like it.  See those men on the bottom left?  They were playing live music.  That is a common feature at the malls.  In fact, it is unusual when we go to a mall and there isn't anyone 'vocalizing' in a microphone. 

I bet your Santa doesn't wear Converse.

I snuck a picture of some boys sitting on Santa's lap.

As for our surprise...

We went to have dumplings!  You might not think that's a big deal, but my kids know it is.  They were so happy.  G said it was "the best day ever."  I think the kids could eat dumplings every day.  Which is good news since we are moving to Beijing.

Paradise Dynasty.  They serve pork dumplings unlike most other dumpling places.  It makes a difference, trust me.

That was December 22nd.

Boiled Down December

 December 9th

The primary kids acted out the nativity for the ward party.  Mads and G were shepherds.  They rocked Jedi robes and scrap fabric head scarves.  Dare and BA were angels, and Rhon was the innkeeper.  You would think that that role was boring, but she improvised.  It's never what you expect with Rhon.  Especially when it's a performance.

I did take pictures of the other kids, but since it was indoors and dark, they didn't turn out well.  This was just the best one.

December 14th

We had the sister missionaries over for dinner.  Missionaries always brings such a happy spirit into our home.  We were remembering when we did the oreo trick with the Elders in DC, so Dare tried it with a ginger snap.

We wanted to make it feel more like winter around here so we made lots of snowflakes.  And we hung them up.  It was fun.  Everyone made some, even the boys.  Theirs were some of the best ones.

On December 18th, I went out with the sister missionaries.  My experience really deserves a post of its own, but I may never get to it.  It was awesome.  Those girls are amazing.  Serving in Indonesia is probably extremely challenging.  I'm no authority, but it can't be easy.  But these girls represent the gospel better than anything/anyone I have ever witnessed.  So humbling, so inspiring.  I took a lot of pictures that day, but I loved this one the most.  When we were done, they were off to another appointment, and I grabbed a taxi to take me home.  I took this when I was driving off.

Onion Powder

November 22

Thanksgiving!  The kids had school, but I let them stay home.  Honestly, I think that's unique.  Most of the American kids still went to school that day.  I told the girls they could go if they wanted.  They all stayed home.  There was a really big rainstorm that day.  There was flooding and power outages.  I was glad we were all home, and we had nothing to do but cook all day.

Growing up, one of my favorite things about Thanksgiving was the vegetable tray.  That might sound weird, but I loved it.  It marked the beginning of a very special meal.  My mom also did a plate of pickles and olives, and more recently, added a fruit tray with fruit dip.  I have continued that tradition mostly for myself, but I am happy to say that my kids love it as much as I did (and do!).  In Jakarta, our vegetable/pickle/fruit tray looks pretty much the same as when I grew up.  The dip, however, is different.  We weren't able to buy a ranch dressing mix, so we have to make our own.  But it was wonderful nonetheless.

We cooked all the traditional foods.  Nate and I cooked for 9 hours.  Sounds crazy, but it was at a relaxed pace, and we had a good time.  I wish I could write more about that day, but I have forgotten.  Maybe I'll remember, or maybe it wasn't remarkable enough to remember.  :)