Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells :~)

Thanksgiving is gone and soon it will be CHRISTMAS :~) I LOVE Christmas :-) :> We had our friends over for Thanksgiving dinner, Mack and Christina - They are from Sweden. Because Thanksgiving is not a holiday here, we ate at 8PM after everyone's full work day -- Christina says living in a country like Singapore allows you to celebrate holidays and customs from many countries! what fun! :) They have 4 kids, with the youngest, Michael, on a mission in Belgium -- two of their kids were born in London and 2 in Sweden - what a crazy, fun family - and they both (C & M) love karaoke (some great party pals for daddy when I'm gone :)




Before Thanksgiving, Dad had brought home some deep fried bugs from China -- AND SARAH ATE THEM! oh GROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!
It wasn't enough that she ate 1 - she ate three (puke!)-- a wasp larvae, a grub, and a grasshopper. I almost passed out watching her and getting these pictures. There is NO WAY I am EVER!! going to eat a bug! She didn't say they tasted like chicken - nope - they taste like fried nothings -- but still -- the thought -- nope, not for me :( I gotta tell ya - heating them up in the microwave leaves such a disgusting smell in the house -- open the windows, please :(

Sarah and I will fly back to Virginia on December 11th, just in time for Emily's newborn baby girl and Christmas -- Colonial Williamsburg, here I come :~)

Did anyone do the Thanksgiving Day Skit?? Love to hear about it, 'k?

THANKSGIVING DAY SKIT - Yum! Yum!

HI!! Gobble gobble :) Here is a really fun and cute and quick little skit to do before or after dinner (but hopefully not during, because it might cause a mess :) We did it at a Stake Relief Society Enrichment Thanksgiving Dinner with ladies from many nations. Great fun!

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There are 8 parts, but they can be combined if there aren't 8 people available (# 8 is actually to be played by everyone, anyway) Example: # 1 Settler -- when SETTLER is said, that person would stand up and shout "DAVEY CROCKETT" while saluting like an officer. The other parts are done in like manner.

There is one reader. Practice each assigned part first, then as you start slowly, increase until it gets faster and faster! Such fun!


~~~ A FRONTIER THANKSGIVING ~~~

# 1 -- SETTLER -- "DAVEY CROCKETT!" (stand up and salute)
# 2 -- GUN -- "BANG! BANG! (2 quick shots with hand)
# 3 -- DOG -- "MAN'S BEST FRIEND!" (wag arm)
# 4 -- TURKEY -- "GOBBLE! GOBBLE!" (flap arms like wings)
# 5 -- CABIN -- "SHUT THE DOOR!" (action of slamming a door)
# 6 -- FRONTIER -- "WAY OUT WEST!" (spread arms wide)
# 7 -- INDIAN -- "GERONIMO!" (pull 'bow' like shooting an arrow)
# 8 -- THANKSGIVING -- "YUM! YUM!" (Everyone pats tummy)

Here is the skit:

~~Early one THANKSGIVING morning, many, many years ago on the old FRONTIER, a SETTLER stood before his lonely CABIN with his trusty GUN and faithful DOG ready to hunt the TURKEY he needed for dinner, hoping no INDIANS would spoil his feast.
~~Whistling to his DOG, the SETTLER shouldered his GUN and started down the forest trail. Meantime, the INDIAN, also with a DOG, came down the forest trail from the other direction.
~~Just at that moment a fat TURKEY flew between them.
~~Out flew an arrow, off went the GUN, down fell the TURKEY, in bounded the DOGS, up rushed the INDIAN and the SETTLER. "It's mine!", claimed the SETTLER. "Ugh--him mine!", said the INDIAN. "Grrrrr!", snarled the DOGS.
~~The noise of the argument shook the CABIN and awoke the whole FRONTIER. But the TURKEY, who was only stunned, took off unsteadily and flew in the open door of the CABIN where it was promptly captured by the INDIAN and the SETTLER and the DOGS.
~~And thus, THANKSGIVING came to a lonely CABIN on the old FRONTIER.

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Hope you have fun with this. Who knows, maybe it will become a family tradition! You might even want to dress up for each part - be creative with the simple, 1 piece costumes. It moves pretty fast!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and may God bless you all with health, happiness and love throughtout the holidays and all year long!

Update** A Day in the Life of ..... me :)

You will notice that I'm wearing the same outfit....that is typical -- really, all day, unless I don't exercise, and then I'm in my PJ's. I promise, I get cleaned up and changed if I have to go somewhere, though :) My knitting is making beanies for preemies - a church service project. I read something everyday -- scriptures, novels and self-help books -- usually all 3 :) I do some kind of cleaning everyday - and I get the most is done the same day the maid is here - she inspires me. Her name is Lala (short for Lalang), she is Philippina and lives with her 3 sisters. They send most of their money home for their families there. Lala is married with 3 children, who all live back in the Philippines.

New part ~~ [[Sometimes I go out with friends for lunch or shopping - but all except 1 of my best friends has moved away, and she works almost every day, so I am on my own most of the time. Occasionally I travel out of Singapore - I've been to Perth, Australia; Edinburgh, Scotland; Malaka, Malaysia; Bangkok, Thailand; a little island that is part of Indonesia called Bintan; and "home", of course, several times. There are still a couple of places I'd like to visit in China - the Great Wall & the Forbidden City in Beijing and the Terracotta Soldiers in Xi'an. That's all...travelling has become more of a chore for me than an enjoyment. At least as far as Asia is concerned, picture books and movies are cleaner. I guess I hope that I can afford to see more of my own country after I move back. There are lots of places I still would like to see and experience. We have a spectalularly beautiful country! Having Sarah here has been really wonderful, because she keeps me inline :-) and I can talk and interact with another human during the day. Plus, I get to know my 'baby' much better - we have lots of fun just sitting and stitching and talking.]]

I play with 'my' baby :) and even change her diaper sometimes ;)

I read some, knit while watching TV and even do some cross stitching - Sarah got me going on this again - I used to do 'mountains' of counted cross-stitching.

I do some dishes and laundry most days ;)

It's "Christmas stocking season" - I make at least 30 (to sell & give away) and one year I made 91 !! I listen to Christmas music downloaded to my desktop - which is in this room, too :)

I pay the maid :) :) on Monday's :) :) They fog the outside grounds about 4 times a month

I try to exercise & Sarah keeps me doing it ;)

Rainy Season, news and pictures -- an update :)

Finding wild monkeys on an outing.

Where am I :) hehe

My first Halloween ;) so cute :-)

Papa had to wear monkeys for his Birthday

That means it's 'cooler' -- if 85' in November seems cooler to you :~) haha! no, but really, the daily and nightly rains do cool things down..............but it also means that there's much more moisture in the air! and my poor, old aircons can't take it. I have 6 aircons in 5 rooms, and right now 2 of them leak excess water constantly.......so I have to put buckets and towels under them to catch the water. I do need to call my aircon guys for service, but I'm so used to just putting up the pots, that I forget ;-). It's just part of living on the Equator in an old building :~)

It's really sad here, too. They are tearing down all (well, not all, but you understand it is MANY!) the old smaller but beautiful buildings to make room for all-new and ugly high rises - they WANT to have 2.5 million more people to move to Singapore (mind you, this country is only 12 x 24 miles and there's already more than 4 million people here - phew!) The problem with all this is 2-fold -- the people that lived in these now torn down buildings had to move, obviously ;( and there's really no where for them to go - lots of them were older retirees - not many new buildings are up yet and it's too expensive for most of them. And the owners of each individual flat (apartment) have raised the rents 50-150% - ours went up 50% - from $3000/mo to $4500/mo. I know this sounds crazy, and it is, but we live on a centrally located area, and we have a CHEAP cheap cheap rent for the street. Most are $8000 and above!! The government has finally seen it necessary to put a stop to the gouging of prices, but it's too little too late, I think. It's awful.

In the meantime, housing and particularly house SELLING in the USA has bottomed out at an all-time low in more than 16 years. So we need to do the work to upgrade our home (electiric and plumbing need serious work), refinance before July 2008 (we're on an ARM - ouch!) and then, possibly sell it - depending on where Bryan can find work when we return.

Evoly is getting soooooooo big - 15 lbs now !! She's 3 months old. She can hold her head up really steady now, and push herself up on her elbows when she is on her tummy. She laughs alot and is in 'love' with a Japanese Crane wall hanging I have. Sarah has put it down in Evoly's baby book that these birds are her 'first friend' . I will give them to her so she understands about that in later life :~) It's really cute - when she is crying and upset, all she has to do is "see" the birds on the wall, and she smiles and coos - so funny! I don't know what she likes about them - they are pretty realistic looking - not 'cartoony', but they are pretty - the black & white cranes with the bright red head crowns.

I'll post some current pictures soon - I'm on my laptop and all the pictures are on the desk top -- my computer is so new, that some older cameras don't download to Vista! What a pain! Anyway, 'see' you all soon -- comments, emails, and IM's are always welcome :~) ta ta