Happy New Year 2010

Wow, life just keeps on going even when you don't blog:) Since my last posting we've crammed a lot of "holiday" into our days, starting with Christmas events around town and school, on to Bali and the little island of Lembongan, home again and then a few nights in the mountains at Puncak. Tris and I head into Jakarta for a one night's stay tonight (it's his birthday on Sunday) and school starts on Monday. This is our last week with Tris and Sunny and so we will be slowly easing ourselves into routine once again.

It was Abby's 12th birthday on December 18 and as you can see, she's no baby girl anymore. We're thoroughly enjoying both Matt and Abby as they grow and mature. It

is hard to see my babies grow up but such a joy to see them making their own decisions and

choosing their own style (even if it's not skirts for Abby like I'd like), and watching them test out their personal style of humour and of communication. What is weird is when we see a little of Tris and I in them. I watch Matthew gesticulate (that was the word of the day yesterday on igoogle...) and think...that's my mom...that's ME! Watching Grandpa Tris and (my) Tris walk side by side, each with their hands in their beige short pockets, kind of leaning forward into the nonexistent wind, inspires me to have Matthew walk over to them to ask them a question. In him I see the same walk, the same posture, and it makes me grin.

Abby looks so much like her dad (so much so that my automatic face recognition program in my mac confuses Abby and Tris when Abby's hair is pulled back), and has a sharp, witty sense of humour that is her own, but we can see it 'tainted' with both Tris and my sarcasm and perspective on life. Like I said, we're enjoying watching them mature, whatever the pace may be.

I'll give the highlights of our last

month. Tris and Sunny arrived Dec 11th and in our first week we visited a slum area with Kara

waci Ladies, watched my husband and kids perform at the school Christmas concert (and yes, it was called a Christmas concert...no harvest celebrations here), shopped in a local market, had cookies and tea--lots of tea--and rested. On the following Saturday we headed to Bali, where, on

the first day, we met the Comrie family at Waterbom (waterslides).

After sliding and sleeping all day we headed to Laguna Spa and Resort. Very, very nice. We stayed there over Christmas and although we didn't officially celebrate Christmas there (that was Jan 30th for us) we did invite the Comries and Carla (Judy's sister)

to join us for an incredible Christmas breakfast buffet at our hotel. The photo of Matthew feeding a squirrel shows what our location at this hotel was like. We could choose from 8 different swimming pools, or we could wander down to the beach and swim or sleep. The hut in the left hand corner is a massage hut, which was really tempting, but after our $5 massages here in Lippo, we couldn't bring ourselves to pay the asking $70. After six days of eating, sleeping, reading, swimming and chatting over tea (always tea), we headed to Lembongan Island, one I've mentioned before in July's postings.

Our stay at Lembongan was very different from Laguna Resort, but wonderful just the same. One day the kids and I walked 20 minutes into the interior village and bought some water at a small outdoor, family-owned shop. Instead of drinking down the water and walking on, we got to chatting with one of the sons of the shop owner and in turn met his two children. They didn't know much English so we were able to practice our Indonesian. Eventually a small group of village boys came along with a few English instruction books and a child's dictionary, so we went over the words with them and had an impromptu English-Indonesian language class.

Definitely a highlight for me.

The next day all six of us walked down to the lower, seaside part of the village. Here a bunch of local kids were swimming in the rising tide, splashing and laughing right up to the moment four white (some whiter than others) foreigners jumped into the ocean with them. It was then that the laughing stopped, for a moment, while the kids stared at my family (minus me, the photographer) and my mom in law (Tris Sr. watched, too). Once

the kids got over the shock, they went back to what they were doing, and some even warmed up to Abby and Sunny enough to chat with them. After most of the gang climbed out, Tris sat

down among a bunch of boys lined up along the ledge of a house and began to chat with them, again using his Indonesian. Just prior to him sitting down, I took a photo of these boys,

but didn't pay much attention. Check out the greeting the middle kid is giving me (middle finger salute). It was actually this same "friendly" kid who did most of the talking to Tris once he sat down. Again, another highlight. This time, I didn't do any talking, but it was neat to watch the interaction between my family members and the local kids. It was neat to hear Tris

speaking Indonesian as well.

After four days on Lembongan we took a small boat to Bali, got picked up by a transport van and then flied home. I have to admit that arriving home to a decorated house when Christmas has come and gone definitely sinks the emotions

for a bit. However, I determined to celebrate Christmas as typically as possible. Once next morning's breakfast of pancakes, bacon, sweet potato and eggs was on the table, presents were unwrapped and stacked in various corners, and Bruce Cockburn's Christmas cd was playing a Huron Christmas Carol (as well as other Christmassy tunes), it felt like Christmas, if only for a few hours. I must admit, once the dishes were finished, courtesy of our helper Ami....hallelujah for Ami and not having to wash up the Christmas morning dishes ourselves...I tackled the decorations and had the place back to normal by 3 in the afternoon.

It was Sunny's (mom in law) birthday on the 4th and we celebrated by taking her and Tris Sr. to the Marriott international buffet. The food was incredible and we had a lot of fun. Sunny thoroughly enjoyed celebrating her birthday this way. On her actual birthday we went and watched Avatar in 3d. Interesting movie.

Since then, we've had some quiet days, lots of reading and eating again, and then we headed to Puncak. We spent 2 nights in the mountain villa, accompanied by our neighbours (and fellow SPH teachers) the Mercer family. It's the first time we've spent 2 nights up there and so it was nice to have one full day to explore, and explore we did. We found a 200 ft waterfall that we had to hike in to see, and it was so refreshing and breezy and cold! Minus the palm trees and huge vegetation, it was a little taste of home.

That brings us up to date, with the exception of the news that I'm officially a university student (after 17 years) again. A very scary but

thoroughly exciting thought. Talk about procrastination...I thought, prayed, cried (seriously), almost threw up from anxiety a couple of times I'm sure, and finally decided that it was time to stop mulling it over and just do it. Now it's paid and I'm enrolled and there's no turning back. Along with this decision came a wonderful Macbook Pro laptop that I'm

typing on right now and LOVING it. There are a few quirks to figure out, but time and other people's knowledge (DALE!) will get me by.

This posting will have taken some time to get through, but I have time and the means to write so I thought I'd get in as much as possible. Now I'm off to Jakarta on a golf club hunting date with my husband (surfing is a thing of the past...). To be left-handed in Indonesia is very unique (it's the 'dirty' hand in this culture) and so Tris, a lefty, is having difficulty buying clubs. We'll check out a few stores and then spend the night in the city.

Thanks for reading.