December already?

Time is flying by and my baby is 14 this Friday and Christmas is almost here and that same baby I mentioned earlier is now wearing high heels and is almost my height AND gulp...(breath), we're heading into holidays next week.
Nice.

This year, for Christmas, we're not heading anywhere.  We've got 2 days planned "for sure" for the 3 weeks we have off, and the first is heading into the mountains (Bandung) for one day, and spending another reading ALL DAY in our living room (just like camping).  Besides that, we're really not sure.  This is our first Christmas we'll spend in our Indonesian hometown: we've been in Lombok, Bali, and last year, Bavaria (Germany), and so it will be nice to stick close to home.  The house has been decorated for about 2 weeks now and we're full swing into the holiday theme.  I still say that one of the best gifts anyone has ever given me is the 'Yule Tide Log' dvd that just plays a burning log on the tv screen.  My parents brought it the first year we were here and it's become a "Canadian tradition" ever since.

One more week of school for Tris and the kids, then we'll decide what to do.
I've been waiting to say this, and it doesn't get said often in this nation...
MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Christmas in Germany

How do you describe a 3 week trip in one blog post? Even two? My shortest description of our Christmas trip this year is: cold, white, and full. This December, after months of anticipation, we packed our bags and headed to Germany. Hauzenberg, Germany, to be exact. That's the little village where Tris' sister, Jen, her husband Christian, and their two boys, Tristian and Nathaniel live. Our goal wasn't to see Europe, but to visit with our family, to get to know our nephews better, and to see how our European branch of the family lives. It had been years since we saw each other, but as it goes with ones you love, as soon as we got there it felt like time just melted away. Of course the boys had grown, and to Jen, my own children had been stolen away and replaced by a tall, lanky, young man and a thin, curly-haired thirteen year old with a contagious laugh.

Our journey began and, thankfully, ended uneventfully. The potential for closed airports,

lost luggage and uncooperative weather bypassed us, although when we arrived we heard that many others weren't so lucky. Mostly we stayed around the village, shopped around and drove to outlying shops and areas of interest. One of our local favourites was the museum, which is in a castle overlooking Passau (the nearest city) and 3 rivers, with the main one being the Danube. Another was the main Catholic Church in Passau, where we saw the kinds of ceilings and windows that people from Canada don't actually see without stepping onto an airplane and flying for hours.

We did spend a day in Salzburg, Austria where we went to Mozart's cafe (next to his birthplace) and to a Christkindlmarkt, or an outdoor Christmas market. One other afternoon we drove inside the Czech Republic, where we went to an outdoor market and then went to lunch. It was very interesting to compare the differences between these two places with Germany, although all three were similar in that they were COLD.

One of our favourite family days was when all 8 of us piled onto the train and headed to Munich. This is where Tris was born and it was kind of fun to go and take photos in front of the hospital where it all started for him.

We visited a huge palace (too big to be called a castle) as well, and went into old Munich (Marianplatz). Because of the weather so many things were closed, so our hope is to return in the summertime. However, what other time of the year can you slide on a frozen canal than in the dead of winter??

I think that the best thing that we did, though, was to just hang out in the living room and kitchen, staring out the window at the snowy, white world outside, usually drinking something (tea, coffee or beer were the main choices). At one point all four kids were on the floor in the kitchen, cuddled up in the corner. Not sure why THAT spot, but maybe that's where the sun was shining at the time:) For our family, it was fun to have younger kids around; we'd forgotten how much life 7 and 9 year olds have. Matthew was quite the hero...some mornings the boys would run out of their room and say "where's Matthew??" before even a good morning. They love Abby but unfortunately, she's the "girl cousin" and you know what they say..."birds of a feather..."

Coming back to Indonesia was a sad time for us, because we know that with school and work schedules in the 3 different countries (Germany, Indonesia and Canada) our paths may not

cross in person for a long time. We feel really blessed that we were able to go and stay with Jen and Christian and the boys, and to experience an authentic German Christmas Eve (and we had a Canadian Christmas morning, too!), lots and lots of delicious Bavarian food and drink, and to spend time with our family.

Thanks for reading.

ps. we're unable to post a lot of photos on blogspot, but if you'd like to see more, there's a bunch in my facebook albums.

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.

One More Day of School & Baby Update

Tomorrow is the end of the 2009 school year and parents (and grandparents!) are invited to watch the All School Assembly tomorrow. Tris, Matt and Abby each will participate in the program; last year I sang in the choir but this year passed on the opportunity. Tris is singing in the teacher choir, Matt is dancing hip hop, and Abby is in the Junior School choir. Once they're home, they get almost 3 1/2 weeks of holidays off of school.

Our little baby boy update is a good one. He is still in the hospital and has to stay there until he gains weight; he has to reach 3 kilos before heading home. Once home his parents will have to create as sterile an environment as possible when changing him and tending to his medical needs. Over the next year he'll have to have 2 more surgeries, each one dependent again on his weight gain. Please continue to pray for him. His parents are aware that many people are praying for their son.

Tris and Sunny have been here 6 days now and have been having a healthy blend of "busy and rest." We've gone to some slums and met some beautiful women and children, they've had massages (only once...gotta get them back soon!), and shopped for Christmas at both a local outdoor market and at the local mall. Sunny joined me and the ladies at our Wednesday bible study today, and tonight all of the family went to our favourite local Chinese food restaurant ("Eastern").We've toured the school and although it's big, they've got a pretty good grasp of where to go to at least get to the pools. We have some travel plans in the future and I am PRAYING that my camera will be fixed very, very soon. Yesterday we literally had a day of rest, where mostly we just stayed home and relaxed during the day. Sometimes that's very necessary, and it was a good thing.

Nothing much else to report. I hope that those at home are taking advantage of the snow, enjoying the cool, fresh crispness that you just don't get here, and are gearing up for a joy-packed, if not relaxing, Christmas season.

Thanks for reading.

He's Here!!!

Fisher Hayes Saxby, 7 lbs, 4 oz, arrived December 7, at around 6:30 pm. Hello Fisher! Mommy Tanya called my little brother (her husband) around 4 pm to say she was pretty sure she was in labour, and in a few short hours later (short for me...I wasn't there and didn't find out until it was over!) Fisher arrived. I've seen photos and I'm not sure it was Tanya who gave birth....she doesn't look like she'd just had a baby. Lucy and Elijah are over the moon, and now Eli thinks it's time for a dog. He's a little confused as well, because the baby came home today and Elijah wasn't sure why his parents weren't putting baby Fisher in the high chair to eat. This is gonna be good!

Last year I had only lived here for 5 months before Christmas arrived, and it was our first Christmas away from home. Although my parents were here, we weren't here on Christmas Day, and things were chopped up. This year I am feeling more settled and as much as I love and miss Canada, I can now call this place home, at least while we are here. It was so much easier to "create" the holiday season and today was the best day yet. I had our bible study girls over and when they arrived, the Christmas tree lights were on, the yule tide log was on the tv (gotta have a fire at Christmas time!!) and the smell of mulled apple cider was wafting through our house. Poinsettias scream Christmas, and so the one I have on the side table pulled "the look" together for me. Our place is small and we don't need many decorations; if I was to buy many more it would be too stuffed in here. The very best part of this party for me was singing Christmas carols. Music pierces the heart, and when you sing songs that you've sung with loved ones over the years, or at least listened to them on cds, tapes and even records years back, it hits hard. Not painfully, but emotionally. I admit that my own tears accompanied a few other ladies' tears as well. Not loud ones, just Silent Ones.

I am thankful. I am healthy, I am where I am supposed to be living in this point of my life, my family is strong and content, my in-laws are on their way over, and baby Fisher has arrived safely. God is good!

Thanks for reading.

Countdown for the Whites' Arrival!

Happy Birthday to Grandpa Tris, who we will be seeing in only 4 more days! Our family is excited, anticipating the arrival of both Tris' parents and of Christmas. Christmas is just so much better with family. We're off to Bali while they're here and are looking forward to relaxing in the sun.

We are also patiently awaiting the news of the arrival of our new niece or nephew. As before, we are wondering if this one will be a redhead like his/her pretty mom. Tanya, my baby brother's wife, was due December 2nd and is still waiting on this little one. Elijah and Lucy are eagerly awaiting baby's arrival as well, although it's a toss up between the dog ("Muddy") that Elijah seems to think he's getting next summer, and the new baby. Being the talker that he is, I'm looking forward to hearing Elijah's stories of baby's first few days home. Six year old Lucy will be good for filling in the gaps that four year old Elijah leaves out.

Christmas here is definitely different. Although it's becoming more so in North America, here Jesus is not typically see as the reason for the season. There are trees, carols in the malls, tinsel and decorations, but very few "Merry Christmas's" and those only from foreigners. I did see Santa tonight, sitting in a horse-drawn sleigh, making his rounds of each gated neighbourhood. Mostly he was authentic, but rather "brown" to North American standards. I think he was a little overdressed for the heat as well, but he had the nice round belly all Santas need to jiggle while they laugh. As of yet there have been no nativity scenes on front lawns. I am looking forward to the grade 6 Christmas concert this Friday afternoon, and then another all-school one next week. My Moms' bible study will meet here this Wednesday and we'll have some mulled cider, exchange cookies and even sing some carols around the piano. Now THAT'S celebrating Christmas:)

If I have ever had need of prayer, it's now. My camera died and is in the shop, and everyday I see things I NEED to photograph, like the naturally-occuring heart shape in a tree on main street, or the old bicycle leaning on a palm tree. We have no idea when it'll get fixed and I am feeling desperate to have it for when Tris and Sunny are here.

As for celebrating, I also want to wish my mom and dad a happy 44th anniversary (again, I am so bad at math! Please forgive me if I'm wrong) for last Friday, 4th of December. Thanks for being the example of a good, strong Christian marriage.

Thanks for reading, and
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Christmas has made its way into our home

We have successfully produced a feeling of Christmas in our home. The plastic tree is up, complete with sometimes blinking, sometimes solid white Christmas lights, some favourite Christmas decorations brought from home, and new decorations to fill in the gaps. This year's purchase: teal balls. I noticed that our tree has a rather "red" theme and so the teal really breaks it up. Very pretty. Very small. In fact, I can look our beautiful German Angel right in the eyes. As for baking, the smell of "Nonnie's Almond Tarts" is filling the air, and the sugar cookie and gingerbread doughs are cooling and hardening in the fridge as I type. Earlier Bing was singing about bells ringing and it was quite the treat. The banister is green with, well, greenery, and I have even been able to squeeze some more cinnamon scent out of the pine cones mom and dad brought over last year. Last June, thinking in advance, I bought some cinnamon sticks which I have now spread throughout the pine cones. Looks woodsy, if not Christmasy.

With the decorations, as expected, come the emotions of the season. Today is my nana's birthday and each year a tear or two squeezes out as I go about my day, remembering her. I think of her sitting on her green couch, under her lamp, crocheting while watching tv, usually with a really fat poodle-type dog either at her feet or at her side. Either that, or Nana standing in her kitchen, either over the sink or next to the oven. I remember things like Alphaghettis, vanilla pudding pops, home made raisin pie, or even better, home made bread. In honour of Nana on her birthday, I am baking in one of the aprons mom brought me from home. I'm not sure if she made it, but it was Nana's at one time. It's amazing how much you can miss someone even when they've been gone for over a decade. I often wonder if I ask God, if He'd pass on a message to her and tell her I love her and miss her? No harm in trying.

***Those first two paragraphs were written a few hours ago. Since then I joined a friend and headed to the plant store on the side of the road. I bought one hanging plant and two varigated bush type plants that will go in some wall pots (one side of the pot is flat so you can hang it on the wall). I am covered in sweat from drilling holes for screws into a cement wall. It took me about 45 minutes to hang the potted plant, which isn't unusual with cement walls. Seems to be about the average! I am going to go to the school for a swim and then when I return, I'll turn on the Christmas tree, put on some Bing (or maybe Ella Fitzgerald for tonight) and try and recreate the ambiance I had earlier when the smell of Christmas baking was floating through our home.

More Christmas to come...

Thanks for reading.

Water, Air and Popcorn

Not sure what to write about except that we're all doing well and are staying healthy. Aunt Sam left last Monday morning and we're slowly getting back to our routines (not like we swayed too far out of them while she was here, though). Yesterday I had the opportunity to go to a huge shopping area (cheap prices, cheap items) in Jakarta and bought a Christmas tree. We have absolutely no storage for a fake tree, but you can't have Christmas without a tree, and it was high on the kids' priority list of things we needed this year. Last year we borrowed, but that opportunity hasn't surfaced yet. Now that we have it, we're all ready to decorate it...but we realize we should probably wait until at least after our "International Thanksgiving Family Potluck" on Nov 27. After that it's officially allowed.

While I was in this shopping area, I kept thinking "Sam would love that shirt" or "Sam would have loved this ...[whatever it was]..." and thinking she should have stayed a little longer. That thought changed when this morning, at 5:30, the power went out and stayed off until approximately 4:30 pm. I kept thinking all day "I'm so glad Sam's not here to experience this!" Thankfully outside it wasn't as hot as it can sometimes be, AND we were able to spend the day in the mall. We ate lunch, ate frozen yogourt, watched "This Is It!", the Micheal Jackson movie about his "This Is It!" tour rehearsals. I don't particularly like Micheal Jackson, but I was quite impressed by the movie and what an incredible performer he was. It would have been some concert.

Tris spent the day in Jakarta and we all returned home at around the same time. I went out again to a second mall in search of a bigger air bed for our next set of guests, Tris and Sunny, to sleep on. It's our dream to one day have a regular bed, but an air bed it'll have to be in the meantime. After much searching, a bed was found, and my friend Amy and I also found a Dairy Queen/Orange Julius! Needless to say, date night at Orange Julius is on the dating roster. How romantic!

Last night was interesting. Tris and I got into the pool around 5 pm, with some dark clouds looming. Storms here come in fast sometimes, and after just a few laps I popped my head out just as lightening flashed and within only a few short seconds, thunder followed. Tris was waving to me " get OUT of the pool!" and we were out before the next flash. We had originally planned on walking home, but the lightening and thunder were on top of each other and so we didn't want to become roasting sticks. A very kind staff member took pity on us and drove us home. The storms here are awesome, there's no other word for it. I think next time I see dark clouds like that I'll just choose the gym, or even better, a movie and popcorn at home.

Thanks for reading.