This Week

This week was not normal
Rather mind bending
But also somehow perfectly natural
We had playdates with friends from Canada!

A few short days spent on the beach
Or in their hotel mini water park
Too deep in adult talk and kid play
To take pictures - just like it used to be.

No trip to the market - the fridge is not empty enough
A meal or two out with friends
Unexplained "I'm not hungry"s
Leaving us with ample food supplies

After school activities resuming
After a long Christmas break
Squeezed in make up classes
For Chinese missed for friends

Simply The Story group meeting
Telling Samuel's story to each other
And youth cell group
Giving us late nights this week

AWANA also restarted
After another long break
So all these normal things
Feel off schedule

Next week a new after school activity schedule
Water fun, playground play
Calligraphy, spike ball
We've got a lot of getting used to to do!

And then, just starting to feel the rhythm of days
Chinese New Year will come
The nights will fill with fire crackers and fireworks
Day'll be free as another break begins!

Better Late than Never - Penang Christmas

A few things we did manage to do for Christmas despite being sick in varying degrees all holidays...

Lessons and Carols - a really great choir from KL joined a church here to lead us through this traditional service.  It was beautiful - made even more so as Mom and Dad got to go as a kind of date.

Our Church's Christmas Day celebration around finding the perfect gift.  Though the pictures are horribly blurry, they do show a few important things: the wise men's comedic yet profound play, and the children's christmas light costumed dance.

And, we did make it to the beach as planned, but we didn't stay nearly as long as expected, or get to much of what we'd dreamed of, as that day Dad was so sick he stayed in the hammock most of the time. Still, we managed to give Aiden his requested 2nd-ever beach baseball game!

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A Tiny Sliver of Our Christmas

We were all sick for Christmas, but we did manage to have some celebrations last week, but this is likely the highlight:

Jasmin worked on this for months to give as a present to grandparents.  It blesses way more than the few intended recipients!