Chinese New Year and Xander's Field Trip

We recently celebrated Chinese New Year here in Singapore. It is the biggest holiday of the year here, mostly because the bulk of the population is of Chinese heritage. Joseph went to Chinatown with Xander's kindergarten class during the festivities and took some fun pictures that represent what we see all around us during the holiday. I thought I would post them because someday when we move away it will be fun to reminisce about the things that were so familiar to us at one time of our life.

Xander with his school buddies. He sure has a fun time at school and enjoys just about everything about it. The other day he was sick and was missing his first day of school this year. He was pretty distraught because he thought he would miss something fun.

We see a lot of dried meat stalls around CNY. I recently learned that it is because the Chinese do not want to use knives (bad luck) after the start of the new year so they buy dried meat to steam with rice.

Xander took this picture of Joseph. (That was pretty brave of Joseph to hand over his huge camera.) Joseph is standing next to a stand of pomelos--a sweet citrus fruit popular during CNY.

Burning sticks for ancestors--the smoke goes up to heaven and reaches them.

Chinese lanterns hang everywhere.

Cherry blossoms bring to mind springtime and new life. In China I think they bloom around CNY. I love this picture because of what Xander is wearing. He was so excited about the field trip and carefully picked these clothes the night before to wear (normally he wears a uniform to school but it was free dress for the field trip.) Plaid on plaid and just perfect.

Read and gold are the colors we see around us everywhere--they symbolize weath and prosperity.

A CNY delicacy. I used to know what it was made out of but I forgot.

I just love my happy, optimistic boy.
Shop houses in Chinatown.

Birthdays Galore

We celebrate quite a few birthdays in the Gordhamer household in the first two months of the year, beginning with Abigail on January 18. She turned 11 years old and got her own camera this year. In fact, I borrowed it to take this picture of her opening another present. She is sure growing up fast these days.


Not to far behind, on February 8 came Maggie, celebrating her 9th birthday. After her sister's birthday, she was very eager for her own. These two girls do a lot together and pretty much celebrate their birthdays together. Maggie really wanted an amethyst necklace and that is what she got this year. A girl after my own heart.



Joseph is just a week after Maggie, almost a Valentine's baby, on February 15. He is getting up there at 36 years. I asked him the day before his birthday what kind of cake he wanted. I must admit, I was hoping for something really simple (like brownies--just what he wanted last year.) Sadly for him, by the time his birthday rolls around I have had enough baking cakes and sweets. He wanted German Chocolate Cake. I have never made that before but I gave it a try. 9 eggs and 3 hours of my afternoon produced the masterpiece you see below: German Chocolate cake with coconut frosting all made from scratch. It really was delicious and a big hit with all the kids. They all had fun decorating the wrapping paper too.

Krabi, Thailand

It has been quite awhile since I posted anything and I need to catch up. In early January, we took a family trip to Krabi, Thailand. It is a coastal area in Southern Thailand with huge, limestone peaks famous for rock climbing. While we thought it a beautiful vacation destination, it was at times overwhelming with the little ones. Sometime on the first day, Joseph and I looked at each other and said something like, "this is it--no more southeast Asia family vacations for us." It is kind of a relief in a way because traveling with all the children is difficult and expensive.

Because our "resort" was on a peninsula with no roads, getting there was quite an adventure. (I use quotations because it tuned out to more of a twenty-something backpackers cabins and a 15 minute walk from the beach.) We took a car from the airport to the pier. Then we got on a boat with all the luggage and kids in tow to find that we couldn't approach the shore because it was low tide and swampy-like conditions. So when the boat stopped pretty far out, I really thought for a moment we would have to walk through it with the luggage somehow, but to our surprise a tractor with a trailer came out to rescue us.

The kids all had the amazing opportunity to do some climbing on the first day we were there. We hired a couple of guides with equipment and spent 4 hours climbing right off the shore. I had one short turn and that was enough for me. Joseph stayed longer with Abigail, Maggie and Xander. They all climbed multiple runs and did really well. Maggie is pictured below on her first run and Abigail as well on another part of the rock.

This was the view from the shore just behind where we were climbing. So you were either looking at the limestone or looking at this stunning scene. Juliet and Ella played in the water while we all took turns climbing.

Xander had a great time and put forth some good effort for a 5 year old. Below he is pictured repelling down a climb after he made it about half way up (the same one Maggie is doing in the picture above.)

And Abigail repelling down. I just thought this was such a cool picture I had to include it too.

Beach time is always fun. The beaches here were particularly nice because of the sand and the crystal clear water. The kids had fun digging holes, filling them with water and then trying to catch the little fish and sea jellies to put inside them.

Joseph in the water with the kids by Pranang Cave.The boat ride back--I just thought these were some nice pictures of Juliet and Xander.

And finally, we all went on a 1 hour elephant adventure, riding 3 elephants through a forest area and feeding them some pineapple. If you've ever wondered what it feels like to ride an elephant, it is very slow going and uncomfortable but definitely something to at least try once. The kids loved it though.

Christmas

We have had a busy and fun holiday season. It is over now and I need to relate the highlights of the month, but it seemed like only a week ago that I was setting up the tree and decorations while the kids were dancing around the house in such excitement. We have much to be grateful as we celebrate the birth of Christ and the close of an eventful year.

Maggie was in a Christmas play at the school, acting the part of an elf. I must admit she made a beautiful little elf, looking far older than her 8 years with stage makeup on. She is also pictured below with some friends in the ward, Caitlin and Lily Sloan, who came up to the school to see the performance.

Xander had a music concert with all the Kindergarten classes at SAS. His class performed the song "Santa Lucia" about the Swedish tradition of lighting candles at Christmastime. I guess it was fitting since our boy is more Swedish than anything else.

Gingerbread Houses for Activity Days with the girls .

Grandpa and Grandma Gordhamer came shortly after the school holiday began to celebrate Christmas with us (and to do a visa run for their mission in East Malaysia.) As is our tradition, we headed down to the busy Orchard Road to see the Christmas lights and get ice cream. Trying to keep up with 5 busy kids took all 4 of us adults. Fortunately, no one was lost for too long.

On Christmas Eve we went to an ice skating rink in a local mall not to far from our house. The kids were all excited to really go ice skating. The biggest challenge was coming up with enough warm clothes. Xander has church pants on, Ella is wearing PJ's, Abigail and Maggie pulled out their single pair of jeans and only sweatshirt. As you can see, Joseph didn't even try to wear something warm--a true Minnesotan.

Later that evening on Christmas Eve, we had our traditional Bethlehem dinner of lamb, lentil soup, olives, goat cheese, grapes, hummus and such. We try to make the night a time to think about Christ and his life. It is something the kids really look forward to each year. After dinner we had a small program reading the nativity story in Luke, singing carols, and then listening to Abigail and Maggie perform O Come All Ye Faithful on the cello and Silent Night on the harp.

Santa came through again this year and left lots of good things for the kids. We had a fun and lazy Christmas morning opening gifts and relaxing, followed by a Christmas dinner with Cami and her family (I wish I had a picture of that--oops.)

Last child in our family and the last one to celebrate a birthday each year, but certainly not least, Juliet turned 1 on December 26. She has lots of older siblings who love her and wanted to help out on her birthday. Her cake is individual cupcakes in the shape of a "1" in case you can't tell.

Ella Marie Birthday

Ella Marie turned 3 on November 30th. She was greatly anticipating her birthday for some time. I would often hear her singing at night in her bed "Happy Birthday." It is such fun when the kids get old enough to really understand holidays. Ella Marie is such a fun and special girl in our family, full of energy and life. She loves horses (seems to be a common thing in our family,) princesses and pink. She calls her dad "sweetie pie." And she wakes up every morning at 6:45. That's a new thing to adapt to as all my other kids have been big sleepers. I love my little girl and am grateful that she is in our family. She and I have one thing in common: we are both child #4 in our families.

Because she loves princesses so much, I had a fun time making her a castle cake to go along with the princess themed presents she got this year. It isn't perfect, but I was pretty impressed with what I was able to do a brief youtube tutorial on cake making.