From one holiday to the next..

I finally got around to taking my Christmas decorations and tree down yesterday.  I love Christmas and usually put it up early, this year it was before Thanksgiving, and then leave it up awhile after as well.  I was ready to take it down and get the house back to normal again.  So yesterday in the morning our house looked like this:

And by afternoon it was all put away and it looked like this:

Ok, so it's not back to normal, but we've moved on to the next holiday...Chinese New Year/Valentine's Day.  Chinese New Year is the first few days of February this year and Valentines is soon after...so I combined the 2 in my decor...We don't celebrate Chinese New Year...except have 2 days off of work for Jeremy...and Valentine's Day isn't huge here...but I want my kids to have memories of different holidays.  Since the more american holidays aren't really celebrated all that much here, I'm trying to do whatever I can to give my kids a feeling of what the holiday is supposed to be like.  So...I try to do different crafts and activities that lend themselves to the holidays...

So, soon we'll be getting out the red and pink paper soon and the heart cookie cutters and getting down to having fun...I'll keep you posted with what we do...In the meantime, here's some shots of some simple decor from around the house...it's mostly for Valentine's Day, just the cherry blossoms are for Chinese New Year, but I thought they went well with the heart decor...and they have a springy feel!! (We don't have seasons here either..so I gotta make it feel whatever season it is..it gets tricky sometimes!!)

Hope you're having fun thinking about the ones you love, and how you're going to celebrate Valentine's Day!!

Fun time with Grandpa & Grandma Hook!!!

My parents came to visit us for 2 weeks, arriving the week before Christmas, and just New Years Day morning.  We had a great time together making memories and having fun!!!

We did a variety of things, one of the favorites was going to see the 'snow' here in Singapore.  No, it doesn't get cold enough to snow here...not anything even close to it...but we do have 'snow'...in the form of bubbles.  =) There's a mall downtown that has snow machines set up outside every year and it's quite an affair.  Every evening at 7:30 the snow machines blow bubbles into the sky making it then fall down looking almost exactly like snow.  It's actually quite amazing...and all the kids, and adults, love it!!! =)

We also took went to the zoo, the botanical gardens, went 'fishing' and went to one of the reservoirs here...We played games at home, ate, talked, and generally just had a good time together.  I am so thankful for family...both the one I grew up in, and the one I am now raising.  What a blessing it is!!!

Merry Christmas...a little late...oh well...

Well, Christmas has come and gone and it's now 12:08 am on New Years Day over here in Singapore.  It's a weird thought that we are in 2011 now but all my friends in the states are still in 2010...that just messes with my mind!!!

We had a great Christmas here with many exciting things taking place.  A week before Christmas, my parents arrived here in Singapore to celebrate their first Christmas with us here in Singapore since we moved here 9 1/2 years ago.  We had a great time before Christmas, on Christmas, and after Christmas.  They leave early in the morning to fly back to Seattle.  The kids have had a great time having Grandma and Grandpa here with us and Jeremy and I have as well.  It was nice to have them here with us during Christmas. =)

Christmas Day we were up at our church in JB having our first outreach.  It was a huge success and so fun.  We had over 130 adults and over 40 kids there...we usually run about 50 adults and 4 kids...so it was much bigger than normal and everyone had a lot of fun.  Everyone hung around for awhile after the service and talked together.  We are expecting great things to come from it, even this coming Sunday.  Will keep you updated!!

We came back late afternoon Christmas day, to Singapore and we opened our presents then.  We were all so tired, but had a good time and Megan appointed herself the present opener...of everyone's presents!!!  She would just grab one and open, grab and open...haha...we all didn't mind and we just enjoyed the time together....

We had a great Christmas...hoping you all did too...