Santa Claus is Coming to Penang!

Merry Christmas from Malaysia! There's still five days 'till Christmas and we've already had a whirlwind of fun!

We jump started our holidays with a celebration at our house with my staff and co-workers. Jennifer made lunch and we all played games and exchanged gifts. From left to right is Chloe, Joey, Catherine, Jennie, Jennifer, and me.

We did a Christmas gift exchange as part of the fun.

A few days later Craig had a special visitor at school! Here is the entire student body at St. Christopher's, all waiting for Father Christmas himself!

Santa made his grand entrance on a school bus this year. Here is Jennifer and her "elves" from the PTC with Santa's bus. The bus driver was absolutely thrilled to be transporting the Man in Red.

Santa Claus arrived to thundering cheers from all of the students!

All of the students got a chance to visit with Santa. Here is Craig and his Year 2 class with jolly old St. Nick.

Craig was sure to tell Santa that he wanted Harry Potter Legos for Christmas this year.

Here is one of Santa's official helpers with Jennifer and Craig. Can you guess who it is? Whoever he is, he's one handsome guy!

This week we put together gingerbread houses with some of our friends in Penang. Here is Craig with Katie (left) and Lauren (right) decorating their edible edifices. The bowls of candy were empty by the end of the night. I figure about half of the pieces actually made it onto a house.

We built four houses - one for Katie, one for Lauren, one for Craig... and one for Jennifer. Here is the happy little girl assembling her dream home with candy canes, gumdrops, and colored sprinkles (known as "hundreds and thousands" to our Aussie friends)

Craig was quite proud of his house, which wasn't really a house, but a place of business. He built a bank where Ebeneezer Scrooge and Bob Cratchit count their money. I guess we've let him watch A Christmas Carol a few times this year...

Here are all the houses in a row, just like a little gingerbread lane!

All the kids had a great time eating and decorating (and eating), especially these two!

We also had our 2nd annual Christmas Pageant with our little Penang Branch. Jennifer programmed the whole night and provided the music. This year's performance featured more characters, a guitar solo from a shepherd, and a Bach violin and piano prelude. We had a great time and really felt the Spirit of Christmas.

Merry Christmas everyone!