The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

It is always tough being away from family and old friends during the holidays, especially at Christmas. Luckily, we have great friends in Singapore and we had a great Christmas! Christmas Eve was spent with our friends from Tech/Houston, Jake and Maryl, who moved to Singapore this year. The night was filled with good food and drinks, many laughs and a tribute performance of MJ's 'Man in the Mirror'...I guess you had to be there. :-)

Fun on the balcony.

Singapore skyline behind us.

Christmas Day was spent with other friends, Christina and Thomas, who we met shortly after moving to Singapore. Again, lots of great food, laughs, football and a long game of UNO in which neither Ryan nor I came out the winner. I reailized that I have never really played UNO the correct way....it can get pretty intense!



Thomas carving the ham

The girls playing clenan up.

Kayla's new game that the adults had way more fun with.
You play it like JENGA! So fun!

We really had a great weekend! Below are some pictures of Christmas around Singapore.

This is a mall in Singapore the week before Christmas.
And you thought your malls were crowded! Ha.

The next group of pictures are of the Fairmont Hotel's lobby. This is probably my favorite tree and it's real so when you walk through the lobby it smells and looks like Christmas!



Below is the beautiful and historic Raffles Hotel. This hotel is 120 years old and you truly feel like you are stepping into history when you enter. Friday night we went and listened to a choir sing Christmas Carols to kick off Christmas weekend and get us in the spirit.


The theme for Orchard Road (the main shopping area in Singapore) was 'Christmas Blooms in Singapore', hence all of the flowers. My pictures really don't do it justice. You can see my post of Orchard Road from last year here. The theme is different every year and there is never a duplicate decoration. It is pretty amazing to see and really helps get you in the Christmas spirit!

We hope your Christmas was filled with lots of family, friends, food and fun!



Our Life in Boxes

105 boxes to be exact.

The packing took one and half days and the loading took another half day. The rain gave a slight delay but everything was loaded and our things will be on the way to the UK this week.

When we moved from Houston to Singapore, our belongings only filled about 25% of a 20ft shipping container and as you can see there is only about 2ft left in this 20ft container. It seems our wordly possessions are multiplying, mostly because we found some unique pieces of furniture we couldn't live without. At this rate, we are going to need a 40ft container to get us back to Texas!

When all of your belongings are being packed up and you are standing in your first (now empty) home as newlyweds, you can't help but get a little sentimental. While traveling down memory lane we found ourselves smiling as we looked back on our first 6 weeks in the condo. Our sea freight hadn't yet arrived so the kick off of our marriage was spent 'roughing it'(I use this term very loosely) with one couch, one bed, and a TV. Before you picture us sitting on our tiny couch watching prime time American programming, as we had not set up our cable we were limited to 5 public access channels only 2 of which were in English. That seems so long ago now as we have comfortably settled into our life in Singapore.


We are reminded how lucky and blessed we have been over the last 2 years to be given the opportunity to live and work in this unique area. We are definitely looking forward to our next adventure in Scotland but will cherish the memories we've made in Singapore.



Last picture in our first home



Favorite Tradition

One of my favorite family traditions is participating in the Capitol One Bank Dallas YMCA Turkey Trot. It's held every year on Thanksgiving morning and benefits the YMCA. There is a 5K Fun Run/Walk and an 8-mile competitive run. We've participated in 6 of the last 8 years(I think). I had to miss a couple of years thanks to grad school and work and naturally the family can't do a family tradition without ME!! ;-) The event has grown tremendously over the last eight years. When we started there were about 20,000 participants and I think this year they estimated 38,000 people! So yes, it's crowded but so much fun and a great way to jump start your Thanksgiving Day. You don't feel quite so guilty about eating 1, okay 2, pieces of pie!

Missing the hubs.

What is your favorite family tradition?

So Much to Be Thankful For

Ryan and I  were able to spend over 2 weeks at home over the Thanksgiving holiday. Neither of us had been home for a holiday since 2009 and I hadn't spent Thanksgiving with my family (or had a Thanksgiving meal for that matter) since 2008!

Thanksgiving in the Barn

Me and my baby brother

Ryan was able to hunt a little while he was home but much to his disappointment didn't get anything. (He keeps forgetting about those two awesome deer he got in New Zealand ;-) Most of our time was spent seeing friends and family and shopping!! We both needed a whole new wardrobe for the cold weather in Scotland. It was quite an interesting task getting all of it back to Singapore!

Since we are not able to make the trip back home for Christmas we also celebrated and exchanged gifts with both families.

Christmas at the Mahans'

Ryan showing off his new coat!

Unofficial Christmas picture-I thought it turned out cute!

Mom and I trying to stay warm in front of the fire at Bass Pro

Me and Papa Bear

Christmas, Residence Inn Style :-)

My friend, Sarah, came down from Virginia to run the White Rock 1/2 Marathon with me. She's the 'crazy' who talked me into running The Great Wall of China Marathon in May. She moved from Singapore in August; it was so great to see her! The run was wet and cold but we had a great time anyway!

Sarah and I trying to stay warm and dry before the race started.

Ryan and I are thankful for each other, our wonderful families (especially our incredible and selfless parents), our friends (no matter how long it's been since we've seen them we always pick right back up where we left off), our health, and the amazing opportunities we've had to travel and live in the wonderful places we do/will. We often come back from home trips more exhausted then when we left but I don't think we'd change that for anything! Hoping everyone had a blessed Thanksgiving holiday. These next few weeks are going to be crazy with the big move coming up but please check back for our new blog address and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year's wishes! Lots of love! XO