Merry Christmas from Malaysia

Merry Christmas to all! This was our first Christmas in the "tropics." It has been hard getting and staying in the holiday spirit here when it is so warm. But thankfully Madeline and Malloree have done a great job helping us along. We are very fortunate to be spending this Christmas together as a family. Last year Louie was in Iraq and I believe the previous year to that he was in Morocco. Madeline is 7 and I believe that he has been away for 4 Christmas holidays.

We went over to a friends house Christmas Eve and ate Mexican food. The kids swam in the pool for a while. We got home in time to decorate a few cookies for Santa, take a bath and read some Christmas books. I cleaned the house for Santa. Louie was up until 4:00am putting together the trampoline.

I should have known Malloree would be the first one up. She was bright eyed and bushy tailed at 6:00. Now I know how my parents felt. Louie corralled the kids upstairs and I prepared myself for the picture taking. Santa was very good to the kids. The girls each received an American Girl doll and Matthew received a ride-a-long car. We opened gifts and had breakfast before we gave them our gift.....a trampoline. Madeline told us this was the best day of her life....hahahah.

The kids(including Louie) jumped on the trampoline for a while. I then took the girls to the movies to see National Treasure. Malloree fell asleep in my lap. She had an accident while asleep....yes on me! Luckily it was at the end of the movie. We got up, went to the restroom, came back and caught the last 5 minutes of the film.

We came back home and the kids hit the trampoline again. I finished up cooking dinner and we ate around 5:00pm. We had turkey, stuffing, green beans, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce for dinner. It was a very nice dinner. Louie and I had some apple pie for desert. We hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday. We sure do miss our friends and family back home. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!