Holiday Cheer!

Dressed up for the holidays!
Tropical Santa.
Myrna and some of her elves.

The holidays are upon us!

We lit the the lights for Hanukkah a few weeks ago. A bit strange to do so in a place where very few people even know it's a holiday. Even so, the candles burned well as we kept them in the freezer until lighting time. We did the prayers and even sang the dreidl song. Myrna was impressed with our strange ritual.

Next we sought out a Christmas tree. We know where you can get real trees from the USA or second rater real ones from Europe but we heard they last about three sayd before dieing a fast sad death. Our search turned to artificial trees. The fake trees here go from really, really bad fakes which look like coat hangers and construction paper, to white retro funky ones, to pre decorated and lighted ones to not quite so fake looking but very pricey. We opted for the later. With our really high ceilings we had to get a 7 footer to even have a hope of not having it look like a Charlie Brown tree in the living room. I carried the tree home from the Paragon mall, located about 3 blocks from our house. I had it on my shoulder and Sophia brought up the rear to make sure I didn't whack anyone as I passed by. The streets have been extremely crowded with shoppers on the weekends and that day was no exception. I do believe had I not been about 5 inches taller then the average Singaporean I would have decapitated many people. Lucky the tree box on my shoulder either cleared or just grazed the heads of most passers by.

I set up the tree (it took a whole two minutes) and put on the lights. We started to decorate it with a number of ornaments we brought from the Us (a few of the many we have) and some new ones Sophia picked up (even the lousy ones are very pricey). We also decided to make ornaments with our family members' pictures. The "project" was fun. Most of the people from both Sophi and my family as well as Myrna and her friends are represented. Lena, Elijah, Rachel and Benjie, little Josh, Myrna's niece and of course Mitzvah are all there to see. Some of Myrna's friends stopped by one night to pitch in.

One of the unique tree problems we have is the tree is near out air well, it seems to get splashed when it rains. Unlike back in the US where Milwaukee and the east coast have had cold and snow, here it is the rainy season. It rains every day, sometimes in buckets. In fact as I write this it is pouring big time while the sun was out about 20 minutes ago. Anyway, we have carefully laid the presents out of harm's (rain's) way.

Going to a party Christmas eve, opening presents at Midnight, then having a bunch of Myrna's friends over for Christmas day dinner. A Puerto Rican - Filipino- Jewish extravaganza!

Holiday greetings to all! Hoping you all enjoy good health, good fortune and good times!