Holiday Celebrations

We had a fun time in December with a few holiday celebrations with friends. The Booster Hut board from JIS got together for a dinner that was so much more than I expected! There was a dress code (black or white with a splash of red) so I was prepared for fancy, and I was not disappointed.

Nina was so kind to host in her family's "extra" house that they keep for parties.  Wow! Notice that the food is all on the table and I was absolutely salivating while we took 15 minutes' worth of pictures.  Indonesians LOVE their pictures.

After dinner, we retired to one of the living rooms for a fun gift exchange.

A few more pictures in one of the other living rooms before we ended our night!

This has been a really fun group of ladies but sadly we have a lot moving on or graduating this year. The goodbyes are starting again!

I joined the Parents Welcome Committee to help the new families settle in and also to scope out new friends, because the longer we stay, the more I have to say goodbye to people! We had a welcome morning in person for the first time in nearly two years and it was lovely to meet new faces and help answer questions.

We had a slightly smaller pokeeno night but it wasn't short on laughs! Pak Suwarto is always happy to be a part of this crowd.

We celebrated Farrah's birthday at the Shangri-La with a wonderful brunch.  I think this is the first time I realized how much taller Ben is getting - I'm wearing heels in this picture!

Our fun group in the private room.  We camped out for hours and enjoyed the amazing food.  The kids finally organized themselves to take two of the cars back to our house for some fun while we lingered over our desserts.

We have so much fun together! Love these ladies.

Not sure what we were laughing about but this picture makes me so happy!

A street kitty had her kittens in the pot on our front porch.  I left her a great box with a towel and cat food in it, but she was so traumatized by me opening up the door all day to see the kittens that she moved them all next door!

Love this boy as well.  He's worked hard on this look.

Our favorite little lovebird who is passionate about tortilla chips! (and sadly, this would be our last picture with him because he and his wife passed away while we were gone over Christmas)

Rambutan season means the golf ball retriever can also double as a fruit catcher.

One last golf game before we headed out for a month.  We're pretty fortunate to live in a place where we can play year round.

I was shocked to realize that we could see Mt. Salak from Pondok Cabe.  I've played there so many times and I'd never seen it before.

One last pretty sunset!

Finally, it was time to head to the US and say goodbye to everyone for at least a month.  Our staff take such good care of us and keep everything running while we're gone.  We're so fortunate to have each of them!