So Christmas in the tropics part II was again filled with fun and excitement….
For the 2nd straight year we started the festivities with the Santa Run around the Singapore National Stadium. The following week Jay had his end of term Rock Band performance and Bee was one of the narrators for his Christmas show…add in a few school Christmas parties (and one giant Santa hat for Ben) and we were getting ready.
After our awesome get-away to the Maldives, we returned for a week of Christmas shopping, tree trimming, cookie baking and a festive high tea
On Christmas Eve, we attended a packed mass, had a great dinner of braciole and pasta, enjoyed a lovely fire courtesy of Amazon,, and started tracking Santa around the globe.
Christmas Day saw Jay and Bee get some high tech toys, we had a delicious breakfast, took a family swim and then went for a tea buffet at the Shangri-La.
Boxing Day brought with it a cool surprise – a total annular eclipse visible in Singapore. An annular eclipse is where the moon is directly in line with the sun but its shadow is too small to block out the entire sun – leaving a thin “ring of fire” around the edge. The clouds stayed away and we used our polarized glasses for a great view- even got a few photos – including cool crescent shaped shadows as the moon partially covered the sun.
Nan and Nonno arrived on the 27th for some more partying. Jay, Bee and Mom took them to our favorite burger place for lunch (Black Tap), we celebrated another Chistmas gift extravaganza and then Bee showed us how the control the firework Christmas tree on Orchard with an app he downloaded.
The next day, we took a cooking class to learn the nuisances of making the famous xiaolongbao – from the pork gelatin filling to the dough rolling to the dumpling folding- it was a serious class and lots of hard work – but what an end product! And of course to keep the good food rolling, we hit up the festively decorated Fullerton Bay hotel for the Chocolate Buffet!
The next day we trekked out on a short boat ride to Jay’s favorite camping spot- Pulau Ubin for some excellent bike riding. Nonno and Nan added quite a few new birds to their list-including the Oriental Pied Hornbill and the Glossy Asian Starling – and we also saw plenty of monkeys and wild boars. (photo courtesy of Nonno Bird Photos LLC)
During the weeks of their visit, Jay, Bee, Nan and Nonno experienced, the Bicentennial Experience (Singapore’s 200th anniversary of its colonization), the Nerf action spectacular, the Super Trees- Christmas edition, an escape room, the Former Ford Factory WWII museum, an antique camera museum and an animation exhibit at the Air & Space. Nan and Nonno snuck in more time at the Botanical gardens, the Chinese Heritage Museum and a guided walk of Little India. We also tried Swee Choon dumplings and some fantastic Greek food!
For New Years Eve we even partied it up- for an all you can eat dumpling dinner at Empress in the Asian Civilization Museum – right on the Singapore River!
And finally the holiday season couldn’t be complete without a few early morning Eagles excitement! This time we got really lucky- watching them beat the Cowboys and the Giants and then give it all they had in Round 1 against the Seahawks – all 5:30 AM Monday Singapore time starts- what better way to start the week! Nonno even got to join us for the last two!
