December...

I just love the month of December!

The weather is so much cooler, people are in the holiday mood and it's just a generally more relaxed month.

We're having a Christmas day dinner for the family, and probably going to exchange gifts. Buying gifts is a real pain though, since it's getting harder every year to come up with new ideas! My shopping is almost done, after 2 mad days of combing the stores at Takashimaya and at Vivocity.

Chai is back for the holidays. It's amazing, he's already headed into the final year of medical school and will be done by next year! His girlfriend is already done with her Masters degree and started work. I am getting old! It's nice when he's back, feels like our family is complete again. We're all looking forward to when he's back for good.

Madison is finishing up her time with Bibinogs. It's a little sad that's she's ready to move on, and I'm grateful for the skills that they have imparted to her. She's developed so much over the year, and become more confident and articulate since she started school. Next year she starts at Pat's Schoolhouse at Buckley and I'm hoping she doesn't have too much trouble adjusting. I think she'll like it there eventually.

Annika is also growing up much too quickly. She's rolling all the time now and is generally a happy person. It's great how I feel so much more relaxed and confident handling her compared with Madison! She's also lucky to have 2 older kids to entertain her and keep her company. Elizabeth and Madison sway between protective love and jealous snatching! It's funny how the 3 of them occupy themselves the entire day.

Chris is going away AGAIN, this time with Pa for a medical mission trip to Padang, Indonesia. They leave tonight and will be back on Sunday NIGHT. Argh.. I will have to survive another 2 nights with the kids. He's working so much these days that he hardly has time for the kids, and with all the travelling he's been doing recently, it's been a little tough. But I do understand that he needs to train now so that he can be good at what he does.

The saga with Warni is also resolved. She is (hopefully) coming back to work with us for another 2 years starting next March. She leaves for a holiday in February. We negotiated her working terms and so she gets a pay rise and regular time off starting next year. I think she's happy and already I feel a positive change in her work attitude. I want to thank her for her efforts over the past 2 years, and so I will give her a Christmas bonus as well. I think I want to do the same for Maria and Siti( Geok's helper) as well. I am grateful for their help over the past 5 months with Annika and Madison.

Finally.. on the apartment front... yay! Work has finally begun and things are looking GOOD! I'm hoping we'll be able to move in before next year, but we're not rushing things. I'm rather sick of sleeping in the lounge and having our things all over the apartment. It's only a slight increase in space, but since we're having things built in it feels like a significant upgrade.

Oh.. and Chris' mum is coming for the Christmas break. And staying till Chinese New Year. That should be fun. She'll get plenty of time with her 2 granddaughters.

That's it for now...