Grandma and Grandpa Wood's visit end

We managed to squeeze in a birthday celebration in and amongst all the other activities.

Grandma and Grandpa left, after about a five week visit, on the night of December 30.  We spent the last few days at the Terror Club pool, at the movie theater viewing Star Wars, and measuring how tall we were to Grandmas' height.

Missoula Children's Theatre

Is the world's largest touring children's theatre.  MCT has a contract with the U.S. Navy to fill a morale-based need on military bases around the world.  Two tour directors arrive over one weekend, hold "auditions" on Monday morning, begin rehearsals on Monday afternoon, and hold a show, with youth in grades K-12 by the end of either Friday or Saturday.  Younger kids are given group roles with group singing parts, middle aged youth are given group roles with separate speaking parts, and older aged kids are given main speaking parts and assistant director roles.  All four of our kids participated in this production of "Hansel and Gretel".  All of MCT productions are a "spin-off" of classics with a moral twist.

Allison was Granny, Madison was an Old Camper, Parker was a Rascal and McKenna was a Wallybird.

Christmas Day

It was a great morning opening presents, followed by stockings and then a French Toast breakfast (order suggested by the kids).  We took apart the boxes, found batteries and tested out new toys.  We had hot chocolate in the early afternoon and a lovely Christmas dinner attended by the two Missoula Children's Theatre tour directors that Sarah's work was hosting that week.

With Santa's presents:

 Looking for the watermark on their money from Grandma and Grandpa:

Excited about the Twinkies sent from Aunt Katherine and all (Twinkies cannot be found in Singapore and cannot be bought online):

 Standing with their stockings:

Parker ended up with:  Zoob's, Snap Circuit's, a Lego board game, soccer t-shirts, a tying knots activity game, books, toys and chocolates:

McKenna ended up with:  a dress, Hello Kitty boom box, Frozen walkie-talkie's, Flutterfairy (she is made by Air Hogs and flies!), Barbie movies, activity books, puzzle, lotions, chocolates and a highly desired box of spaghetti:

Allison ended up with:  new bedding, pajama bottoms, rock climbing shoes, Converse shoes, Spanish scriptures, a lock for her bike, rocking climbing equipment, and a book by John Bytheway:

Madison ended up with:  another large Lalaloopsy, a watch, a dress, an Eiffel Tower shirt, some pencil cases, a French-phrase translation book, Young Women themed pencils, and goggles:

Sarah got her much wanted Beijing Starbucks mug.  However, she also gained Austria, Germany, St. Petersburg, Russia, and Moscow.  Wow!

Grandma and Grandpa got a hand-sewn elephant quilt from India (via Little India, Singapore).

Kent (Grandpa) also got a book and Carol (Grandma) also got a purse made with Singapore Airlines fabric.  Jeremy got a book and some ties.  Analea gave each of the kids a snow globe.

The kids later enjoyed their Twinkies:

Christmas Eve

Our family tradition on Christmas Eve, in Singapore, is to spend time at Gardens by the Bay and the Flower Dome.  (It is a good thing that this is our last year, as it seems like a good portion of Singapore has caught on to the idea, as parking and exiting was a big challenge.)  We had dinner at Satay by the Bay first.