Haha

I Love A Slogan Shirt

I am a fan of a good slogan shirt.
That  sentence alone could  be a slogan shirt walking around right here, right now  in Macau.

A favorite past time of ours is picking out the best ones on the street, like:

My Grandma Sleeps Like A Cat

or the simply bedazzled in swarovski crystals:

Mondays Are Magic.

But my absolute  heart melting fave of late is my girl Yan Yan’s that she cruised into class with the other day….I stalked her with my iPhone camera in class until she eventually started to pose.

Christmas Photos: Hats Mandatory

For just one year I wish I could get it together to get these Christmas cards in the mail on time. Or at least before 2013.

It’s a domestic duty that I take seriously. In that I seriously procrastinate doing it.

This year, my excuses are as follows:

1. Uncooperative dog to wear santa beard for pictures.

2.Uncooperative husband to dress up as elf to Tango’s Santa (photo option #1), new photo setup needed.

3.Uncooperative bulging back discs that said: “oh hell no, we are not walking all the way to the post office.”

So in summary, the cards will be late! Doesn’t everyone love some late Christmas cheer? In February?

This year, I got our family and some of our greatest friends in Macau (Marisa, Aaron, baby Ethan, and monkey dog friend to Tango, Levi) down to the Old Taipa houses.

In the “Let’s All Just Get This Done So We Can Have Lunch and Go Back To Work Spirit” we went down to our favorite local park in the historic district in town.

Because it’s beautiful .

And in walking distance for our in hibernation/polar bear dog. Who isn’t exactly taxi driver friendly. Even us humans aren’t taxi driver friendly sometimes in Macau.

The houses at the park are the old Portuguese Diplomat establishments in all shades of lovely pastel on what used to be Taipa’s waterfront (only 7-8 years ago) and is now a lake.

Then they filled in the waterfront between the two islands of Taipa and Coloane to make the CoTai Strip that is now City of Dreams akin to the Vegas strip where Chris works, and also where one of my schools is located. So, sad to see the development, but we wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for innovation.

So with a bag of santa hats and antlers, we had the world’s fasted DIY photoshoot on our lunchbreaks.

Here some of our outtakes

Tango as Santa Dog. Don’t feel bad for him! He’s having a shaming moment for eating through my baking supplies this week. (To be specific, a half pound of brown sugar.)

And we couldn’t pass up the pedicab (If we’re not dressing up as a family elves, then you can all get in the pedicab.)

And in a moment of “Bro, I won’t let you go down like that”, Levi manned (dogged?) up and got in too

In the meantime, everyday of the week there are bridal parties, and photoshoots going on at the Taipa houses.

This bridal party got distracted by our super cute dogs in hats and had a very angry photographer and bride yelling after them to come back…I am sure a little photo airbrushing will take that white dog hair right off those black suits….

Here we are trying to look respectable.

But Tango never looks respectable with anything on his head. It brings out his….christmas candy cane.

Good thing we brought an extra hat for happy pants this year.

Tango saying “You know what, I’ve had enough Christmas shaming for the day, first the beard, now…. I’m outta here.”

 

 

Ok, I’ll come back…

Thanks Mom, for making Tango’s Christmas Garland

And true family isn’t all bloodlines. We’re really lucky to have the Randle’s in our lives.

Love them and getting to hang out with baby Ethan on his first Christmas Photos; Hats Mandatory photo shoot

Can I sneak at least one picture up here of this delicious little Christmas bundle??

Merry Christmas 2012

(And again in Feb. 2013 when our Christmas cards finally make it )

Oh Christmas Bush, Oh Christmas Palm, Are We Going to Accidentally Kill You If We Try To Decorate Youuuu?

REblogged From 2011,

Cheaters!

I know.

But I added this years “Christmas Tree”, because we just can’t be normal, and get an actual tree.

It can be done here! It would require some importing and more than a few patacas…and they even come to remove it from your apartment after the season.

In years past we’ve made the trek on island to the local CostULess to get pretty much the last choice runt tree, but it was a tree! But I also think the idea of using a plant is nice, because one less tree is needlessly chopped down…too tree-huggery?

There are still many years to come for our true Clark Griswold Christmas, maybe when our future kids will appreciate it. But this year was “Betsy’s” Christmas to shine with  Chris’ cherished bush  getting the holiday treatment. Not just a plant, Betsy  gets rotated in the sun every 36 hours by Chis and watered by a mathematical equation I am not privy to. I really hope that Betsy doesn’t suffer from the decorating I did to her this year like our “Happiness” tree last year, that went downhill shortly after (if I was Chinese this would have been an omen for the next year I am sure, but 2012 was not bad!)

So ReBlogged From 2011:

 

Yes Chris and Tango, It is that time of year again. And yes, you have to wear a red sweater and yes you have to wear the Antlers. I don’t care which one of you wears what.

It is a tradition, usually as we’re running out of the house on our way to a Christmas party to take a picture in front of whatever interpretation of a “Christmas Tree” we have going on that year. This is usually good timing because, (a) we smell good and look nice. And (b) it usually happens so fast Tango doesn’t realize we’ve made him wear some undignified hat.

Here are some outtakes from Christmas past, and this Macanese version, thanks to Cotton’s help. (2011)

Happy Holidays Everybody!

Seng Dan Fai Lok, Sang Nian Fai Lok!

2007

Winging it with the palm tree our first year in St Thomas 2007. unfortunately we had just washed up there and Tango was still in St. Croix. :)

2008

Upgrading to an actual tree! And Tango’s back, the Red Hat rides again! As you can see….Tango is very excited about this scene.

2009

For some reason, no family Christmas picture in 2009. Something about the tree being in a 5 gallon bucket makes me think we were probably busy this year and working through the holidays and never looked decent enough to pose in front of the tree. But here is Tango with his hat. Note the banged up head from trying to avoid a rogue cow.

 2010

Back in nice duds this year! Tango hid his hat for the picture., but not his “excitement” for the Christmas holidays!

2011

Christmas in Macau! Here…Tango thinks he got away with only having to wear Antlers (we were quite a spectacle for the Chinese tourists!)….

…But wait! costume change! Thanks to Mom the hat was sent priority mail just in time!

How beautiful is Macau during the Holidays? These people spare no expense and set up all these flowers in about ten minutes while we ate lunch on a bench!

Our Chinese Christmas Tree (bush??) 2011…I know it looks like it’s trying to die, but I think it’s making a comeback!

I think we almost killed our Happiness Tree by decorating her

2012

Betsy The Christmas Bush 2012

 

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year,

Love

C & A

 

Same Same But Different

Chinese Crosswalk Solutions…

XXX…L….Slippers Please

And so it is time again, after they had accumulated too much glue, glitter, and my big toe started to feel a draft, I knew it was time to put some serious thought into getting some new school slippers.

A year ago, when I started Montessori and I stomped into the center with my cute little shoes and all the ladies and helpers waiting for kids looked at me aghast, I knew I had done something to offend. Even the small children in reception starting crying (probably for a different reason, tall western lady….not exactly a familiar face…or just having a smiling good morning that is apparently terrifying…)

Some ladies pointed worriedly at my feet.
I realized the offense immediately after seeing piles of shoes by the door, and took off my “outside shoes”.
I felt a little bit vulnerable walking around barefoot without a cute pedi.

One day later they brought me my very own pair. The only pair of the bunch that was all black (maybe they thought they were being nice and it would diminish the look of my size 9′s?)

Flash forward to having to periodically go to the International School to fill in and I find myself missing my comfy slips. Everyday I am grateful to not be one of the ladies teetering on 3-4 inch heels on the bus.

Goodness knows that a lady is not a lady here without a serious set of heels or the like. Even their version of Converse tennis shoes has a 1-2 inch platform look going on.

But at Montessori everyone has to wear slippers, even the wee ones.

There’s even a communal wooden pair to change out of your slippers just to go into the bathroom.

So new slippers it was. Simple task, right? Not for this size 9 girl in a sea of size 5 shoes.

Here is the selection, at about a $1.50 US you can’t go wrong. However, the pickin’s are slim for a Western footed lady.

;

I have yet to find the upscale slipper market around here. Plus I don’t want to out fancy my co-workers or kids
But these ones seemed to have some personality and indeed they were a hit with the 3-6yr crowd.

Shoe Show

Parade appropriate if you ask me…