A very girly Christmas! :)

This past Friday night, we had our annual, girly Christmas party/sleepover at Jared and Becky's house. It was a therapeutic, much - needed break from the stresses of school and life.
(I took a ton of photos of the fun, but I'm only going to post a few on here.)

Here we are, the whole bunch of us:
me, Becky, Leanne, Brenna, Shirley Anne, and Cara
Debbie, Marie, Mary, Lydia, and Terri

(Jared was the photographer. He hid out in his study during our girlyness, though.)

The living room was very inviting. :)

Terri

Mary


Two of Santa's cutest reindeer!

This is my favorite photo of the night!

We sang some Christmas carols. Shirley Anne played the djembe drum...

...Becky played the ukelele...

...and Debbie played the guitar.

Lydia "helping" Debbie play the guitar

There aren't chimneys here in Indonesia, so I can only say the stockings were hung on the window, with care, in hopes that girly girls soon would be there.

:)

We were all very excited about Christmas socks we got from Mary, courtesy of the K-mart on Guam! (From a year ago)

Jared and the girls, snuggling on the couch, with Kala, the dog

Becky loves presents!

She clearly loved the Christmassy kitchenware!

*****************

Now it's time for me to finish some grading, packing, and cleaning.
This will, most likely, be my last post of this year, unless something super fun happens in between now and when I leave in 6 days...!

Happy New Year!

Birthday silliness

As soon as A Christmas Carol was FINALLY over, I was more than ready to have some girly fun.
Marie and Fera arranged for some of us to go out to eat at a fun, outdoor restaurant in Bogor. (It's the same one I posted about in January, when Fera and Joy and I went out to eat.)

We had to sit at 2 tables. At this one was Marie, Becky, Jared, and Cara sat on Stela's lap.














(A blurry photo of my table)



Tiwi, Mary, Debbie, Lydia, me, and Fera













The night involved much silliness. :)














Sitting prettily...but not for long!




















Being silly with Miss Mandy!














Being silly with Ibu Tiwi!











:)

After school, on my actual birthday, I ate dinner with Stela, Debbie, Fera, and Josh.

Yum! Cashew chicken w/ veggies and rice, and something to drink called a Red Bikini.





















(Josh was being dumb for the camera.) :-P















We ultimately ended up at Starbucks, which was my only goal for my bd. :)

Here I am with Debbie and Stela.



Fun times with fun friends! :) :) :)

photos of A Christmas Carol

Happy December!

I've NOT been a diligent blogger this semester, so, sorry if you've been sitting around, waiting for an update on my life...!

Anyways, our drama musical version of A Christmas Carol was over 3 weeks ago now, on Friday morning, November 18th, for area schools, and on Saturday night, November 19th, for friends and families. That week and the one before it were incredibly stressful, for multiple reasons, and I'm very glad this show is OVER, even though it was fun and a great reminder for the audience during the Christmas season.
(It's also a great reminder for ME that GOD is the only reason our performances have EVER been successful!) :-/

Here are some of the better pics my camera could capture of the actors and crew.

Scrooge's office, featuring Nephew Fred, Uncle Scrooge, and Bob Cratchit

Spirit of Christmas Past, visiting Scrooge

Meet the Cratchits!

(Belinda Cratchit/Levina; Martha Cratchit/Simran; Peter Cratchit/Richie; Tiny Tim Cratchit/Nick; Mrs. Cratchit/Manuela; and Bob Cratchit/Yudhis)

This is the world's most ethnically and religiously diverse Cratchit family ever.

Levina is a Christian Chinese - Indonesian.
Simran is a Buddhist Indian.
Richie is a Buddhist Chinese - Indonesian.
Nick is a Christian Icelandic - Indonesian.
Yudhis is a Muslim Indonesian.
And then there's Manuela, who was born in Costa Rica to a Venezuelan father and Colombian mother, lived briefly in Canada, and now lives in Indonesia.
Oh. And she's a Christian.

Scrooge and the Spirit of Christmas Present, watching the Cratchits eat their Christmas dinner

Spirit of Christmas Yet To Come and Scrooge

There was dancing at the Fezziwig Ball.

Aw! They were so cute!

The cast, singing the finale

Here's most of the cast and crew!
The scary-looking girl in the black and white was the ghost of Jacob Marley.
The boy in the white shirt on the right was Ebenezer Scrooge.

These were some of the 11th grade set crew members.

With one of my amazing student directors, Bennita

I've never actually owned a floral vase. A glass bowl and Starbucks frappucino glass bottles work just fine!