For Christmas 2022 we were finally going to be able to cruise again. The last cruise we took was over the December holiday season in 2019. We had cruise credits from a cancelled 2020 cruise, and then the one we used them for in 2021 got cancelled, so part of me was worried that our 2022 plans would fall through too, but luck was finally on our side, and our cruise went ahead. Since we knew we wouldn't be home for Christmas, the girls insisted on decorating as early as possible, so the Sunday after Thanksgiving, the decorations came out.
This year's set up went pretty quickly, since we had figured out the layout the year before. Of course, I hadn't even finished setting everything up before the girls brought their toys and started playing.
Elena did take some time though to decorate the little tree.
We have new social sponsorees, so when Viv and I wanted to go to Pavilion to do some shopping for presents and check out the decorations, the mom came with us. We got off to a great Malaysia start by spotting a bunch of people taking pictures of and with a man sitting in a restaurant.
I had to double check my Malaysia government knowledge, but I was able to confirm that it was Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, affectionately referred to as Dr. M, who served twice as Malaysia's prime minister for a total of 24 years. We had fun debating how the other breakfast diners felt about having their meal regularly interrupted for photographs. Dr. M at least seemed to be enjoying it.
After our brush with fame, we turned our attention to trying to figure out what Pavilion's latest decoration/art installation was. Apparently Chanel was sponsoring Christmas this year.
From a distance, we thought the large, curved shapes might be mushroom tops, but Viv was disappointed to discover upon closer inspection that they were parachutes. Apparently, the latest Chanel fragrance is "out of this world".
Once we got inside, the level of sparkle was pretty overwhelming.
The stairs down to the main decor area were packed, so we steered around and got to our shopping. As we got higher though and looked down, we realized that we needed to check out this particular decorative zone.
It was actually our friend who realized it first. It's all Disney!
I had to get our Disney enthusiast a picture with Steamboat Willie.
There were lots of other cool backdrops for pictures, but Viv was having none of it, so I just took pictures of the backdrops and decided we'd have to come back with Jeff and Elena for pictures the following weekend.
The Alice in Wonderland backdrop even had food you could pick up and pose with.
When we got to the end, we realized that this was all in honor of Disney's upcoming 100th anniversary.
We also found a really cool Royal Selangor pop up. Royal Selangor is a fancy Malaysian pewter brand. One of Malaysia's first industrial exports was tin, and so making fine pewter goods in a natural next step. This particular company has been around since 1885, but they have no problem with innovating as demonstrated in their line of Marvel and Star Wars anniversary paraphernalia.
Much as we thought Jeff might like some of the items as a Christmas present, the chess set was over a $1,000, and the light saber holster was about $350, so we figured we would find him presents elsewhere. Instead, we spent our money on a nice lunch at a restaurant called D Empire that provided a reasonably priced lunch menu which we enjoyed.
She got a pretty picture with Santa,
but she was truly stumped when he asked what she wanted for Christmas.
It's kind of nice that she realizes that she doesn't really need anything. She rebounded quickly though, and went to make a "Christmas Tree" decoration.
It's a good thing Jeff got a picture of it, because she proceeded to devour it, and then she burned off the sugar by going after the Grinch again.
The following Saturday morning, we started off with an early Christmas. We had asked our elf, Pixie, to let Santa know that we would be traveling for Christmas and to see if we could get larger presents early, since it would be difficult to fit them all on the ship. Not only did Pixie successfully deliver the message for us, she also managed to get the girls some special, Elf on the Shelf cereal.
The girls had a lot of fun opening their Christmas presents. They got lots of toys and other useful things.
Jeff got several presents as well, and opened them with his usual flair. He really enjoys TWG brand tea, but in this case, I think the wrapping paper was half the fun.
He got a sample of their top sellers for 2022. Even if he doesn't end up liking all the teas, the tins are great, and we will use them for storage once they're done carrying their tea cargo.
He definitely needed some caffeine to assist the assembly of Elena's new chalkboard/whiteboard. It's not the most difficult thing he's put together, but, of course, it was far more complicated than it needed to be. She wasted no time in covering it with math.
But she did take some time to show her appreciation for Daddy who also helped with her dollhouse addition assembly.
Since we were leaving for our vacation on Sunday, we figured Saturday morning was our time to go as a family and check out Pavilion's fun decor, so everyone got themselves together, and off we went. Jeff and the girls fully embraced the 100th anniversary theme.
He also got a vertigo inducing shot of the entire layout.
Elena was more than willing to pose for pictures, but with all the people there, getting a good angle without people in it was a bit of a challenge.
After a while, the girls got fussy and it became clear that while sugary elf cereal is very exciting, it is not a substantive breakfast food, so we grabbed a table at the closest coffee place and got them some more breakfast.
Once we were fueled up, we got a few more pictures in.
After photos, round two, everyone was hungry again, but luckily we already had plans to meet up with our friends for lunch, so we returned home with everyone fed and some fun new clothes for Vivi.
Our day wasn't done yet though. Some of our friends were having a Christmas open house, so we stopped by. They had a great food spread.
Jeff and the girls stayed to enjoy that, but I had to leave a little early to go to a Christmas themed Pokeno game.
It was a whirlwind of a Saturday, but we got in a bunch of great KL Christmas experiences, and that gave us Sunday to finish packing before we headed off on our Australia and New Zealand adventures.
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