Second Time in Singapore - Part One

We had so much fun our first time in Singapore, but still felt like there were many things we hadn't gotten to do.  The obvious solution was a second trip.  I knew there would be a long weekend at the beginning of December, and one of my friends had said Singapore really does Christmas up, so I figured that would be a great time for our second trip.  Jeff and I also had a couple evening things we wanted to do, so we invited Young to come along with us.  She got a fun first trip to Singapore, and we got help with girls.

On our first trip, we stayed in a great Airbnb apartment in the residential area to the west of the city.  This time around, I wanted to put us more in the center of things, so we stayed at an Airbnb in an area called Bugis.  The apartment wasn't as nice as the first one, but it was still two bedroom, two bath, and there was a Christmas tree in the lobby which made the girls happy.

The best part though, was that as soon as you walked out the door there were tons of shops and restaurants.  Right next to our building was a shopping center dedicated to tech stuff, so Jeff got to wander around  his version of shopping heaven.  Across the street was the start of a pedestrian market area full of shopping and food stalls.  Our first night we walked around there.  We wanted to try a hawker center, and there was one along the way, but the food booths were overwhelming, and some of them looked a bit scary to our western palettes.  Pig organ soup? Not up for that right now.

We kept walking and came to the main shopping arcade on Bugis Street.  It started with fruit stands, which we made a mental note of for later shopping.

After that, it turned into total tourist trap market stuff.  Still, it was fun to walk through.

On the other end, we came to a regular mall, with a supermarket called Cold Storage in the basement.  We did some shopping, having fun comparing what they sold there versus at our local Villa.  There were a lot more British brands.  We got what we needed for the girls to have their regular pasta with peas, but we still needed food for the grownups.  We hadn't been brave enough to try the hawker center, but we found a noddle place at the mall with menus in English, and got some takeaway noodles.  We sat on stools watching them make it, which was fun.

Young and I both got pork in a scallion broth, while Jeff got spicy beef broth, yum!

There were more Christmas decoration around, and it was getting dark as we walked back to the apartment.

We decided that Singapore, round two, was off to a good start.

Thanksgiving, the Sequel

As we have every year here, we did a little more Thanksgiving on Saturday, when Vivian didn't have school.  But first, on Friday, we decorated for Christmas.  Jeff and the girls got started with the tree

while I pulled all our Christmas boxes out from under the stairs.

Elena was an excited participant this year.  She kept saying, "Wow! So pretty!"  She was particularly impressed when we tested the lights.

We got them in the tree, and then it was time for the star, Vivian's self-appointed duty.  She's getting tall enough now that she just needs a step stool and a little lean.

That night, after our successful decorations, we watched the Mickey Mouse version of A Christmas Carol.  Since it was Mickey, Elena was riveted.

Vivian was impressed by the Disney version and decided to check out the original.  

She actually read the whole thing, which impressed me.  There were definitely some parts she had questions about, but she read it and enjoyed it.  Proud mommy moment :-)  I decided she was officially a big girl and could get her first pedicure.

She only giggled a little and picked some fun Christmas designs.

On Saturday, Jeff started the morning off making sausage balls.

We also had muffins, and our friends brought over a pumpkin roll.  

The adults washed it all down with mimosas while the kids enjoyed the food and each other's company.

It was the perfect Thanksgiving morning on a Saturday.

A Spatchcocking Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving I decided to grow up and cook my own Thanksgiving meal.  At the same time though, I didn't want to ruin Thanksgiving, and we wanted to celebrate with friends.  The perfect solution was to celebrate Thanksgiving with friends who like to cook, so that even if my food turned out horribly, no one would go hungry.

The first step was confronting the turkey.

I put it in the fridge a couple days ahead of time, so that it could thaw, and I began the great quest for the best way to cook a turkey.  I researched online recipes and read all about basting and brining.  Jeff, being Jeff, went online to see what science had to say and discovered spatchcocking, the scientifically approved way to cook your turkey.  Spatchcocking is the "techinical" term for butterflying your turkey.  It involves cutting out the spine, and flattening the remaining turkey, so that you have an even surface to cook.  Because you've changed the dimensions of your turkey, it also takes a lot less time.  After much soul searching, we decided spatchcocking was the way to go.

The day before Thanksgiving, I started building up my cooking courage by making pumpkin pie, something I successfully learned to do last year.  This year's turned out great and had zero drama in the preparation.

I was very pleased with myself and served it up for dessert that night.  It got the family's seal of approval.  It turns out even picky, Thai baby Elena likes pumpkin pie.  She even demanded it for breakfast the next morning.  I figured, it was Thanksgiving, so why not.

While Elena was occupied with her pumpkin pie, the serious Thanksgiving cooking began.  The first step was freeing the turkey from its wrapping.  I managed to royally mess that up by squeezing in the wrong place and causing pink water (don't want to think about it, don't want to think about it) to come gushing out all over the kitchen counter and floor.  Thank goodness for Young who came to my rescue, since I was semi-hysterical at that point.  We got the spewing thing to the sink, drained it all, and put it back in the pan, whew.

Lesson learned.  Do not open your turkey anywhere but in the sink.  While Young was bleaching the kitchen, I was reaching around inside the turkey carcass trying to find all the giblets.  The neck was right in the middle, but I couldn't find the other pieces.  I finally discovered a little bag under the neck flap.  This turkey stuff is not for the faint of heart.  I got the giblets browned up (I took a picture, but I understand that posting it is unnecessary) and the gravy base started.  I decided that next year, that's something I'll definitely do the day before, along with my pumpkin pie making.

Another new adventure for this year was a crock pot stuffing.  I love stuffing, so I wanted to make sure I could make my own.  I found a recipe online that included instructions for toasting your own bread cubes, since you can't find those here easily.  I mixed everything together, put it in the crock pot, and let it cook for a few hours.  It made the house smell awesome.

It ended up tasting great too, so it's definitely a keeper.  The only problem was that it was enough stuffing to feed a small army, so I may need to cut the recipe in half next year.

With the stuffing cooking away, it was time to remove the turkey's spine.  Jeff took pictures while I went at that turkey with some scissors and a knife.  Young hovered nervously.  I managed to do it almost by myself.  There was one rib that just wouldn't surrender.  Young was practically bouncing up and down wanting a go at it, so I surrendered the knife and she got through the hold out rib.  Like I said, Jeff took plenty of pictures, but I don't think anyone in the internet world really wants to see them.  Once the spine was out, flattening it and arranging it on the pan was simple.  The ribs cracked with practically no pressure.

The trickiest part was arranging the limbs inside the tray.  The instructions said to tuck the wings under the breasts, but those suckers kept popping out, so we finally gave up and left the turkey holding its wings up in horror.  We put it in the oven for its 60-90 minute cook time.  Elena had discovered the day before that good things were coming out of the oven for this holiday, so she hovered, keeping an eye on the turkey.

Her patience was rewarded with a beautiful, spatchcocked turkey.

The red button never popped, but the meat thermometer said it was done, and it turned out absolutely delicious.

Young had also roasted carrots and broccoli for the girls, so we ended up with WAY too much food at our friends' house, but that's the point of Thanksgiving, right? Everyone ate well and had a great time.

Life

Since it's been so busy, I've only been doing highlight posts.  I still need to write up Thanksgiving and our trip to Singapore, but I wanted to make sure I didn't miss too much of our everyday life.  The girls are growing so fast, and I know that what they're playing with this month, won't be the same soon.

Elena is in her favorite clothes phase.  The first hurdle is getting her out of her Peppa Pig pajamas, which she sometimes tries to wear all day.  She has created a persona for herself which is to be addressed as Princess, not Elena.  To achieve this persona, she puts on a crown, wings, and adds some maracas.

I pick my battles with the Peppa Pig pajamas.  A couple times I've let her just keep them on when we're going over to our friend's house who does toddler music and family Spanish for us.

When I can get her out of her pjs, she usually opts for a Mickey or Minnie shirt.  Sometimes, if she really wants to mix it up, she'll let me put on her ponies shirt.

Elena also went through a phase where she was to be addressed as doctor.  Vivian was very patient with this phase and even paid a visit to the doctor's "office."

In the real world, I took the girls to the dentist, and tried to get Elena to cooperate for her first check up.  She loved the waiting area.

But when it was her turn to go in she refused to open her mouth.  She just put her hands over her mouth and kept saying, "No thank you."  So, on the plus side, my kid is polite.  On the negative side, I don't know if all her teeth have come in yet.

Vivian got a clean bill of dental health, but the dentist did want to put sealants on four of her molars to make sure they didn't get cavities.  They have a pretty nice arrangement there.  Vivian got to pick her sunglasses and snuggle up with a blanket.

Vivian also got some more fun outings to the movie theater.  We took her with us to see Doctor Strange and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.  We really liked both films, even though only one got the first class treatment.

She couldn't resist being goofy when we were shopping for glasses frames at the mall.

The official 30 day mourning period for the King ended, so now it's slightly more okay to wear color, but a lot of people are still wearing black, and many are still wearing black ribbons or armbands.  The Nichada Loy Krathong event went on, but without music and generally more subdued.  Vivian really wanted to float her krathong, and Young wanted to go, so the two of them rode their bikes over to the lake together to put the krathongs in.  

Vivian also had a lot of fun activities at school, including her Girl Scout Lock In 

and International Day, where I helped out in the 3rd grade U.S. room.  My activity was telling the students about five places you could visit in D.C. and then letting them vote for their top choice.  Vivian said it was the best activity, and not just because I was running it ;-)

I think the kids mostly loved going into the "voting booth."  Vivian had lots of fun school activities after Thanksgiving as well.  In December, the school does Celebrations of Learning in P.E. and in the regular classrooms.

Vivian's class wore green this year for the P.E. COL.  For her class celebration, she read her original poem entitled "Betrayed" in which she takes Cinderella to task for betraying the prince who just wants to marry her.  Vivian has become quite a writer.  She participated in NaNoWriMo for the first time this year and met her 3000 word goal with a story about mermaids and a bad guy stargazer.  It is very dramatic.

The school also had a really exciting author/illustrator visit with Jennifer and Matthew Holm.  They gave a great talk for parents on the history and current roles of graphic novels, and they met with the students in small and "large" groups to talk about their work.  The largest group Vivian was in was her class.  She got lots of opportunities to talk with both Jennifer and Matt about how they do what they do.  It was awesome.

I love Jennifer Holm's book Turtle in Paradise, so I had to get in on the action too.

Matthew Holm decorated one of the chalkboard walls at the school too, so after basketball practice on Saturday Viv and I stopped by to get a picture of her with Sunny from Sunny Side Up, her favorite book by them.

She's also holding her half eaten banana waffle, her special after basketball treat.  The girls' life here is so great.  We're excited about our next post, but this one will be tough to leave.