Getting ready for Christmas

There are many Christmas traditions around the world - even Santa divides opinions of his origins. Or indeed whether he delivers presents in person on Christmas Eve, like in Finland, or  during the night to be opened on the Christmas Day. And of course there are places where Christmas isn't celebrated at all; whilst the Sharia police is going around establishments across Brunei asking to remove Christmas decorations, here are few photos on how our family has been preparing for Christmas. In our two culture family, traditions have always met nicely but this year has been quite unique. With the help of our extended family - i.e friends here - we've built new traditions that suit us here. Starting from our first ever fake Christmas tree...

Mulu caves

Another month, another holiday, this time to the Gunung Mulu National park to visit the famous caves in Sarawak, Malaysia.

Childrens' Christmas Fayre

With help from some very talented ladies, the children in the land of the eternal sunshine got a glimpse of Christmas spirit last week as one of the mums organised a big Fayre for all of us.

It's beginning to look a lot like....

Well, not yet but as the weather is distinctively British at the moment, we did manage to light a candle last night for the 1st Advent.

Today it was time for the first door of all of the advent calendars - one happy Sofia has a Haribo one and even happier Phil has a dairy milk one! Mine is a traditional winter scene raising conversation about travelling to Finland to see some snow. Hopefully next year! Or if not Finland, we'll definitely go to Singapore to meet the real Finnish Father Christmas.