Hmmm...celebrating Christmas in a Muslim country... Despite Christmas decorations and music in the malls, Christmas just doesn’t seem the same here. Could it be the warm weather? The lack of Christmas carolers, Christmas trees, and the fragrant smell of pine? I think it is that and more. I am missing our annual Christmas traditions that lead up to Christmas: the lighting of our city tree, the special gatherings of friends, seeing eggnog at the grocery store and eggnog lattes at Starbucks. And most certainly, it is having the day off for Christmas!
On the positive side of things, lots of grocery stores and hotels are selling take out turkey dinners accompanied by a few side dishes for pretty reasonable prices. I haven’t yet decided if I will go that route, but it seems excessive to cook so many dishes for just the 4 of us. Perhaps I should just break out of tradition entirely and do something different this year for dinner. What do you think?
What have I done to bring in the Christmas season, you ask???
Several weeks ago on a walk, I found a lovely large tree branch without leaves on it that I am using as our Charlie Brown Christmas tree. I have begun to decorate it with homemade and store bought items. So far, my decorations consist of toilet paper rolls I decorated with colorful designs, stars, bows, strands of crepe paper, and a Petronas towers ornament. I also found a strand of lights that I plan on hanging on the tree if it is strong enough.
We also attended a church service at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Bukit Bintang where there were Christmas carols being sung and the origination stories of the carols were told. I enjoyed the stories though the singing left much to be desired. The musical compositions weren’t much to my liking and the voices were sadly uninspiring.
The crafting part of my Christmas season has consisted of folding Waldorf stars (http://arwenart.com/tutorials/windowstars/). For a few weeks now whenever I get the chance and find some cool paper, I fold more stars. Our entry wall now has stars of all different sizes and colors. Because I couldn’t find the recommended kite paper for the stars, I have used whatever paper I could find including colorful sticky note paper, magazines, advertisements, wrapping paper, local money, and even the waxy paper covering some flowers I purchased...I love my star wall ; ).
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| St. Andrew's Church |
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| Malaysian Ringgit star |
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| star wall |
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| our Charlie Brown Christmas tree |
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| mall Christmas decorations |
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| Ambiance store Xmas decorations |
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| MKIS Symphonic band Christmas performance (w/Gabe) |
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| our own mini mall in Mont' Kiara |
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| 1 Mont' Kiara |
Today was the last day of school for the kids for 3 weeks-YAY and tomorrow we are off to Bali and Thailand. Merry Christmas to all and to all a Happy New Year!
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