Nah, that's them Balsams...

(This is Mike writing)

Christmas tree time!  The other day I was driving home and passed a huge sign advertising live Christmas trees, so we took a trip there on Saturday.  We were not disappointed

It was a huge floral shop that imported a ton of trees.  The nice lady who helped us said they didn't have any "caucasians come to the store until they put the big sign up."  So count us among those caucasians suckered in by the big sign

Sweet boy, that Andrew...

Erin showing off the baby bump, which is getting bigger  by the day

They kept the trees back in a big cooler, which the boys called "the cold place" and couldn't wait to get out of.  In order to 1) not spend an arm and a leg on an imported live tree and, and 2) get a tree the boys could have fun with, we got a 5" tree.  Total bill: 70 bucks (US).  It was imported from Washington state, so we know it's legit.  The most expensive 5" tree you've ever heard of, but it makes the house smell amazing

We got the tree home and the boys helped me cut the bottom off and put it on the stand.  Kind of...

It was a bit wobbly, so we had to find the right position for it in the corner of the play/family room

The best Andrew face you'll ever see

The best Joseph face you'll see until the end of this post

We got ready for the Utah cold during our upcoming Christmas visit by cranking up the A/C in the room and pulling out a hat and scarf for the boys to try on

Buddy fell asleep by the tree today after church.  The tradition of sleeping by the tree is alive at well at the KL Feathie home!

And finally, a farewell bath time smile from Jofess

Happy Thanksgiving from Malaysia

Happy Thanksgiving 2012 everyone!  This is Mike typing, and as many of you know, this time of year is a bit crazy for my work, so pulling together a one-day Thanksgiving feast was quite the feat.  We pulled it off, however, and had an awesome day

Erin wanted to make some fun centerpieces with the boys, and found these on the internet--apple turkeys.  The boys had fun coloring their birds and sticking the heads and fans in with toothpicks.  Andrew ate part of his, as you can see (second from the left)

Jofess kept pulling out the head and tail and putting them back in.  Never gets old, eh kid?

Buddy was quite proud of his apple turkey, as you can see here

Here I am pulling one of my many dishes out of the oven.  This one was sweet as candy--baked butternut squash with pecans and cinnamon.  Mmmm

We ate more butter in this meal than we had in the past year.  Every dish had at least a cube or so.  It was delicious

I was quite proud of my one-day Thanksgiving meal.  Thank you Real Food Weekly!

The spread--a nice bird with roasted potatoes, sweet potatoes and onions, buttered green beans and fried onions, stuffing, roasted butternut squash, and an apple-pear pie.

We tried to get a turkey, but since we were a bit late on the draw the only ones we could get were already pre-basted.  Oh well, we replaced it with a nice kampung (village-raised) chicken instead.  Next year we'll get a real turkey.  They import them from Australia here and they can get a bit pricey...

We let the boys use the "fancy glasses" but only if they used straws.  There was only one spill.  I'd call that a success

The next day (Friday) we headed over to my colleague Amit's house, for Thanksgiving Round II and some real imported turkey.  Here the boys are wearing their blankets as capes and yelling "Two Batmans!" as we head to the car

Amit and Luz (his wife) have three kids and a bunch of toys.  We've been over there a couple of times and the boys love it

Such a great TV room.  The boys ended up here watching Little Einstein for a bit.  Amit downloaded an app from NFL.com that let us watch a couple of football games.  We watched the Redskins paste the Jets over chips and guacamole.  Good times

The million-dollar smile

We rounded the boys up for a few photos at their dining room table before we headed home.  On a side note, I'm not exactly sure how to describe my face in this picture here

That's better...

Love those smiles.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Happy Deepavali

 Andrew's school celebrated Deepavali this week and all the young kids dressed in Indian costumes.  Helen got this white punjabi suit for Andrew.  They had a parade and did an Indian dance.

 Here is Andrew with two of his friends--Kokoro and Veda.

The girls posed for pictures.  They were just too cute.

This is Elin, Andrew's neighbor friend who comes over to play occasionally.

Andrew and Ms. Belinda, the teacher's aide.

Andrew's class is sitting in the middle row for the performance.

The performance they did for us was in the outdoor courtyard/amphitheater at the school.

The student have been practicing a choreographed dance, led by Ms. Tai (another teacher).

Andrew was scared of the loud music and ended up on my lap sitting next to Joseph for the rest of the performance.

I had to bribe them to get them to hold hands and stand still for the picture.

Class photo.  As you can see, Andrew has friends from Japan, Holland, Australia, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Ghana.  And his teacher is Scottish!

And lastly, we walked back to class, and before I said goodbye Andrew asked me to put on this hat.  He would make a fine Indian construction worker.

My attempt at passport photos

So I have to turn in a passport size photo for each of the boys.  But really do I want to drag them both down to the photo shop--no way.  So I attempted to take them myself.  Are they hilarious or what.  Both Mike and I were dying laughing.  Mike especially couldn't stop laughing at Andrew's photo.

Side note, the stripe shirt here in the picture is Joseph's new favorite shirt.  I think he has worn this for two days now.  After the bath he noticed Mike put his shirt in the dirty clothes pile, and was crying to be able to wear it again for PJs.  He even pulled it out of the pile and was hugging it walking around naked.  It was funny.  But he did not win out.  Instead we let him wear Andrew's big dinosaur PJs.  We had to roll up the sleeves and everything.  I will have to take another photo.