Catchin' Up

Well, we've officially left Bandung now & are on our way into Aceh. The last couple weeks have been crazy with moving 'n all so we're just catching up to our blog. Lest we forget, a new year has begun & thus a new month of things to celebrate :)
Jan 2 Happy Mew Year for Cats Day
Jan 5 Fruitcake Toss Day - does this mean pitch or toss to a friend?!
Jan 10 Islamic New Year Day
Jan 21 Not just MLK Day, but Squirrel Appreciation Day too!
Jan 23 National Pie Day - we'd suggest trying a pb pie - excellent
Jan 24 Belly Laugh Day
Jan 28 Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day - what would we do w/o good 'ole BW?

You can find more holidays on brownielocks.com - hope your New Year's was great!

New Year’s Celebration

What’s New Year’s without silliness? L-R: Here’s Raula (well, her back), Della sportin’ some style, Tasha & Neraya (their cousins). No more half smiles and disinterested poses when you give the camera to the kids and tell them to take some pictures! :)

E with Poppy’s Mom

For New Year’s Eve, Arief & Poppy had a wonderful dinner & fireworks at their place. Their family has become so special to us – we’re very thankful for their open hearts to us!

Puffy Paintness

So the day after Christmas we attended a white-elephant gift exchange. Elissa scored with puffy paints which we used shortly thereafter as a fun way to celebrate Heikella (Della’s) birthday a little early. (Della’s far left, sporting the newspaper apron – so cute!)

Final pix with Bandi Fam

Here’s a pix taken with the Pak Bandi family after our goodbye gathering. From right to left: Pak (Mr.) Bandi, Jason, Pak Ahmad & wife Ibu (Mrs.) Rita (Pk Bandi’s daughter), Elissa, and Ibu Bandi – we’re going to miss this family!

Ibu Noneng & her Daughter

Ibu Noneng is such a sweet lady and has been such a help in our home this last year.

Saying Goodbye Sundanese Style

We promise we didn’t pose this picture, but it sure looks like it. Here J is “shaking hands” good bye by clasping both a man’s hands between his own. Elissa is doing another variation on the same theme by shaking a man’s hand with her right hand while holding her right arm with her left hand. Greeting is acceptable with both hands or your right, but nothing should be done with your left hand only!

Pak Bandi & Crew

As E passed by, Pak Bandi asked if J could snap a picture. He asked “Boleh?” – asking J’s permission to put his arm around her shoulder – very precious.

J with Local Leaders

These guys are great – Pak Bandi to the far left & the others are neighbors that lived nearby us.

Beautiful Ladies

The women all crowded into the kitchen together & chatted away – these are great ladies.

Perpisahan – “A Leaving”

A Sundanese tradition when coming or leaving a place is to invite your neighbors in & share a meal together. Here’s a pix of our livingroom cleared of all furniture, etc. & covered with carpets (donated by our neighbors) to make room for our neighbors. Elissa along with some other women are serving the men their food in this picture.

Pak Bandi Rocks!

Here Pak Bandi (right) is helping to guide the wardrobe down with a long bamboo pole. Interesting fact – he’s already retired & still going strong!

Moving Day

Well, we had a wardrobe to return to a friend & since we lived on the 2nd floor with a super steep & narrow staircase, there was only 1 way to get the wardrobe back – over the edge!

Wow!

This is one of our favorite memories from our time in Bandung. About a dozen of our neighbors came over to wish us a Merry Christmas even though most of them personally don’t celebrate this holiday – it was so kind!

Christmas Gift

One of J’s gifts to E was a meal out at Tony Roma’s- yes, it’s in Bandung too! We got a pix on our way out, not even seeing the mural in the background…how patriotic of us ;)

Our Indo Family

Our Christmas celebration with Arief & Poppy’s fam – this was right before we opened gifts together.

Christmas Breakfast Take Two

The morning after Christmas Day we celebrated again with Arief & Poppy’s family. Here’s Crissy & Jason making pancakes & omelettes with Arief & Poppy’s girls – Raula (L) & Heikella (R)

Christmas Day Middle Eastern Style

We celebrated a meal with a Middle Eastern theme to remember the roots of Christmas with our good friends the Maxey family. The kabobs & hummus were outstanding!

Breakfast Christmas Morning

Christmas morning breakfast – pancakes, omelettes – sure the syrup was $5 a bottle, but it’s celebration time :)

Christmas Indo Style

Here’s our Christmas décor. Elissa’s family growing up used a manger instead of a tree to arrange their gifts in & around – this is as close as we got!

Happy Birthday Jason

He's gotten alot cuter since this baby picture taken 30 years ago today! Send him a comment or an email :) ~Elissa

Early Christmas

We celebrated a little Christmas together before M&D headed back to Cambodia. Jason’s showing off his new M&M’s boxers…

Dinner on a Waterfall

On one of our final nights together, we took M&D to Kampung Daun, a restaurant built around a gorgeous waterfall. The folks in Bandung (Sundanese) are great at using different lighting to create ambience. At this restaurant they use tiki torches & bonfires to light up the night.

The Real Rainforest Café :)

Here’s 2 pictures of a nice lunch out together. This restaurant is in the Malya hotel with a beautiful 180 view of a preserved rainforest. It’s probably one of the last ones in Bandung. Elissa claims the pasta there was the best she’s had since coming to Indo....mmm – pesto!

Boat Outing with Dad

Jason took this picture from the back of “our” boat. Each lodge had its own boat to get around the lake – fun! Here’s Dad hard at work paddling :)

Leaving on a Jet Plane

This takes serenading your guests to a whole new level – if you listen carefully you can hear the band singing “leaving on a jet plane…” – guess "leaving on a raft" doesn't have the same ring to it!

Weekend at Arief's Resort

For our only weekend together, our friend Arief let us stay at his resort, Kampung Sampireun. In this picture you can see (in the back on the hill) our lodge.


Here’s a picture off our balcony @ night. Arief built this resort from scratch around a little lake on his family’s land.

Bathing Water Buffalo

We cracked up when we saw this…water buffalo getting scrub-downs with grass loofahs!

Check out the video – they love getting their bellies scrubbed!

"Oleh-Oleh"

An oleh-oleh is a small gift given when visiting friends. Mom & Dad D brought oleh-olehs from Cambodia for our close friends including Pak Bandi. He’s a former Japanese & Indonesian language teacher so M & D brought him a Cambodian alphabet t-shirt (pix taken on our front porch) :)

Big Flowers

Before Mom & Dad came to town we had a chance to go for a walk at a nearby park. Even though it’s just up the road from where we live, we never knew about it ‘til Pak Bandi took us there! We walked down a whole lane of these hanging trumpet flowers.