Christmas Recap 2015

Better late than never, amiright?

I'm about three weeks behind, but I wanted to get up a holiday recap before time totally gets away from me.

It goes without saying that Michael and I had the BEST time back home for the holidays. We hadn't been back to the States for a full year, so we were extra excited to spend time with our family and friends over the span of two weeks. Our trip included trips between Omaha and KC, lots of good food, snow(!), time with family, late nights with friends, holiday cheer and plenty of love and showering of baby D. 

A photo recap below: 

Snow!!! (Buddy the Elf voice). We had a surprise, very white Christmas Eve up in Omaha. Toto, we're not in Singapore any more. 

My family has made it a tradition to go to the Durham (where Michael and I got married, aww) over the holidays and check out the massive Christmas tree. The downstairs is also a train museum which my nephews love. 

Luke loves him some Uncle Michael - it's the sweetest. 

Selfie stick time over at my sisters casa.  

During my first weekend back, my godmother Lisa and friends Amy and Neely were so very sweet to host a baby shower for our girl. It was wonderful being able to see so many family members and friends from home over cinnamon rolls, mimosas and tiny little baby clothes (side note, wow babies need a lot of stuff). Thank you all for coming - it was perfect!  

My Millard West gals - 2 full babies + 3 halves :)

One cannot spend time in NE and without having at least one Runza. (Also Valentino's pizza - not pictured)

...to Grandmothers house we go... 

Sending Christmas Eve with my family, we made the pilgrimage out to Yutan, NE for dinner and church at my grandparents. With all of the extended family together for the first time and in a long time, we took the opportunity for a large family photo. How cute are we? :)

The whole Stamp crew of brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, spouses and great grand babes. 

Michael and I have also made it somewhat of a tradition to hit up Shirley's Diner for some good ole, down home Midwestern diner food. So. Good. 

Now, headed south on I-29 to Kansas City...

My first night in KC kicked off with a massive holiday party/30th birthday celebration/baby shower at the Duvall's. It was so fun seeing so many of our friends in one place and starting the holidays off with a bang. KKG love ---> 

A big shout out to all of our sweet friends and family friends who were so kind to give to our group gift. Baby D will be rolling around Singapore in style in her fancy new stroller ;)

Random dog photo. I love my Jack-in-law. 

Family photo on Christmas night. [Excels at self-timer photography]  

It's not a trip to KC without a visit to Ponak's. It's the best. Although it's admittedly not as great without the addition of their famous margaritas, it was still just as amazing as I often dream of. Mmmm I'm thinking about it right now... 

While in KC I had one more shower with my best college gals - feeling loved. 

Love you sistas! 

D-awwwww.... 

Annual holiday dinner with these wonderful people. 

Party crasher. 

And on our second to last night in the States we headed to Lawrence to watch the Jayhawks at Allen Fieldhouse. One cannot visit Lawrence without a compulsory stop at The Wheel. Being 7.5 months pregnant at a bar is a tad embarrassing, but the Wheel is still awesome. (I think I horrified a few college students by accidentally bumping into them with my bump. Ew sorry). 

Hawks win! 

...and finally after two crazy, action-packed, amazing weeks in KC and Omaha, Michael, myself, baby, my compression tights and a huge bag of Cheez-its were ready for the long haul back to Singapore. 

We had such a wonderful time during our trip home. We were reminded just how lucky we are to have such amazing families and friends who love us dearly. We miss you all like crazy. 

We are planning on moving back to the States in the fall, so we look forward to the holidays being a little less hectic (and jet lagged) next year. Thank you everyone for all the love, hospitality and effort in making our trip home so insanely fun and memorable. 

Much, much love! 

XO,

CD

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The Weekender: O'Dennys in Singapore

Michael and I have said to each other multiple times in the last few days - Wow, what a fun weekend. This past weekend we were lucky enough to host our good friends Chris and Kate in Singapore. (You may recognize them from such previous posts). Neither had traveled to Singapore before so we were excited to show them our home and city. Michael and I thrive on lowering people's expectations to the point of trepidation and then blowing their minds with our awesome life. :)

A recap below:

The 'O'Dennys', as they are tongue-in-cheekly known, arrived in Singapore on Thursday just in time for dinner. We feasted at our favorite neighborhood KBBQ spot and were early to bed to tackle the steamy streets of Singapore the next morning. Friday I played local tour guide with compulsory stops at the top of the Sands hotel and lunch at Lau Pa Sat. 

Friday night we made plans for drinks on Club Street and dinner at Ding Dong - an Asian fusion restaurant located in the cutest little shop house just up the street from the heart of Club Street. I had been there before with some gals and knew it was a must-return local joint. 

The food was unreal...still patting myself on the back for this pick. 

Saturday morning we decided (I forced everyone) to embark on a 5k mild incline to the tree top walk at MacRitchie Resivor. It turned into a 12k adventure (the tree tops are only about 100 yards of that) but it's a great way to see a different side of Singapore. Snakes and lizards and monkeys, oh my! 

That headband tho. 

Is it cocktail hour yet? Why yes it is...

As a grounp of semi novice Singaporeans, we decided that we should try the much discussed 'local cuisine' - Peranakan. We went here. The origins date back to the Chinese decent into the Malay peninsula during the 15th-17th century (thank you Wikipedia). Peranakan food is certainly not something Michael and I would order and eat while watching She's All That on a Sunday night, but giving it a good college try with our venturesome guests was the right thing to do. Fish head curry FTW! 

"So what should we do after dinner?"

"I know! How about 3.5 hours of straight kar-a-o-ke?!"

... And goodnight. 

Sunday on our last day together we ventured over to the Art & Science museum to check out the new da Vinci exhibit. We had seen a banner advertisement during our walk on Friday and were all keen to check it out. 

After a little (okay, a lot) of satay for lunch the weekend was coming to an end. We sadly said bon voyage (literally) to our guests and watched them (not literally) disembark on a two week Celebrity Cruise around the region. [If you are into travel, big adventure and even better writing, follow their year-long journey here]

Thanks for a fun weekend guys! See you back at port in 2 weeks. 

XO,

CD

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The Weekender: Singapore Formula 1

Hey guys! Back with a weekend re-cap (2 weeks late). Last week when I was getting ready to blog, I realized Michael had taken the computer with him to Hong Kong for the week so I had no way of uploading photos from the camera (I think this has happened one, or 3 times before). 

I have a recap of our fun-filled trip to HK this past weekend, but I couldn't miss out on the opportunity to recap our first Singapore Formula 1 experience (with our good friends J + P). See, look at how happy Michael is! Thumbs up, yo!     

The Singapore Grand Prix is a major event in the city. They set up for weeks and weeks preparing for and hyping the event. The unique thing about the Singapore race is that is runs literally through the city, not around a track. It is really crazy to witness as we often drive, run and ride our bikes all over the same area. 

Most of the F1 tickets are sold in 3-day packages, so we had tickets for Friday's practice session, Saturday prelims and the final event on Sunday night. To get fueled up (pun intended) for the action on Saturday, we had a wonderful (and sweaty) brunch down on Keppel Bay. We ate at this super cute cafe situated on a beautiful marina where all the rich and famous people park their yachts. Michael and I had never been to this part of the island so it was neat to walk around and explore a bit. Minus the crazy Asian skyscrapers, it all felt very Caribbean. 

Me + Jo + our friend Mag who lives in SG

Showing off more of the sights - pit stop (I'm on a roll) to the Maxwell Hawker and a stroll through China Town checking out the beautiful flowers up for the Mid-Autumn festival. 

Back to the action...

There was plenty to do and see in-between races: food, games, souvenir shopping, live music (hello J-Lo, John Legend and Robbie Williams), etc. In true Singapore fashion, it was all very organized and enjoyable (and expen$ive). Singapore has a lot of pride and excitement in hosting such an awesome event year after year. 

I quickly discovered taking photos at an F1 is a little like photographing fireworks. You try and take a million pics but it is never, ever as awesome as the real thing live. Not even close. I know zero about cars and even less about F1, but it was really very enjoyable and exciting to watch. 

With much conviction I quickly declared that 'Lewis Hamilton is my favorite driver.' To which Michael slowly rolled his eyes and explained that quote, that is like saying Tom Brady is your favorite football player, end quote. After some quick googling I discovered that Lewis Hamilton is dating  Nicole Scherzinger from the Pussy Cat Dolls so yes Michael, he IS my favorite driver. (Spoiler alert: Hamilton won the race, btw)

The Red Bull team had the coolest looking cars, if there is a prize for that. Zoom! 

We walked around and scouted out multiple areas of the track to watch from. It was kind of a fun little game, much more fun than sitting in our seats for an entire race. 

Fun fact: Singapore Grand Prix is the only location to do a night race. 

Our view from the Bay Grandstand at night. Everyone talks about how loud the cars are. They are VERY loud, but from what I understand they are using some new hybrid engine or fuel or something so they are about half as loud as they used to me. Very loud, but ear plugs not necessary. 

It was a great weekend to be in Singapore. So happy we were able to experience the event with good friends. See you in Monaco next year!? ;)

Lots of love from Singapore. 

XO,

CD

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