Merry Christmas from KL! (sort of)

Merry Christmas, y'all!

I was at the Pavilion Mall in late November.  Never expected all this!!

I don't know if you can tell, but that Santa has to be 30 feet high!  I heard "Joy to the world, the Lord is come, let earth receive her King, etc." playing from the speakers.  In a Muslim country.  You would have never that in Oman!

This tree and the next one were in Metrojaya, a department store.

These trees were done up right.  Looked like something from Macy's!

Now here is a dilemma.  Do you dress for the weather or the season?  Allison dresses for the weather and Brenda for the season.  With temps constantly in the lower 90's, dressing for the temperature usually wins!

Mid Valley Mall in KL had a floral theme.

Shopping for Christmas decorations in Chinatown

Not quite Hobby Lobby, but it will do in a pinch.

Bangsar Shopping Center!

It had a gingerbread house theme.  It was so nice walking into any of these malls and hearing all the wonderful Christmas music.  Here is the thing.  I am writing this blog post from Texas.  I have been to a few malls here in Texas, and I have yet to hear Christmas music in the malls.  All the malls in KL, along with most public spaces, were decorated to the max, with Christmas music constantly playing.

Our Christmas tree.  I left all my Christmas decorations in storage, so these ornaments were purchased in Oman and KL.  By the way, Metrojaya is my favorite place to buy Christmas decorations!

Wreath on my antique doors

This was my daughter Amanda's Christmas card picture this year.  My grandson, Cooper.  I approve!

Austin, Jared, Poppa, and Joe

Jared and Savannah

We flew 25 hours to be back in Texas!  This is what Christmas in Mineola, Texas looks like.   Merry Christmas, y'all!

Tomorrow we finally get to see our grandson again!  Brace yourself for more pictures.

Golfing in KL

Today I have another guest writer-- my husband Joe!  He went golfing in KL a couple of weeks ago.  The pictures were amazing, so I will let him tell you all about it.

Well, this was the most interesting golfing I've experienced in Malaysia. I went to Templars Park Country Club just outside Kuala Lumpur. It was a great day with two of my colleagues. I hadn't golfed in a while, so I was looking forward to a good round.  This huge limestone bluff was visible from all 18 holes. It was stunning and completely surrounded by jungle.

The first thing that told me I wasn't in Kansas any more was this monkey. I should have known because there were monkey warnings all over our golf cart. We should have paid attention to the warnings....

If you don't pay attention, nothing is safe in the golf cart. At first it was our Pepsi 100 drinks (Malaysian Gatorade). One minute it was in our cup holder, the next minute some monkey was slobbering on it 50 feet in the air on a nice branch. This shot was of the monkey trying to break my friend's smoking habit. Look closely and you can see several cigarettes on the ground and the monkey is exploring the empty package.

This is a shot of my two golf buddies - Jong-Koo and Raymond. None of us took it too seriously and enjoyed the round.

Another critter I was shocked to see were the big iguanas. This one is foraging and is actually much smaller than some I've seen in KL. Your first instinct is to run, but they are pretty tame.

Another shot of the limestone bluff and one of the scenic holes. Since you can't fact-check this, let's say I birdied this hole.

I like the surroundings - just off the course was dense jungle teeming with monkeys, mosquitoes, and snakes. However, the course was well designed and fun. Extra golf balls are advisable.....