It's basketball season again!

 

Two pictures today of our neighbor boys playing with firecrackers tonight, the ninth day of Chinese New Year, especially celebrated by the Hokkien.

After a meeting with a nutritionist we came home and ate bowls of veggies for dinner. Only veggies.
Josh was less than impressed.

We had a great barbecue tonight with a group of CMA partners and friends - so good to be pulling together in the same direction!

Happy 49th Birthday to my awesome husband!!

Along with the Lion Dance performance down at our clubhouse today we were 'treated' to the incredible clamor of cymbals, drums and two fifteen foot long strings of fireworks.  I was not the only one plugging my ears!

As we went into Gurney Mall (with every other Penang resident, it seemed) this is what we saw across the road.

 More CNY decorations at Straits Quay, a lovely new place on the water full of places to eat and drink.

 

We had a great afternoon at a Chinese New Year open house with a young lady from our church and her family.

While we were in Phuket we decided we should really use our own pool more, so we spent a bit of time down there today and I took this shot of an interesting plant with the water in the background.

Looking down our street in the early evening.  Love this view!

 

 

What I saw from the school campus today.

 
Gong Xi Fa Chai - Happy Chinese New Year! 
While we live in Malaysia, a predominantly Muslim country, our island has a rich Chinese heritage and these next few days will be full of celebrations, lion dances, drumming presentations, fireworks and lots of people who have come to be with their families for the holiday. 

 
Because there are no Dairy Queens in Malaysia, we always finish off a trip to Thailand with a Blizzard at the airport.  Today was no exception! 

 
Last day of vacation.... 

On the way to dinner on our bike....with some crazy guy in the background.

Josh was disappointed when his chicken fried rice lunch arrived looking (and tasting, as it turned out) much less exciting than Bob's pineapple fried rice. Still, with three of us eating for less than $10,  it was a great meal!

Josh ordered a banana pancake from this couple at the weekend market and said it tasted as good as he remembered!

We spent a fun day exploring the island on our bikes. 

No words...just beauty.

Thankful for a getaway to Phuket, Thailand.

Gorgeous bougainvillea blooming on the balcony.

Our church raised around $10,000 over the Advent season for a school for children of refugees from Myanmar and today we went to the school to meet some of the children and attend the dedication of the library.  As well as funding the library and a staff room, we also are helping them buy a second van for transportation so the 62 children can get to school more easily.  What a blessing it was to us to be able to be there!!

What a great three weeks we had with Rachel here in Penang.  Sad to see her leave on the plane at 7:50 am tomorrow morning.

Time to take down the Christmas tree tomorrow....and it's probably the last time that Rachel's ornaments will hang on our tree.  :-(

 

While waiting to have a meeting down in the clubhouse of our community I saw the beautiful reflections in the pool.  We do live in a lovely place!
 

Evening at the beach in Batu Ferringhi....photos followed by successful shopping in the night market.

Ready to head out for a day of white water rafting and abseiling down a waterfall on the mainland of Malaysia.  Super fun day enjoying the fresh river water and beautiful greenery!

The 'moving' night market sets up close to where we live each Tuesday night, offering all kinds of food, drinks, clothes, watches, wallets, shoes..... Meat on a stick, anyone?

The G Hotel decorates this 'g'  for every holiday....I want to try catch all the changes through the year. Coming soon...Chinese New Year...celebrations for this holiday are loud and long!!

 Life in Penang seems to center around the abundant and always available local food.  One of our favorites....sizzlin' chicken out in Batu Ferringhi.  Delicious!