Garry and Kevin actually took a couple pictures on their little trip! Garry had to go to Manila for immigration paperwork, and Kevin went along for a birthday trip. They enjoyed dinner at Chili's and Kevin got some practice stringing racquets as well as some great badminton play. I think they had a ton of fun!

And, we got our Christmas tree up last night! I've been putting off listening to Christmas music simply because it didn't seem right with so few preparations made at our house. But now that the tree's up and I have hope of starting on my Christmas baking on Monday, it all feels much better. Garry and Kevin did a little Christmas shopping in Manila, and I'm not sure we're going to do any more. Strange at it sounds, none of us are really wishing for anything in particular this Christmas-- we are simply looking forward to being together and having some quiet time over the Christmas season.

Our flight programs are busy these days, both with scheduled flights and with delays. One of our families is waiting for paperwork and here in Mindanao we're waiting for the weather to clear. Some days it seems to many "odd" things are happening... but the reality is that these are the norms of living here. Kaleb mentioned this morning that there are lots of things that don't make us look twice but we wouldn't often see in Canada: things like someone walking out the upper story window to lay their laundry on the roof to dry.