The Big Durian

Gotta go to the movies during Christmas vacation, and the movie we wanted to see (Rise of the Guardians - we highly recommend it!) was in one of the big malls in center town.  On the 8th floor. Lest you think that Jakarta is a small town, here's a good picture of the big durian!

Updating our paintings

We had a few days between the Christmas extravaganza and our departure for Bali, so we decided to update our paintings.  Fun with acrylics must be done mostly naked and in a big space..

 ...with concentration...

 



 ...and apparently with a moon...

...and double-fisted!

USAID Mother's Day cook off!

 

Every year on Indonesian Mother's Day, the men of USAID participate in a cook-off in honor of the ladies. This year's theme was noodles (mie) or pasta.  There are secret, independent judges that score the dishes.

 

The men of the Office of Democracy and Governance made brown-butter sage (homemade) fettucini pasta with prawns, and an argula salad with garlic vinagrette topped with parmesan and dried spicy beef.

The food was judged on taste and presentation.. and the DG team came in second (first runners up).  Rumor has it that they would have won had they been judged solely on taste. 

 

 Master Chefs Luthfi, Diman and Zeric!

Christmas Dinner

[Note: Pammi the master photographer was snapping pictures left and right, so stay tuned for updates to this page as soon as I get the good ones from her.]

 

Staying true to the Smith-Breslar tradition, we had a big dinner with good friends. We did a lot of reminiscing about dinners on Girard Street.. and of course missed many of you very much.  Cheers to all of our friends - we feel lucky that you are in our lives!

 

Christmas Dinner 2012

Amuses bouches

Spicy sweet holiday nuts

Parmesan cannelés

Dinner

Tuna carpaccio with celery olive salad, with crostini,

crème fraiche and caviar

Crusty cranberry pinenut bread

Seared scallop on rocket salad, saffron cream dressing

Pan-grilled duck fois gras with fig balsamic reduction

Grill-smoked chicken ravioli with goat cheese and lemon,

truffle butter green beans

Cheese plate: sharp Scottish cheddar, Reblochon,

French goat cheese, chicken liver paté,

Gorgonzola (recommended with hazelnuts and honey)

Dessert

Gingerbread Borobudur

French country apple pie, heavy cream

This is the first course.. we got busy eating after that, so the pictures tapered.

Zeric's tuna carpaccio with capers, caviar and YUM

Zeric doing one of the things he does best..

Ravi and Molina, Pammi and Julian.. and Zoey

 

 Eating Borobudur.. Eben and Jaffa,

Kaede (and Indie asleep on the couch behind them)

We ate and drank ourselves late into the night.. almost slept in, woke up to a frenzy of presents, Skyped with the Smiths.. then took it easy for the rest of the day.. the boys (ermmmm) watched rugby ;)

Trophies

 

The first season of soccer for the Kemang Club Cubs is over, and there has been much improvement in the cubs' skills.  Coach Zeric did a great job teaching ball skills and sportsmanship, and gave ample opportunity for applying both in scrimages.  Every practice began with stretching and warm-ups.. like jumping jacks:

At the last practice, there was a review of all of the things we've learned.. including the principles of sportsmanship: no yelling, no puching, no getting mad when you lose, listen to the coach.. 

 

And there were trophies for all around..

 

 

 

Great season, Kemang Club Cubs!!

 

Borobudur in gingerbread

Aunt Tirzy (before she was Aunt) and I had an annual tradition of making a gingerbread.. something.  If we were lucky, Poosh and Reub would help too.  We did the Lincoln Memorial one year.. and a castle another year.  Even though my partner-in-gingerbread-and-icing is an ocean away, we're upholding the tradition thinking of her the whole way through.  I asked Zeric and the kids for an idea for this year's creation and Zeric had a brilliant one (he's good for those) - Borobudur!!

 

Here was the challenge:

 

 

And here is the attempt, with little (sticky) hands involved and some artistic license applied.. like the guardian panda cookies at the base of the staircase in lieu of the guardian lions:

 

We're going to start eating it tomorrow night -- come join us!

Mettez les faisses en l'air!

Eben takes an afterschool class called "eveil corporel" (awakening of the body). Mme Fred is the teacher, and she is great.. and he loves it.  It's somewhere across between yoga and dance and gymnastics.  And it's fun!!  Today parents were invited to watch the last class of the semester, and we had a blast seeing what the kids could do.  My favorite part was the warm up where Mme Fred said "mettez les faisses en l'air!" (put your buns in the air!) about 12 times.  And so, they did.

They also did lots of other things, together and alone.

And they were coordinated and knew what they were doing.

exercising in Bali

stretching towards the sky

Eiffel Towers

The class is 45 minutes long, and the kids did so many things.. and listened so well to Mme Fred. 

 I wonder what her secret is.  I may have to take a class myself to find out!

Tired tooth fairy

Jaffa has gotten brave.  She pulls out her own teeth now.  Last night, another one.  See the two holes on the bottom?  Her work.  She bled everywhere.. Ibu Sri screamed a little.  Me too.  We warned her to make sure that the ones she pulled out were loose ones, and NOT the big ones.  Crazy girl.

Hanukkah gelt

I think I mentioned that I ordered a big box of gelt for our Hanukkah party.. I did.  There was a lot.  It's gone except for a few last pieces that I'm going to eat right now.  If you've had it, you know that the chocolate they use is... special.  Probably not Belgian.  The next morning, a couple of Smith children left pre-breakfast piles around the house that looked like this:

And the funniest thing about it all is that Eben calls it Hanukkah "guilt" :)

Xmas lists and Santa

As you know, many toys come with mini-catalogs of all of the other toys you can wish for.  This is especially true for Legos and Littlest Pet Shops.  So, for the last several months, everytime Jaffa or Eben bring me a catalog to show me what they want, I ask them to write down the number of the thing that the want (it's great as we're learning to write our numbers correctly.. my little southpaws tend to write in mirror).  The result?  PAGES of numbers!

They also wrote letters to Santa.. Jaffa asked for a couple of specific things, then wrote, "and sum sapriziz" (sound it out.. sur pri ses!  me too.. I want surprises). She helped Eben with his letters when he was writing his letter.. it was super cute. I'm still not sure about that toy washing machine, though.. so that he can wash Jaffa's doll's clothes??  Sounds suspicious..

 Isabelle, their French tutor, asked Eben to draw his wish list, so here's what we got:

Check out the dragon!!  and the ninja!!

And so what does any self-respecting Jewish mother do with all of this?  Take it all to see Santa!!  He was a really nice guy.. and seemed to be having fun reading their letters with them--and of course getting full explanations of each item listed.

We'll have to see what Santa ends up bringing..

I do happen to know that a trip to Bali will be in my stocking!

Hanukkah!

Thanks to memere and her amazing care packages, we really did it up for Hanukkah this year. We had the table cloth, the Star of David cookie sprinkles, garland, and confetti!! [Festive cookie cutters from Uncle Reuben have been a feature for the last 3? years that we have had them..]  And then I ordered 100 plastic dreidels (all colors) and gelt - WOW!! Did we impress our friends!  We were all Jew-ed up!!

The menu included latkes--sweet potato/potato AND carrot, homemade applesauce, brisket, apricot-glazed chicken, challah, Afia's chickpeas, garlic broccole, challah donuts, Sharon's awesome apple crisp.  It was soooo yummy.. and the house smelled like Hanukkah for three days.

To top it off, we had a great Skype call the next morning (when Hannukah wasn't yet over at memere's house!) with the Breslar-Oleksiuk-Chichester-Georg-Greenes.  We were suffering badly from the grease hangover, but it was great to catch up with everyone.  We sure miss being home with everyone this holiday season!!

Over the course of the prior seven days, there were gifts abound (in spite of my promise to go easy this year).  Zeric got a replacement Samuel Watimena shirt (the drycleaner apparently had good taste and stole his first one).  Tirz and Bill went in on this one.. I'm sure they approve of my choice as it is as colorful as the man who will be wearing it.

Speaking of designer cloths, Jaffa created a halter dress for her Barbie with the sewing machine that memere sent.  She designed it herself.. and used the machine with a little help this first time to be sure that fingers didn't get sewn in too.

The first of many Lego sets that Eben has gotten/will be getting over the course of these holidays.  At first, this was also an investment of Zeric's time.. but Eben is getting quite good at following the instructions himself.  It's pretty cool!

As for me, I scored a FABULOUS pearl cuff from the far away Indonesian islands.. a purse from my favorite purse store made from Kalimantan weaving (thanks Mom!).. some great earrings.. and loads of smooches. 

It was a great holiday!!

Where's memere when Eben needs her?

As most of you know, memere's favorite saying is, "I'm gonna knock your teeth out!"  Well, Eben has his first loose tooth--and we need memere to come knock it out!!  C'mon, memere, hurry!!!

Fashion show

Who knew that we had professional models in the house?

Ladies and gentlemen.. the latest line of tropical fashion on Jakarta's most sophisticated runway models

including a few pink poodles

Football - parents vs kids



Group photo, pre mud bath (Eben and Zeric are far left)

I'm sure you know that the French like their football (soccer) almost as much as the English do.. and so we shouldn't be surprised that lots and lots of parents volunteered to play their children on a hot and muggy day a few weekends ago.  It's the rainy season, too, so there was no shortage of MUD.  It was pretty fun to watch.. especially given that I signed Zeric up to play the 5-year-olds with a big bunch of moms--and one other dad.


Enthusiastic cheering section

And, the game begins!!

And, the kids won 5-4!! 

Cheers to all the muddy players for a good game!

Getting Eben ready for CP

Now that Jaffa is in CP (1st grade), she is mentoring Eben in all the essential skills for next year.  Accordingly, she has made worksheets.. they include verbal instructions and some coaching.

Draw the best way for the alien to get to him home planet without getting burned by the sun.

A+!!

Draw the path for the car to get back to the house because the surprise party at the friend's house isn't ready yet.

A+!!

Draw a line connecting the alien to his favorite gummy treat from the pinata.

A+!!

I think Eben is well on his way to being ready for next year :)

Later: here's the test that Jaffa made for Daddy tonight.  He has yet to fill it out.  I wonder if he'll pass.