Christmas Scavenger Hunt.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas here in Colombo.  It is rather surprising considering that this is a Buddhist country, and the percentage of Christians here is rather small- someone told me like 2% (don't quote me).  

However, Christmas seems to be a big deal here.  It is fun to see all of the decorations up, cashiers wearing santa hats, and retailers referring to this as the busy season.

Ben and I decided to go on a Christmas Scavenger Hunt.

It was such a fun date!  

We wandered around the city in search of the items on our list, in fact, there was only one item we did not find.  

Here are the results of our scavenger hunt.

1.  Santa Claus.  We didn't want to pay for a picture with Santa.  (Sneaky, huh?)

2. Reindeer. 

3/4.  Christmas Tree and a Star.

5.  Poinsettia.  I thought this one was going to be difficult, but artificial poinsettias were abound.

6.  Snow/snowman.  We did not find a snowman, but this display had plenty of snow.

Ben told me this picture was not the most flattering, but I was trying to look cold.

7.  Baby Jesus.  This is the only one we could find.  I am hoping one of the churches will have something a little bigger, but not so far.

8. CocaCola Christmas ad.

9. Angel

10. The Grinch.  

We couldn't find him.  We even went to MANY video stores, with no luck.  

I hope that wherever you live, and whatever you celebrate, you are able to find a way to enjoy it.

Dancing the Night Away.

Jack's school celebrated it's 55th birthday this year, and part of the celebration was a ball.  Ben and I had so much fun!  We had an awesome table, we danced like crazy, and at the end of the night, we won one of the raffle prizes (a gift certificate to one of my favorite stores)!  

We had a blast, and it was fun to see Jack's teachers in a different way.

Dancing shoes.

The "prom" picture.

We sat with Charlene and her husband, and they were our dancing friends.  You should have seen it, we pulled out all sorts of classic moves such as a fishing pole, changing a lightbulb, and my new favorite, bowling.  I am pretty sure we need to come up with a choreographed number for the Marine Ball.  

Self portrait. 

It is seriously disgusting how sweaty one can become while dancing.  But you know what?  

Who cares?  It was fun!  

Going to the Movies.

After a break of over three years, we finally made it to a movie together. Complete with the traditional milk duds and popcorn, it was a wonderful date. We went to see Inception, which was an amazing movie. I really enjoyed it; however, it was really long.  I won't say any more about the movie, because I don't want to ruin it for anyone who has not seen it yet.


I have decided that going to the movies is not my favorite kind of date, which would partially explain why it has been so long since we have been to a movie. I would much rather go somewhere that we can talk and spend time interacting together. I think our next date we will be looking for a skating rink. Doesn't that sound like fun? Or perhaps bowling. Nothing says hot date like wearing footwear that has been worn by complete strangers who may or may not have foot fungus. Just saying.

Date Night.

I experienced my first moment of fear here in Tijuana.  It wan't really justified, I think I have just seen too many movies.  Let me tell you what happened. 
It was a Friday night.  The kids were at home with my sister, I was dressed in my party dress, and I even painted my toenails.  It was perfect.  I picked Ben up from work, and we headed down to an Argentinean restaurant that had great reviews.  When we arrived I chose our seats, next to the window.  I thought that it would be fun to watch the people and the cars go by.  We were enjoying our big pile of meat, and in walks a Federal Police officer.  He was followed by several other people and others outside the door.  It's okay, they were just coming in to eat dinner.  No big deal, right?  Then I look out the window.  There are lights flashing, and several Suburban looking vehicles all driving by in motorcade fashion.  I look, and inside the vehicles are military type guys with huge guns sticking out the windows.  At that moment, I wish that I did not pick the table by the window.  I am pretty sure my heart skipped a beat.  Car after dark car drove by with more and more guys and more and more big guns.  Nothing happened.  It was probably some sort of State visitor that needed a protective detail, but in this little head of mine, things were about to break bad.  Pretty dramatic, huh?  Oh, then on the way home we were stuck in traffic because of police check points.  Oh, Tijuana, how I love the adventure. 
We spent our Saturday night listening to music and sitting in our backyard.  We have very high walls, security lights, and razor wire to keep us almost worry free. 
We will see what happens on next weeks date.