Saturday, December 15, 2012

Christmas is all around us....

We watched Love Actually with some friends this weekend and I cannot get the remix of "Love is all around us" out of my head....it's not such a bad thing:) Luckily, Christmas IS all around us...it's been another holidazed week...


More delicious food: Bun Bo Nam Bo from Commune, I think I have an obsession


The Holiday tree in the foyer of the Rose Garden, done by VN staff, pretty rad!


Pad thai, spinach and red curry
YUM!


Hot apple cider from an HIWC "Coffee" morning


Look at all of the holiday goodies I can buy from UMA!
I resisted and only bought a few goods, I am continuously amazed by the availability of Western goods


Fried tofu at Bi Do: Red Pumpkin for lunch


shrimp and peppers at Bi Do

In addition to the holidays, we had a Medical visitor in to do lead testing for the small kids. Since our offices are close, I got a lot of visitors in my office this week, which resulted in this:


The talented artists of US Embassy Ha Noi!

On Friday, we had our door decorating contest. There were some pretty amazing doors....


MED: See the flu shots in Santa's sleigh?


MED: with pictures of their kids who made it possible:)


Information Resource Management: 
Of course, IT had all the bells and whistles: even music and a slideshow!



ECON: the nerdiest by far :) 
"A Free Toy Agreement for the 21st Century"


more of ECON


Is this the Mailroom, or a rave?


The Mailroom door: a package, very clever!


The Mailroom gets props for dressing as reindeer


CONSULAR
With a recycling theme, very creative!


the actual door to CONSULAR
everything is recycled here!


Of course, the FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT OFFICE door has a tree made of money


The HR Angels


one of my favorite Angels:)


another favorite angel....


The Management Counselor in a banana split sleigh
He has an ice cream social and taught the local staff how to make banana splits:)


Back to CONSULAR to view the slideshow!


REGIONAL SECURITY OFFICE:
with walkie-talkies and badges!


USAID had an entire presentation...


Very impressive! An entirely recycled display:)


Notice how everyone has plastic bag "stockings"


CDC had Dr. Santa!


More CDC....


See the snow made of recycled shredded paper?


What makes me feel like Christmas? A sleigh full of condoms, thank you CDC!

As many of you know, I was feeling very sad about not having many ornaments that were "mine" on the Christmas tree, so I asked my dad to send me a few....I was VERY happy to receive a care package this week!


Who remembers this guy?! I don't even remember how old he is, but I am so happy to have him in our Christmas decorations:)


A box of ornaments from my childhood; I am pretty sure that the Hulk Hogan santa isn't mine, but I am keeping him! Sorry bro!


The angel from my tree, with VN/US wings

In the spirit of the holidays, I have been doing a lot of baking. I am planning to take several of my Grandma's peanut butter balls to a few parties, so I bought three bags of semi sweet chocolate chips....


These bags cost $21 total. I am going to order some online. Oi gioi oi!


I bought my own snowflakes for our house, it's getting festive in here!

Last night we had an ugly sweater party for a friend's birthday and a going away party also....thanks to my mama, we got into it:


Hubs and his ugly sweater....


The peanut butter balls! Ready for the party!


Taking the elevator to the party....it was only 5 floors away, but the stairs are sketchy...


Oh fer cute....


Ugly sweaters!


More "ugly" sweaters


The cutest sisters in HaNoi
Happy birthday Sam--Jenny; we are going to miss you!


These ladies make ugly sweaters look good!


SO FUN!

This morning we went to a Hanukkah brunch and I was so overwhelmed by the amazing latkes and quiches that I forgot to take photos! Whoops....It was a lot of fun. One of the highlights was a little boy singing "dreidel, dreidel, dreidel, I made it out of play-doh"<which he did!> The Hubs and another friend got schooled playing dreidel with two kids and we had a lovely morning. 

This next week will be a little more low key....well, probably not.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!

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