Christmas: Part III

Lombok, Indonesia 

After a busy and fun Christmas week in Tembagapura, we took the family to Lombok Island for some fun and relaxation in the sun. We spent 7 days of doing a whole lot of nothing... Well I say a whole lot of nothing, but the next 16 pictures suggest otherwise. ;)

We stayed at a beach resort on the west central shores of Lonbok. The location of the pool to the beach was about 15 feet! Truly, the best of both worlds! :)

Of course in between our pool and nap time was our card game time!

Chris did take the three oldest out diving the Gili Islands, which are located in north west Lombok. 

Grandpa and Gabby stayed in the pool. :)

The only reason I wanted to go to Lombok was to visit a place that made Lombok pottery. So Chris, the girls, mom and I set out on a tour. Unfortunately for me, it was not the tour I wanted. I didn't want to go where all the tourists go, I wanted to go where the "real" artisans were working and see all the steps in making the pottery. But I guess when you don't explain yourself well enough, then you get what you get! 

Gabby did get to make her own little pot. 

Artist using an egg shell motif to decorate some of the pottery. 

The finished product. 

After our "tour" to the pottery, the driver talked us into visiting a small village where the ladies were weaving traditional Lombok textiles.  They welcomed the girls to give it a try. 

The ladies sit in these looms for 10+ hours a day unless they have to help get the rice harvest in from the fields. 

They dressed Marz in traditional Lombok dress. 

This lady here was spinning cotton in to yarn. 

New Year's Eve!

We all put our party hats on and went to the fabulous New Year's Eve party at the hotel. 

And if course, a true Indonesian vacation is not complete unless you get one of their $6, hour long, feet and leg massage. Needless to say, we got a few of these during the week!

Time now to pack up and fly off to the next destination... :)

Christmas: Part II

Since my mom and dad came for Christmas, and we haven't been home for a Christmas in five years, I wanted to try and recreate out traditional "Schlomer Family" Christmas. Yes, oyster stew and all!

To accommodate all our guest, we had FM set a tent, or two, up in our back yard. Since it rains in Tembag every now and again... Ha ha ha!! Understatement of the century! It rains ALL THE TIME!  This is why the need for tents...  It just so happened that the night the tent was first set up, there was a torrential down pour and at 12:30 in the morning, CRASH! Needless to say the "crash" woke all the adults up, "What the heck was that?"  Dad thought someone had fallen down the stairs!

So we call FM first thing in the morning and they were great getting everything set back up in time for the party!

Before the party could begin, a friend of ours, took the kids and dad down to Banti, a local Papuan village. They too were getting ready to celebrate Christmas, in their own way, with a traditional pig roast. It just so happened that they needed some extra muscle to help move the hot stones on to the pigs and Teddy just happened to be there to help! :)

(These photos are all courtesy of our friend Merv.)

Not many people can say they have visited an indigenous Papuan village, but our kids can say that and say that they participated in traditional Papuan pig roast!  What an experience!

Now in to the party!!

Christmas Eve was so much fun!!  We had so many people over to the house and sooooo much food!!  My mom did make oyster stew, with canned oysters a friend brought in from Australia. I made the traditional Sloppy Joe's. It was as close to a Schlomer Christmas Eve that you could get:

Great Food!  Great Friends!  Great Family!

I was too busy running around to take pictures, so thank you to my friend Danella for snapping some photos for me!  The boys were off running in the jungle with their friends, so no pictures of them and unfortunately, mom, like many others arriving at site, got hit with a bug and celebrated for a little while, but then called it an early night, so no picture of her. :(

As you can see, it was truly a night that memories are made from!  Whether in the United States or in Papua Indonesia, Christmas is celebrated to the fullest!  

Jesus Christ our Savior is Born! Hallelujah!

Christmas: Part I

Yes, yes. I know it is February and I am just getting my Christmas pictures posted!  My bording school kids remind me alsmost daily that I have not kept up with the blog!  I could offer a thousand valid excuses, but who wants to hear them? ;) 

So I am going to break Christmas up in to 3 or 4 parts. In the three weeks we had with Marz and Ted during their Christmas break, along with my parents, it was non stop!

So to start off the late Christmas series blog post, we will start at the beginning (a very good place to start!) ;)

The Arrival to Tembagapura:

We, Gabby and Me, pick up Grandma, Grandpa, Marz and Ted in the lowlands and got the chopper up!! Yeah!!  That's always a good start!

Yeah we are all together!!  Let the fun begin!!

And so it did... With the first wrestling match between the brothers. I think they missed each other! ;)

And the first card game with the Grandparents!

Then of course all the sleeping... Teenagers and "old farts" alike. :)

There was a ton of other stuff I don't have pictures for... Like the tours of the open pit mine and the mines underground. All the pre Christmas parties we went to... Hot Stone dinner at the Lupe...  More card games... You name it, we were very busy those first few days with everyone in Tembagapura. 

Basketball - Teddy

If you want to look at another positive side to Marz having surgery and my spending two weeks in Penang, I got to watch a few practices and watch Ted play a few games of basketball. 

Ted's JV team is quite young. They have a few 9th graders but mostly 7th and 8th graders. So they are building and hopefully one day they become a great team!

So those were the crappy photos I took of Ted playing. 

Here are photos taken off the Dalat Athletics FB page of Teddy:

We're really not sure what Teddy was doing here...  Maybe he saw an ant on the floor and was going to try to save it! ;)

I believe the photographer for those last few photos was Jackie Steinkamp, to give her credit. 

So yeah, there is always a silver lining. I didn't think I would see Marz and Ted until the end of March.  I just spent two weeks with them!  I had a great time seeing in to their daily lives and hanging out with them. I am sure they are most grateful for all the yummy steak dinners they had!  

Silver lining... ;)