It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

It has been sometime since we have blogged, so with our upcoming trip home for a visit, I figured it would be a good time to sum up the last 8 months. We have learned a lot about our new home, we now shop the wet market regularly for veggies fruit and fresh meat, rather than paying Cold Storage market prices ( and dealing with the low quality). We have experianced some of the local food, not as much as we would like, but Brenna often has a say in what we eat and she is far from a foodie, her experimentation with food goes as far as putting pepperoni on a pizza. We have had a chance to see some of this beautiful country, there is so much more to see though that we look forward to traveling more in the coming years. Our home has become just that, with Roxanne putting many of her personal touches on our place we are beginning to see this as "home". Brenna is doing very well in school, she was just selected to train for the FOBISSEA games, in Beijing next year. We are both very proud of Brenna for working hard at this and not quitting. If she makes it we will be traveling to China next year to watch brenna compete against other kids from international schools across Asia. Brenna also has many friends who are from many different backgrounds and cultures (she still misses her Florida friends though). Roxanne and I have made many good close friends that it will be difficult to say goodbye to when this assignment ends. We have both taken advantage of the quality medical care. My hip and wrist are healing very well, the wrist is fully healed but the hip has until February before I can do any running. Rox has had a procedure done to help her hip to feel bett and she has gotten some range of motion back. I have also been able to do some massage work on her which is helping also. So we have embraced Penang, and Penang has taken us in and embraced us as well. Could the last 8 months have been better, well I could have stayed on my bike and not crashed, but everything happens for a reason right? (no not really, thats just what people who do stupid things say as explanation for their stupidity...just call me stupid). So the Neilsons will fly back to Florida for the holidays, it's exciting to see family and friends again, but (and I can only speak for myself) I will be looking forward to returning to Penang, hungry for some curry mee, and a tea tarik, and a nice run. Today was another great day in Penang.