Is it really almost December already??

Wow! Glenn and I can hardly believe that it's almost December already! It definitely doesn't feel like December here. It's about 85 degrees out every day, and when we look out our window we don't see pine trees and snow, we see palm trees and swimming pools! We've been here for almost 17 weeks already, and we have only 10 weeks left (not that I'm counting or anything!) I am so excited to be nearing the end of our trip, but I think Glenn is a little overwhelmed by all of the work he still wants to get done here. Although I'm excited to get back to Minnesota, we watched the Gopher football game this afternoon (Thanks Joe for taping it for us!) and they said that the temperature was a whopping 20 degrees out! I have to admit that Glenn and I laughed when we heard that! Glenn was so excited that they finally won a trophy game and has been is already predicting an appearance at the Rose Bowl next year!

We definitely missed being home for Thanksgiving. Because they don't celebrate that in Malaysia, Glenn had to work, so it was just another normal day here for us. My Thanksgiving feast was a nice bowl of macaroni and cheese, while Glenn took Evie out with some coworkers to a noodle restaurant. Evelyn and I got to talk to both sides of the family that morning on Skype, and they were nice enough not to show us all the yummy foods that they got to eat.

We are so excited that Glenn's mom, Lucy and brother Andrew are coming in just a week and a half! Evelyn is very excited to see them. I think she wants to show Andrew all of her cool toys she has here. Once they get here, I know we're going to have a very busy December. We have trips planned to Langkawi (a small island in Malaysia) and Bangkok over the weekends, as well as a long list of things to see here in Penang. Once they leave, we have just a few days to wait until Glenn's sister Emma comes to visit! She's getting here on Christmas day, which will be a wonderful Christmas present for all of us. We've got a very fun trip to Phuket (in Thailand) planned over New Years, and Glenn and I are excited to take Emma up on her offer to babysit. Emma will be with us until January 9th, and then we only have a few days to wait until my dad, Bruce comes to visit. We were happily surprised to hear from him last week when he said he was thinking about coming over here. He got the "okay" from my mom to visit, because I think they realized that this might be his best opportunity to see this part of the world. My mom is a teacher, so unfortunately it is too hard to take time off of work to visit. My dad will be here for 2 weeks. We have been talking about taking a trip to Cambodia, although it might just be Glenn and Bruce that take that trip. Evelyn and I might have to sit that one out. Once my dad leaves, we only have about a week and a half to pack and prepare to leave, and then we'll be heading back to Minnesota. We will be very busy in December and January, but we're happy about it because we know it will help the time pass quickly.

Last weekend Glenn got the chance to run in a half marathon here in Penang. Marathons here are very interesting! Because it's so hot here, they had to run the race at night. Glenn started at 3:00 am (needless to say, Evelyn and I didn't watch him race). He had a few coworkers run the race with him, and he even ran into our neighbor, Zach, who was running the full marathon. They got to run the race over the bridge that connects Penang (an island) to the rest of Malaysia. Because it's run on a bridge, they had to overlap the half and full marathons a bit. Glenn got a very good time of just under 2 1/2 hours and he has a couple of t-shirts and a medal to show for it. He made the mistake of showing the medal to Evelyn, who now thinks that the medal is hers and likes to wear it around the apartment.

In an attempt to make it feel like it's actually Christmas time around here, Glenn and I went out yesterday and bought a little fake Christmas tree and some lights and decorations for the tree. We had a fun time listening to some Christmas music yesterday and decorating the tree. Evie also helped me make a few decorations for the apartment. Although it's not exactly like what we're used to in Minnesota, it's nice to feel a bit of Christmas. Sometime when I look at the lit tree, it almost feels like we're back in Minnesota.

In case you're wondering, the baby is great! I'm 15 weeks and my belly is finally starting to grow. I'm still feeling sick, but I'm getting more optimistic that the morning sickness will start to lessen soon and I will be able to really enjoy the last 2 months of this trip. I haven't felt any baby kicks yet, but I'm hoping that they will come soon!

We hope you all had a fun and safe Thanksgiving holiday! The next blog we create will have some fun new stories about our adventures with Lucy and Andrew! Have a great December!