Phuket - one last time for this year

We have once again been SO LUCKY to travel around the world this year. Hence some of my blog posts are still under way from this year. Looking back at the whole year, we spent half the year overseas... Starting in February we went to Miri - Malaysia. In March we were in New Zealand and during the rest of March and early April we went back to Japan. During our Japan holiday we did a little trip to Kumamoto to see our best friends from here, the Komine family. For our wedding anniversary at the end of the month we did a short trip to Phuket. May-June was our busiest month for traveling. We visited friends in Barcelona, family in England then a few days in Abu Dhabi. We then flew directly to Japan from the Middle East. In July we spent 5 days with my older sister and the kids in Phuket. In September we had a fab time in Hong Kong Disneyland with the Brunke family. October was another special month, I was lucky to celebrate my birthday in Bangkok with the Ferans. We then went to New Zealand and traveled the South Island with the Komine family for 10 days and then spent the rest of our time in Auckland.

Do you think we have done enough traveling for the year!? Here is the last airport shot for the year, on the way to Phuket for the third time this year!

Having some yummy Japanese bread before boarding:

And in no time we were at the Raddison Blu Hotel Phuket. 

It was slightly chilly but the kids enjoyed the quick swim.

The hotel has it all. There are three big swimming pools, a little sailing boat, canoes, paddle boats, and the quiet beach to play on. Across from the hotel, there are couples of eateries, great Thai massage place and a convenience store even! 

And we are so lucky to have such amazing room(s!) to stay. I love having our room and the kids room separate and this huge bath with a view!

Special piece

Oliver was so happy to get his special Christmas piece from his advent calendar today. Reindeer R2D2!

Kids Xmas Party 2015

With great help from Kylie the kids Chistmas party was a huge success! Smiles all around. We are so lucky to have such a great community. Thank you everyone for coming!

Oliver and Ayaka - team reindeer vs team santa

Which team can rip the paper tape thinner? 

Kylie and I found this cool game on pinterest - throwing soft balls to get the snowman paper cups. The kids had so much fun!

Spoon race - carrying little Olaf:

Out of all the games we played this was the best Christmas game by far! Making a snowman with a roll of toilet paper!!

We had two cute snowmen!

A must game with Japanese kids, who can pick up Christmas coloured M&Ms faster!?

The smaller kids tried with tree shaped marshmallows instead. 

After a yummy Christmas dinner the kids got to decorate their own pandan chiffon tree cake each and watched some Christmas movies together. 

Merry Christmas!!

Not to mention, us mummies plus Kylie had a delicious pot luck dinner and bubbly :)

Xmas Party @ Smiths

More Christmas get togethers! This time at Meisha and Patrick's place. Unfortunately Matthew was away in Osaka (he misses out on so many parties...).

Me, Naz and Nicola :)

The pilots!

Lots of lovely friends were there too!

The wonderful host Meisha and Patrick. Lovely party! Less than a week to go now!

Xmas sushi lunch

The Williams came down for some festive lunch - SUSHI!!

Always nice to dine on the balcony. Because of the bad haze we couldn't use our balcony much this year. Hopefully we can have more lunch and dinner parties next year! 

Christmas Italian Lunch

I went out for a very nice Christmas Buffet at Basilico, an Italian restaurant at the Regent Hotel. I heard they serve superb food so I made sure I didn't have much for breakfast.

They had wide selection of authentic Italian food from the antipasto to mains and dessert.

Nao and Kei with their first starters... I am not sure how many starters we had in the end!

The selection of cheese and ham was excellent!

Azumi and Hiroko:

The Christmas dessert was very nice too. Not to mention we had way too much to eat. It is such a great deal. 

I have a feeling I will be overeating until Christmas is over!

Treetop

I wanted a little bit more for the top of our Christmas tree. While we were in Auckland I found a perfect solution in one of the Christmas shops I went with Merryn. Some golden wire ribbon.
What do you think?

Pancake Xmas Party

The Christmas is approaching very quickly. We were invited to a very fun pancake Christmas party at Natalia and Casey's house.

The super hosts - Casey and Natalia 

Adding extra flavours to the yummy pancakes.

After the pancakes the kids had fun doing some Christmas crafting.

Inti had super fun with the glitter too!

10 more days!  Merry Christmas everyone!