Great Christmas gift idea and they ship internationally!

In case you haven't heard, Christmas is coming. I'm sure you've all been reminded by the endless string of commercials that seem to start earlier and earlier each year.

If you're anything like me, you need all the ideas and help you can get. Also, if you're anything like me, you need all the ideas and help you can get as early as you can get them.

For those of us with family on the other side of the world, Christmas shopping happens ridiculously early. We started planning and budgeting in August.

We learned our lesson on that one. When living abroad, DO NOT wait until December to plan and purchase gifts for half a dozen nieces and nephews, two sets of parents, two grandmas, four gift exchange recipients and various friends.

It is not a fun way to spend Christmas Eve. "Have you gotten your box yet? It should be there by now! No? Look again!"

It's also not fun to be confined to your house for a month while you wait for a payday that won't go to bills and gifts.

So yeah. We're planners now.

Here's a great gift idea for those of you who are also planners, whether reformed or by your natural neuroses.


It's a photo book that I created and purchased from Shutterfly.com.

This one is the 8 x 8 photo book. I think they usually go for about $19.99, but they were 20% off the last time I looked.

They're so simple to make. Really. It's completely computer idiot proof.

You simply upload the photos you want to use (just like you do on Facebook). Then you pick a design for the cover, spine, back cover and the pages in between. You even get to choose how many pictures you want on each page and the layout.

I made this one a few months ago when they were having a big discount just to test it out. That's the thing I love about Shutterfly. They always have discounts going on. I've never paid for an item and the shipping. I've either gotten the item free and paid the shipping or paid for the item and gotten the shipping free.

I just love them.

So much so that I get my Christmas cards from there too.

Oh yeah....back to Christmas. I just thought that these books would be a wonderful gift for a friend or a loved one. If I lived closer to my family and could take more pictures of them with my own camera, they'd all probably have one of these.

I just think they're friggin' cute and a very unique way to preserve and display memories.

(By the way, I am in no way affiliated with Shutterfly. They did not pay me to write these things, nor did they bribe me with free stuff for doing so. Although, it'd be pretty sweet if they did. I just genuinely love them.)

Mmmmm....Toasty

I'm probably going to get hate mail for this, but I don't care.

We went to Quiznos on Wednesday. Yes, I'm aware that it has nothing to do with my Asian experience.


And I enjoyed every bite of it anyway.

This Quiznos is at the new-ish Orchard Central mall.

It's right next to the Carhatt store. How's that for a slap of home? It was like a shot of tequila to my homesickness.

The menu is a tad shortened, but we've grown accustomed to American things being scaled down in Asia.

Everything looked very much the same as the shops in the States, right down to the pepper bar.

Aaron got the Zesty Grill Steak. I got the Smokey Chili Turkey --only because they don't carry the Chicken Carbonara. Otherwise, I'd never cheat on the Carbonara (hold the mushrooms).

It was honestly the best sub sandwich I've had in Singapore. I ate every single crumb.

I'm not kidding. I scooped every bread flake up with my fork. It looked like I hadn't eaten in days by the way I was hoovering this thing down.

Best part of all? The pepper bar had banana peppers. Singapore is experiencing a serious banana pepper drought. I think I ate 15 on my sandwich alone just to compensate for the lack in my diet.

Then just to top off our Singapore American experience, we picked up our own trash and threw it away.

Just like they do in the States.

Ka--chow!

Christmas Season, Singapore style

When Sandra, the Singaporean coworker of mine, sees weather like this, she excitedly goes to the window and says,

"Yay! I love this Christmas weather!"

And when she does that, I am always sitting in a state of confusion.

"Uh, no it isn't. That's rain, Sandra. Christmas weather is snow and cold."

Then she reminds me that she's from Singapore and the rainy season marks the beginning of the holiday season and that I'm from Kansas and don't know anything.

Ok. She's nicer than that, but I do forget that I was raised in a Christmas snow globe of a world sometimes.

Kansas Christmases are white and freezing and make me want my Grandma's hot cranberry tea, a cozy blanket and a fire in the fireplace.

They do not make me want my umbrella and a dry pair of pants.

I'm obviously still a work in progress. Singapore, I'll get it one of these days.

The Thanksgiving Song

Because we just bought our last Thanksgiving turkey abroad...

Because I love Adam Sandler...

Because everyone here skips Thanksgiving and goes right into Christmas...

Because I really needed some American festivities.

Keep your shoes on!

In Asia, it is the custom for every person entering your home to first remove their shoes before walking through the door.

Simple, right? Ha, no. Aaron and I have a ridiculously hard time adhering to this one.

Yet everyone does it. EVERYONE.

The guys that moved our stuff into our apartment even removed their shoes. They would get a box from the truck, carry it up several flights of stairs, remove their shoes at our front door and then carry it to the desired room. Then on the way out the door, they'd put their shoes back on to grab the next box. It was a maddening thing to watch. How much of their day is wasted messing with their shoes? So after watching them fumble to remove their shoes while holding our heavy bedroom mattress, I finally had to stop the madness.

"Please just leave them on! I'll have to clean the floor anyway! It's fine, I swear."

They were very reluctant, but finally agreed that it'd be easier.

Yet, every maintenance guy that comes to our place refuses to keep his on. It's just not something they are equipped to do.

So fine. We got used to that part. And we got used to having to remove our shoes when we went to Simon's house or any other local's house.

What we do still have trouble with is our American friends.

It seems that every single American person we know in Singapore immediately picked up this Asian custom as soon as they stepped off the plane.

I cannot remember going to a single person's house in America where they made me take off my shoes before I was allowed to come inside. (That is, unless it was raining, snowing or muddy outside, but that's common decency.)

Seriously though. Why the flip as soon as we enter Asia? Are there shoe police somewhere that I don't know about? When did all of my American friends adopt this?

I have a real problem being barefoot in a stranger's house. It makes me feel very vulnerable. I even feel hesitant to remove my shoes when I'm getting a pedicure. I'm always thinking:

"Is their floor clean?"

"When was the last time they cleaned it?"

"Does anyone in this house have athlete's foot?" (call me crazy, but I got this once as a child from a gymnastics studio and that is a road that I NEVER want to travel down again)

"Am I going to step on anything?"

"Is my pedicure chipping?"

I know I have issues. I just don't feel comfortable being barefoot in someone's house that I don't know that well.

Aaron has issues with it as well, only his worries a different. He says that he's always thinking:

"Are my toenails dirty?"

"Do my socks match?"

"Are there holes in my socks?"

"Do my feet stink?"

Yeah, we're both a bunch of anxiety-ridden weirdos, I guess. Sometimes we just keep them on to see if we can avoid the whole thing and then feel like goobers when people send us back out to remove our shoes.

Not fun.

I've never told anyone this, but each time I remove my shoes, the scene from SATC always plays through my head.

I too, always want to exclaim "But this is an outfit!"

But really, if my shoes ever get stolen, I will never take them off again.

Not that I have any worthy of stealing, but still.