Another first ! 7-5-3 Day!

12/20
We arrived yesterday in Singapore late afternoon. I think we both aged a bit on the two flights getting here and really didn't sleep for over 24 hours, so were very late getting up today.

Yuko and John have a large apartment on the 9th floor with a nice view of the city. Our room is a half circle with lots of windows. They have their place all decorated for Christmas. Of course, Yuko had a delicious dinner waiting for us and it was fun catching up, since we saw each other in July. Emma had made a Christmas cake in the afternoon, so it was a festive occasion. Matt had sent our summer clothes here, so we quickly got into Singapore attire, which is as little as possible.

Today was Emma and Nicky's photo shoot in kimonos as a gift from Yuko's parents celebrating a Japanese tradition called 7-5-3. When Japanese girls reach these ages (7,5 and 3) they get all dressed up in kimonos. This year, Emma is seven and Nicky three. It took several hours, hair dressing, kimonos, and all the extra fixings, and then the actual picture taking. The girls were so patient and looked great. Now, watching that was definitely a first. It is nice to see traditions continue.

I hit the tennis ball for about 30 minutes with Yuko and Emma and feel like I need another shower. Nicky was the ball girl while Pops took a nap. Next time I'll wear my bathing suit so I can jump in the pool.

We are continuing the 7-5-3 celebration tonight by going to the Mandarin Hotel for a buffet dinner.

What a dinner! Every known and unknown appetizer, main course, and dessert. We were there for almost three hours. Luckily nothing had calories! They had at least 25 people greeting everyone at the hotel entrance and up to the buffet. Fun watching the preparations, since many were certainly new to me. A very large, I mean really large, gingerbread house in the lobby.

Out on the main shopping street after dinner, the Christmas decorations were lovely. Plenty of people out enjoying the activity with entertainment for all ages...a young singing group, a larger-than-life-size manger scene all in white, a clown, new-car photo op, and snow! (just kidding, it's almost 80 degrees at 10:30pm).

John and Yuko certainly made it another very memorable day.