Christmas Issue

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As our peeps wake up to Christmas Morning on the +8 GMT zones, let me wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas. We are lucky and fortunate to count you all as Family and Friends. We love the feedback we get from writing this blog. For anyone considering travel like this in the future, this is a fun and relaxing project to do during downtime. And it's permanent...so you can revisit this site in 10 years when the kids are older and take a walk down memory lane.

Let me get on with it. Though the sun never broke through in DaNang, we still had a great time. Aside from an outing we took to Hoi An, we stayed close to our beautiful Hyatt resort. In this part of the world? Should definitely stay here. The beach is immaculate, the pool is huge, very kid friendly, the staff couldn't be nicer and the food was awesome. We spent a good deal of time just relaxing.

We returned to Manila on Tuesday. Our landing coincided with a kickoff parade for the Philippine Film Festival. For the reader this means nothing...but it meant a 2 1/2 hour car ride (to travel about 20 miles) to get home for us.

Spent Christmas Eve at our home base and went to an Uncle's house nearby for Christmas Eve. I've had several requests for food pictures...so here they are.

We decided to take advantage of the light Christmas Day traffic to venture out today. While Maria and Erin went shopping with cousins, I took the boys to a playoff game for the PBA (Philippine Basketball Assoc.) featuring Rain or Shine vs. Alaska Aces. Very entertaining and fun to be a part of...a physical and very athletic display by both teams. Rain or Shine won this tilt 98-91 to tie the series at 2-2. The one big highlight is that Uncle Sig was able to grab a t-shirt that was sling-shot from the court and gave it to Joseph...which was HUGE for him.

More to come in a couple days. Cheers!

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Photos

Sandy the Sandman
Freshly built on beach in DaNang

Pool Time
Despite the cool weather and lack of sun the pool was still a good time

DaNang River
Fishing boats with Dragon Bridge in background.

Christmas Eve feast
Overview of the spread.

Boys Pre-game
The teams are warming up before their game at the Mall of Asia Arena.

Kid is Stoked!
Donning his newly acquired t-shirt....Uncle Sig-the hero-behind Joseph.

Comments

[Chris Riegel]

Merry Xmas
M-E-R-R-Y Chistmas V-I-E-T-NAAAAAAM !!!!!! (See what I did there?) Can't believe Timmy C hasn't riffed on that several times by now. Anyway, great pics (again) and love the commentary. I will be following your lead in a couple of days and only hope to put together half as good a blog. Cheers!

[Oconnor Family]

Thanks for the comments, Chris. Safe travels. Grab me a rugby t-shirt from one of the local clubs (XXL & not the all-blacks)...ill happily reimburse...and buy u a brew (probably more than one) for the trouble.

[Marshall Carr]

Merry Christmas
Sean, thanks for sharing. Looks to be an amazing trip, I look forward to hearing about it in person. Merry Christmas to you and your family.

[Oconnor Family]

Thanks Marshall! See you soon.