Penang Currey

This Christmas break Ryan, Mads, and I spent two weeks in Penang, Malaysia with the Curreys, our good friends from our Thailand days. Their daughter, Aubrey, is just 5 months older than Madeline so it was a family friendly vacation.

Travelling with kids is hectic in many ways, but it also forces you to slow down and relax. In the past our holidays were spent zipping around a city taking in the sights (read: seeing one sight and then hanging out at the bar). Children zap all your motivation to do this. Instead, we rented an airbnb and followed this carefully coordinated schedule:

• Breakfast at home
• Beach
• Lunch at home
• Nap
• Pool
• Dinner at home
• Bed

I know, it was intense! Some nights the adults were so tired that we went to bed at the same time as the kids. Ha! Here are some photos of our beach time:

But don't let me fool you, it wasn't all suntans and parasailing. Our trip was fraught with peril. Ryan and Mads both caught colds and a stomach bug accompanied by fever and chills. We saw a beautiful (but dangerous!) scorpion while hiking through the hills behind our apartment. 

This scorpion looked like a plastic toy. We poked it. It was very real.

And the sliding glass door broke in the bathroom all over Aubrey. Fortunately, it was shatterproof glass and she only had a few minor cuts. 

Madeline is still too young to remember Christmas, so we don't feel the pressure to create lasting holiday traditions just yet. This is as close as we got:

Arranging gifts around the Christmas plant.

This is the first year Madeline understood what it meant to open a gift.
She was so excited about it I had to keep her away from Aubrey's presents!

Here we are on Christmas morning.

It was so nice to see Madeline and Aubrey play together. Their favorite things to do were to put stickers on the sliding glass door, give each other kisses, and play "Ring Around the Rosey."

Mads picked up some new tricks from Aubrey, including singing. Her favorite songs to sing along to are Adele's "Hello" and "I Will Survive" by Billy Bass, and she continues to enjoy dancing and singing to Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off." 

Many thanks to the Curreys for a wonderful Christmas break! And thanks to Isaac for taking many of the photos (all the good ones) from this blog post.