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Halloween
It's been a long month since our last posting.  It's not so much of
what we've done, but somehow... it seems a long time since our fall
break vacations in October.
Because Trick or Treat is not a house-to-house event, we spent
Sunday evening (October 29th) at the American Club, where we
decorated the trunk of the Kijang and passed out candy to the
trick or treaters.  Christopher was dressed in a Barang mask and
Christopher had a great time leaning out of the back seat into the
"trunk" and grabbing for the kids that ventured close.  Surprisingly,
the next day his back wasn't killing him.  He did manage to rip a
pair of pants with all the lunging, though.   
Balinese dance mask -- Barang is an ancient mythological
creature -- a lion, and is good and fights the evil witch, Rangda,
but the battle is a draw since good and evil are like night and day
-- they need each other for balance.)
Javalogue 28:  Halloween and Thanksgiving  November 2006           
the Javalogue
Barang through the cobwebs.  He elicited several good screams.
Above, Arianna's friends.  Below and left, new hair styles for Annaliese
and Alissa.
And then we extended the Halloween season until Friday
night, November 2nd, when we had a Halloween party.  
Both Annaliese and Arianna had about 10 or 12 kids over.  
The 7th graders stayed upstairs or outside and 12th
graders stayed in the under-stairs area.  
On Friday, the 10th of November, Alissa took a day
of vacation and she and Christopher went up to the
mountains, to Puncak.  The large park was a delight.
Cool air, clean air, blue, blue skies.  It was Alissa's
first trip out of Jakarta.
Arianna played
on a mixed
league this fall.  
Team Spain.
That's done for
the season and
now she's
playing on the
MS team.  
And yesterday
(November 25th)
she had an
all-day touch
rugby
tournament.  We
have two girls
staying with us.  
They are from
the international
school in Medan,
which is near
Aceh, where the
tsunami did so
much damage.  
Imagine flying to
your MS
tournaments!  
And let me just
say, touch rugby
might be fun to
play, but it's
amazingly boring
to watch.  In the
yellow shirts,
#11 and #16
were our guests.
 They didn't
seem too
interested when I
offered them
grits for
breakfast.  
Instead we had
pancakes, and
bacon and eggs.
And apple juice.
Tree leaves?  Pine cones?
Because Thanksgiving falls on a work and
school day here, we celebrated Thanksgiving
yesterday.  Christopher, Alissa, and
Annaliese went up to JIS with the rugby
players at 8:30 am;  Annaliese was working
the TAA (charity for children) book sale table,
Christopher was scheduled to work the
Tambolo booth (lucky draw prizes), and
Alissa wanted to do some Christmas
shopping at the Bazaar being held in the Big
Gym.  After watching rugby, working, and
shopping, Alissa and Annaliese came home
a little after noon and began cooking. We
paid an astronomical sum of money for a
genuine Butterball turkey, a giant 21 pounder.
A 21 lb turkey takes 5 hours and 15 minutes
in an oven.  Alissa used a giant cake pan to
roast the turkey.  She only burned herself 3
or 4 times and sliced herself with the carving
knife once.  The menu was traditional:
cornbread dressing, green bean casserole,
sweet potato casserole, corn casserole,
carrot salad, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, apple
pie, gravy, and of course, turkey.
Annaliese's friends, Meghan and Lara, came
to dinner.  They had never had a Thanksgiving
dinner, although their moms are American.  
Their dads are Dutch.  And Arianna's friend,
Karina, came for dinner even though she had
had Thanksgiving dinner on Friday.  
Christopher invited Helmy and Kees, and
Alissa invited Vicky from work.  Dinner for 12.
Below is a picture of
Arianna making a try.  
That's a point to the
rest of us.  About the
only way I can figure a
try is made is if a
player is able to make
a clean break and run
the length of the field.
 That's how Arianna
made the try below.  
No one can catch her
once she gets moving.
As you can see, CC and Frenchy were a
big help during the dinner preparations.
On Christopher's birthday (actually two days later), Annaliese and
Alissa took him to dinner at La Brasserie, a very nice little French
restaurant with good steaks.  While making the reservation, Alissa
was asked if it was anyone's birthday and, although Christopher was
in the room with her, she was able, without any obvious deviousness,
to say, "Yes."  And then she spelled, twice, the last name, Hah, ah,
air, tay, and said the name several times as well.  Above, you can see
the sign on his birthday cake.  Of course, it came home with us.