Twas the day before Christmas...

Christmas eve this year was truly a unique one for me.
To start out the day, Carla and I headed down to China town in Kuala Lumpur to look for some breakfast. As we wandered through the shop lined streets with chinese lanters hanging overhead, we stumbled upon an inscense filled Buddhist temple. As we kept walking, we came across an ornately decorated Hindu temple. The brightly clothed patrons with their wreaths of marigolds almost made me feel like I was back in India for a moment.
Later, a little further into the city, we stepped into a small mosque where dozens of men were lying down waiting for prayer to begin. The sound of busy car traffic on the street outside, the monorail above, and the mellow prayer call was quite an interesting combination.
We then made our way to the national museum and bird park. We ate lunch on the balcony of a great little restaurant overlooking the bird park and even had a few colorful flying visitors join us during our meal.
Late that afternoon we drove down to a lighthouse overlooking the Straits of Malacca between Malaysia and Indonesia. The trees surrounding the lighthouse were crawling with little silver monkeys...the friendly kind, not the mean ones who try to steal your stuff:) Apparently they really like green beans and peanuts, so we fed them as they climbed all over us with excitement. (Just a side note, little monkey hands are so human like! Almost like the hands of a little kid with slightly tough skin).
After feeding the monkeys, we fed ourselves too. We had a great seafood dinner of crab, prawns, fish, and veggies in an open air restaurant on stilts over the river.
We finished our meal just as the sun set then headed off to take a boat ride. But, this was no ordinary boat ride. The night sky was dark, the nearly full moon was dimmed slightly by surrounding clouds, and most incredibly, fireflies lit up the bushes on the sides of the river. It almost didn't seem real! There were sooo many fireflies twinkling in the bushes, it almost looked like the bushes were covered in flashing Christmas lights. Phenomenal!
There were monsoon rains on and off all day long, but luckily we had perfect timing and were either inside or in the car every time the rain was the hardest.
And to top it all off, when we finally returned home, I was able to sit alone quietly reading the New Testament accounts of Christ's birth!
What a memorable Christmas eve!