This past weekend Robbie and I joined Matt at CR’s “2012 Year End Party”.  In the Philippines things are done a little differently, and it really is “More Fun In The Philippines!”  All employees of the CR Manila Shared Service Center, know as MSSC, were invited to attend (which means 1,000+ people were there).  They rented out a huge convention type room at the Manila Hotel (former residence of General MacArthur) and we were there from 4:30pm – 12:30am!

The winner of a year long competition was announced between Finance, IT, HR & Downstream at the Year End Celebration

A ginger bread house inside the Manila Hotel lobby…yes real ginger bread and candy. It smelt good enough to eat, and Robbie was hungry!

“Jack Frost” met us at the door

The theme of the party “Mystique Madness”

Before the party really got started, CR MSSC employees were playing live music. Apparently they have a CR “club” for music/band in the Philippines

CR Manila’s “GLEE” club performed

CR MSSC dance club also performed

There were about a dozen caricature artists onsite…a little souvenir of the night.  (Tia and Robbie)

Fortune Tellers were also available

Photo booth souvenirs from the evening.

Filipino magician Jeffrey Tam (who won “Close-up Magic 2 years in a row) performed for us and was a judge of the End of Year Performances

Matt was on the “Yellow Team” (I.T.) participating in their performance

Yellow Team was the “First Runner Up” for the year long competition and got 2nd place on their performance in the points department. They did WIN “Best Mystique Story” and “Best Performance of the Night”

There was a live (CR employee) DJ who had some great music playing after the performances and awards

Matt and Robbie held their own on the dance floor

We all had a really fun evening

For those who care to watch Matt’s performance here is a link…WARNING: It is 20 minutes long; Matt has 3 separate parts, one in the beginning, middle, and end.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08TaR13V4vE

More photos of MSSC Christmas party here.

My brother is visiting us and we want to make sure we keep him busy while he is here!  So, today I took him to Rizal Park with Mason.  This park was named after Jose Rizal, a Filipino martyr.

Monument of Jose Rizal with guards on duty.

Information about Jose Rizal posted at the park

Front of the Jose Rizal “garden” area…Mason just woke up

Robbie about to be executed like Jose Rizal

Tia just got shot!

Entrance of the Chinese Garden at Rizal Park

Mason inside the Chinese Garden

Statue of Confucius in the Chinese Garden…I tried to tell Mason it was Sensei Wu from Ninjago, but he didn’t believe me

More photos of Rizal Park here.

A co-worker told Matt, “It was really smart of you to marry a Hawaiian.”  Any excuse we can find to go to Hawaii, we will take.  With my younger sister in Hawaii and recently having twins who would be blessed in our church, that was the excuse we needed to leave our own children for a few days and spend time in Hawaii.  And the bonus was that Matt’s brother was also going to school there and I hadn’t seen him in over 2 years!

The twins: Derek & Keith

My sister's family and us

Our brother recently returned from a mission in the Philippines

Enjoying Matsumoto shaved ice with ice cream in Haleiwa

Numerous waterfalls from all of the rain

The weather wasn’t great while were there.  It rained everyday and flooded in some areas.  So, we never put on our swimsuits or went to the beach since it was too dangerous to swim.  But, we enjoyed our time being together with our family.  I guess we will just need to go back again…I’m sure we can come up with another excuse!

Our final destination on our European vacation was Barcelona, Spain. It took us 7 hours to drive from Nice, France to Barcelona but we all survived. It was also nice to have a really cool hotel room waiting for us…after we found it. The only down side to our hotel was that it was off a main road and Barcelona vs. Madrid in the Champion League was happening during our stay so we didn’t get much sleep.

Barcelona has some really crazy cool buildings. Antoni Gaudi was the architect for many of the Dr.Suess looking buildings.

La Sagrada Familia ... still 30 years away from being completely finish

Casa Batlló aka. House of Bones

This was how we saw Barcelona. With really only one day there and with kids, this was the best option

After 2 weeks in Europe, this is what the Farley boys looked like!

We had a wonderful time seeing another part of the world and being together with family. And luckily we didn’t kill each other or get into any accidents.

More photos of Barcelona

Another famous area on the French Riviera…Cannes. We walked from our hotel in Nice to the train station where we then took a train to Cannes. The kids really enjoyed riding the train and kept switching seats…good thing it wasn’t crowded.

When we got to Cannes we headed towards the beach so we could walk along the Promenade de la Croisette. More specifically we went to the Carlton Hotel.

350 - 5,000 EUROS for the night

Another thing that Cannes is famous for is the International Film Festival…so that was our next stop.

Cannes International Film Festival located behind us...we were there a month too soon

And the last thing that we really wanted to see in Cannes was The Île Sainte-Marguerite. The island is most famous for its fortress prison (the Fort Royal), in which the so-called Man in the Iron Mask was held in the 17th century.

The island is approximately 3km in length (East to West) and 900m across.

Museum of the Sea & prison where the man of the iron mask was held

And to finish our time in Cannes we walked around and enjoyed the scenery and sights.

Sandy beaches in Cannes...and this sand sculpture was pretty cool

Jedi Master Kalani

More photos of Cannes