Christmas village at the Empire hotel

Friends of ours told us about the Christmas fiesta at the Empire Hotel the other day. We thought we must make an effort to get there before we head out to Japan. So on Tuesday we got in the car hoping Oliver won't fall asleep on the way in, as we wanted to be there at 8 o'clock for the special moment.

We weren't sure how great it will be. Or I was getting myself ready so that I won't get disappointed (as sometimes happens in Brunei...) Well... the first expression when we walked into the hotel was - great!

Look at this gorgeous Christmas tree! Made with hundreds of probiscus monkeys.







We kept on going downstairs to visit the Christmas village - it was just fantastic!!









Katie and Gemma

Oliver missed out on those first bits as he was pretty tired and asleep... Matthew is not strangling him, he was just so asleep.



But soon he woke up and saw all the excited people around him (especially Matthew and I!)



Having lots of people around us made it extra special, you know sometimes you go to these things in Brunei and there are not many people... the Christmas cakes and drinks were priced very reasonably which helped lots of people stick around I think. We had a piece of gingerbread cake each, it was very moist and tasty.



Katie and Gemma tried gingerbread man and house making. I am so impressed the hotel went to all this effort to make it special for kids.





And precisely at 8pm it started to SNOW!!



It kept on snowing for 15min and look how much snow got on Oliver's head!



And before we left the hotel Oliver met another Santa, he is still not sure about him...



There was no part we were disappointed with. We felt so festive and warm after leaving the hotel. I hope they will do the same sort of thing next year again!