Christmas - This Side Of The World

Christmas activities this year included:

Skyping and calling my crazy family in the morning

And...

Ice Skating at the mall

Photo credit: Khemjira Peekaew

A non-traditional dinner of pizza. That was just me and Pookie, everyone else got the ham or turkey dinner.

And store browsing with Pookie...

And after getting home, I opened my present from the church gift exchange (it was neat to have unintentionally drawn the gift from Pookie!)

This has been a lovely Christmas of contentment!

The Eve Of Christmas

On the eve of Christmas I look back on the past few days and realize the many lessons I've learned while in a foreign land away from my immediate family.

Christmas is a wonderful time of cookie baking, meeting friends, exchanging gifts...

None of that has changed, but the freeing thought amongst the soulful wishes to be home for the holidays is that I'm right where God wants me and he has given me His family to celebrate His birth.

An added blessing is the cold weather that has drifted over Chiang Mai. I've been drinking hot cocoa and wearing a bulky sweater that transports me into the climate of my home town in the US... but alas, no snow to show for the chill.

My good friend who shares many of her spontaneous adventures with me, has kept us on our twinkle toes with laughter as we share a Christmas away from home. 

My eldest sister has sent multiple packages containing paper surprises that I must detail later but show the cutout Christmas tree now.

I quite adore my festive little paper tree. I think the presents I taped to this board are some of the best presents I have ever received!

So while the world is abustle with shopping and cheery hellos and well wishes, I shall be in Thailand soaking up the warmth of my sweater and the presence of my caring Savior who I have remembered as...

The Reason For The Season

Comfort Food

Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate this wonderful American holiday!

Here in Thialand the grocery stores are only too happy to help make the traditional dishes, like pumpkin pie, by providing the ingredients. Naturally the pie filling only costs $15... 

Plan B.

Pookie, a friend and I made pie from scratch, boiling halved pumpkins and pulling together all the delicious ingredients.

Mmmmmmm

Turkey and cranberry sauce were out of the picture since both are quite expensive but the table was never-the-less full of tasty dishes such as green bean casserole, mashed potatoes...

Yummy!

Now, this was last week that we celebrated with the Williams family.

Today, the official Thanksgiving Day, we made reservations for four at Duke's, a lovely American food restaurant that claimed to be serving a full traditional Thanksgiving meal... turkey included.

No prep, no dishes, plenty of leftovers... can't beat that!

So, after a full day at the office we headed out and enjoyed a lovely Thanksgiving evening.

I chose ham over turkey, it sure was good!

Dessert was a huge piece of tasty apple pie that I ended up taking half home in a box.

HappyThanksgiving! 

Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day!

One of my dear brothers bought these delightful chocolate covered strawberries from 

The Perfect Truffle