Pre-Christmas FUN!

One of the churches had a fun nativity play/carol sing-a-long the week before Christmas. It was one of those plays where where the audience (mostly the kids) could be involved. They provided the props and costumes - Orin and Micaiah were shepherds and thought it was great fun. Sora felt left out until we had candles. But after about a minute of that I had to blow her’s out because she didn’t want “Sora do it” without help, and I didn’t want her to set herself or someone else on fire. She wasn't too happy about.

Micaiah had a cute little Christmas party at his preschool. His teacher did a slide-show of pictures of what they have been doing, they sang a few songs, we did a craft together, looked through their folders of work they have done this semester, and ate cookies that they had made in class that week. Micaiah LOVES any time parents are supposed to come to school.

Totally unrelated to Christmas, but the week before Christmas, there was a Beer Festival in the city and we went one night with some friends. It was so great. Lots of kinds of beer you can't get here. It was mostly Thai people which was also cool. Damien doesn't drink beer so he tried the "non-alcoholic" set. It was pretty yummy!

There are so few Christmas decorations around town that if the kids see a Christmas tree they get super excited and want me to take pictures of them with it. The mall had a big tree and every time they saw it they’d yell out, “Look, a Christmas tree!”

Our sweet house helper, Naa, opening our gift to her for Christmas. Thai people don't usually have  ovens, microwaves, or anything other than a counter-top gas or electric burner. A friend and I have been teaching and some other women how to bake but she didn't have anything to cook with at home. We gave her a toaster oven like mine which is also a convection oven. She was so excited and we were excited to give it to her.

Our sweet friends invited us over for Christmas Eve. I brought Red Beans & Rice, egg salad, and White Chocolate Mint Popcorn.  She made some yummy Chicken Kabobs, Corn Soup and 7-layer salad. For dessert we roasted marshmallows and made SMORES! Her mom had sent the ingredients for the (we can’t get graham crackers here and marshmallows are super expensive) and they were so nice so share with us. The kids didn’t remember having ever eaten them and LOVED them. They gave the kids each a gift which was so special for them. It was a really nice way to spend Christmas Eve.

The kids enjoying their dinner on the floor.