nae: December 2012

November in Thailand

>> Sunday, December 30, 2012

Just some random things that happened during November. I was feeling sorry for the kids missing out on Halloween activities. They had asked to do something special, so for after school snack I made them these goodies.

We had two Thanksgiving dinners this year. Two years ago we went to "The Dukes" and it was so good. So we decided to go again this year. CMIS was hope half a day, and I had to substitute. We got out at 11:30 but Sora had school all day. So Damien and I decided just to make it a double date with friends and the boys stayed with the Maebaan while Sora was at school. We also were having a dinner with another group of friends later in the day. So we went to The Dukes at 1pm. This is the one picture I have. Hum, not so good. But at least the food was! It was so much fun and the kids were happy just to stay at home and watch a movie.

We have some Australian friends who were interested in having an American Thanksgiving. So we had a diverse group there. Some Brits, Kiwis (from New Zealand) someone from Switzerland and us Americans. It was fun to have most of the food staples of Thanksgiving, but it was fun to have some things from other countries too. We have TONs of food. In my 34 years I don't ever think I've been at a Thanksgiving dinner with so much food. After The Dukes earlier in they day, and then this dinner at 7pm, I really thought I might lose it all at some point.

We had a Fall Festival at school in early November. The kids were told to dress up in something they were thankful for. Orin dressed up as a Jedi (big surprise) and Micaiah wanted to be a Lego. He was super cute.

This was Orin's class. There was a parade outside and the kids walk around as a close and showed off adorable outfits.

Swimming their Little Hearts Out!

Last yer the swim season was at the end of the school year, but this year it was at the beginning. So practices started in September, two days per week. Micaiah was so excited to have a chance to do it this year. The boys did great at practice and were so excited about their meet. Orin was nervous and Micaiah didn't really have a clue what was going on and just saw it as fun.

There are about 7 international schools that participate and the meet is at a different school each year. This year it was at a school about an hour away so they rented a bus for us all to go in together. The kids thought it was super cool.

Since this was our second meet we actually had a little clue as to what was going to happen. Right when we arrive the kids all warm up for about 10 minutes.

Everyone gets together and the coaches give out instructions.

Each kid gets a printout with the races they are going to be in and they wear it around their neck (except for when they are in the water.)

And they are off. I didn't get a picture of every race. Orin and Micaiah were in the same races. They did individual freestyle, individual backstroke, freestyle relay, and medley relay (Miciah did breaststroke and Orin did backstroke). Micaiah was just having fun! I think he came in dead last of about 15 kids in Freestyle but he had no clue. Just a big smile on his face.

There was a ton of waiting around. The meet went from about 8:30am until 2:30pm and their 4 races lasted about 1 minute each.

The results are entered into the computer and then printed out and posted on a board.

Orin was so nervous about the backstroke. It's his best stroke. There were about 15 kids competing and he was really hoping to medal, especially since he came in 4th last year by 1 second. Unfortunately, he came in 4th again this year. He was so disappointed. It almost made me cry to see him tear up when he saw the 4th place.

The kids ended up getting 3rd place in both medley's. They were super excited because they wanted to get medals so badly! They actually lucked out because they came in 4th in both races but in both instances another team that came in before them got disqualified.

Yi Peng at Mae Jo University

Yi Peng, is one of the most visually beautiful holidays I've ever experienced. And we heard that the ultimate Yi Peng experience is the simultaneous release of Khom Loys (lanterns) at Mae Jo University. We knew it was pretty crazy with tons of people there and it would be a long wait during the almost 2 hour Buddhist ceremony before the release, but it was totally worth it. When we all released the lanterns at the same time it was seriously breath taking. I wish I had another camera other than my phone. Because these don't even come close to doing it justice.

We had heard that parking was a mess and you need to get there REALLY early. Well, parking wasn't as bad as we had heard, but it was good that we got there early because it was super crowded and we barely got a seat in the main section. Most people who came after us had to just stand around the outskirts of the main area and watch. This was us walking. We were very curious what it was going to be like.

There was a lot of waiting around. Micaiah was at a friend's house for the night so there were only two kids to deal with. They were fine since the could play with the phone, but it was uncomfortable for all of us to sit on the ground that long with nowhere to move.

This is a picture after everyone lit the small torches in the ground. We would then use these torches to light light our lanterns.

We were getting excited!

There were lots of fire works going off. The emcee was giving instructions in English and Thai, but it was a bit confusing. Plus, I think there were quite a few people that didn't understand either of those languages. But the signal to let the lanterns go was a very loud boom!

Basically the entire month of November the fireworks are insane. We live close to the river which is the main area that the "action" takes place. So we hear fireworks every night for hours. The week of Loy Krathong and Yi Peng is almost overwhelming with fireworks happening until 4 and 5am. Sometimes it makes the house shake. There were quite a few nights that the boys were having trouble going to sleep. But it's aso cool because the boys can see some really beautiful fireworks from their window. We're thankful that we use white noise machines that help drown out the noise.

Here is the video of the lanterns being released. It's pretty bad quality. Maybe next year I can get a better shot since I have a real camera now.

This is a video of some of the ceremony that happened before the lantern release. You can't see much, but there are people with candles walking around in a huge circle. I also think the chanting is really interesting.

Never too Early for the Tree, Right?

This year we decided to put up our Christmas Tree the day after Thanksgiving. It seemed really early, especially since it was 90 degrees out (not that it's much cooler even closer to Christmas) but we figure that if this year was like the last two Christmases, Christmas spirit is difficult to come by and we need all the time we can get! The kids were fine with it, and were super excited to pull out all of our decorations. We don't have much. We have a fake tree that we got for free from someone who got a newer one, we have a few homemade ornaments, a few cheap ornaments from the store here and lights. Oh, and also some garland. The tree is pretty sad, but once we put everything on, it actually looks really pretty.

I think the kids' most special Christmas tradition is "Gold boy." We bought it the first Christmas we were here. It was before we were given the bigger tree so for a few weeks it was our only tree. And the kids got attached to it. It goes in their room and is their nightlight for the month.