Cocktail Party

Here are a few pictures from our friends' post-Christmas cocktail party. It was really fun for us to get dressed up and to eat expensive imported foods. Our friends had a beautiful wooden bar set up on their back porch and had hired a bartender. It was super-fancy!

My cute cocktail dress:

Otto looking good with his new haircut


Nong and Otto were joking that they were the only people from "Issan" present. Ann (on the left) was the bartender.


Our wonderful hosts: Parn and Lance

Christmas Pictures

Hot apple cider and cookies with friends at I Love Coffee.


Slaving away in the kitchen...


The crew at our house for Christmas brunch


Christmas Dinner at the Riverside with Jeab, David, Otto, Josh, Chan and Rick

Otto's First Christmas

Last year, Otto was still working in Chiang Mai on the holidays and unfortunately, we weren't able to spend Christmas together. So this year, I really tried to go all out for Christmas and show him how magical it can be. On Dec. 23rd, I made cookies and hot apple cider (+ optional whiskey). We took everything down to our local coffeeshop hangout and surprised our friend Yui. We showed up with a gang singing Christmas carols and even though the shop was already closed, we had a little private party enjoying festive holiday treats. On Christmas eve, we were invited to a dinner at our friend Arunee's house. She had her yard set up with tons of lights and there were tables outside. We were served a Chinese-style dinner with tons of courses! Our table was vegetarian so it was great. Afterwards, Arunee's students played games and received gifts. Otto and I came home and watched "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." I had arranged for a friend to drop off some gifts from "Santa Claus" while we were out and Otto was pretty flabbergasted to see them when we got home. We got a new coffeemaker and a new orchid and air plant for our garden. Otto kept saying, "How did they know exactly what we wanted?" He suspected one of our friends had bought the stuff for us and kept looking for a card. He finally figured out it was me, but it was fun to let him see how wonderful and surprising christmas can be.

Here are a couple pics from the party:
Me and Otto with our cute new haircuts...
Sudha, Me and Ajarn Waraporn (who is my department head)


On Christmas morning, we opened our stockings and then I phoned the family. It was so good to hear everyone's voices. I had a small Christmas brunch so we were cooking all morning. Some friends came over and we stuffed ourselves, listened to christmas music and had some great conversations. After brunch, we sat around drinking tea and watching movies. Otto and I
exchanged gifts. I got a gorgeous journal from him as well as a cute Lampang tee-shirt. I got him a DVD about how to make earthen houses and I also had a couple pair of corduroy pants made for him. He has this favorite pair of pants he always wears and often complains that he can't find any similar pants. So i took them to a tailor shop and had them make exact replicas. He loved it! We met some more friends out for dinner and drinks on Christmas night. Otto and I came back early and sat on the front porch. He's been playing guitar and I've been singing with him. So even though it's easy for me to get homesick around this time of year, it was a really special Christmas for me, because I got to see everything through new eyes. It was so nice to take a new look at Christmas and see how beautiful it can be.

May your days be merry and bright

Hello all...here is an update for the holidays. we had a lovely thanksgiving dinner at our house. no, i did not prepare a turkey but some friends brought over a chicken. apparently turkeys are hard to come by here and very expensive. however, i tried my hand at making pumpkin pie, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes and beer bread. all turned out pretty well especially since i had to substitute many ingredients. we had 12 adults and 2 kids over and it was a first thanksgiving for otto as well as some other thai, british and indian friends. i think everyone enjoyed themselves and there was more than enough food. it was nice to feel surrounded by friends especially being so far from home.

we have had 3 4-day weeks in a row! lots of holidays in december for the king's birthday and constitution day. we went with our friends victor and maam up to maam's home town in the north. we stayed overnight and woke up early to give food to the monks. then we went to an amazing waterfall with 115 levels! trust me, we barely made it to level 5 but it was gorgeous! the weather was crisp and clear. on our way home, we stopped to see this temple at the tip-top of a mountain. the architecture was gorgeous as well as the panoramic scenery. i would love to do a meditation course there! the next day we drove up to chiang mai with some friends to do some last minute christmas shopping at the night bazaar. we also met our friend's new baby Megan Galaya. she was so cute!

last week I was very busy preparing my students for our christmas show on friday. they sang Joy to the World though they were very timid and shy. for the past month, we've been collecting jackets to take to a village school. so last saturday we went out to the school and had a christmas party. the kids really enjoyed singing songs, playing bingo and playing some sports. this week we had a christmas lunch for the english major students. and this coming saturday is a chrsitmas party at the welfare school i volunteer at. it is also graduation day at yonok so it will be a busy weekend. next week (christmas week) is midterms. i will be proctoring on monday, tuesday and wednesday and then i will be off work from christmas until jan. 5! we are going to do a bit of traveling in the north and i am really looking forward to a visit from my friend Lori from chicago.

so that's it from me. hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season!