Merry Christmas 2011!

We've been blessed with another very merry Christmas!

Santa came, and he was hungry!

 D was delighted that he had the time to answer her questions, and many of his responses were what she had predicted.

     Favorite color: RED

     Favorite food: COOKIES!

 C had a very "Cars 2" Christmas! Happy boy!

 Our family at Christmas mass at Assumption Cathedral. (Thank you C, for adding your own special touch to the moment!)

 Admiring the baby Jesus.

We enjoyed brunch with friends and then spent the afternoon and evening playing with new toys. Lots of fun!
Tonight we'll welcome T's family who will be visiting for the next few weeks. More adventures to come for all of us.
We hope everyone had a spectacular day!

Twas the Night Before Christmas...

The children are nestled all snug in their beds, full of Christmas cheer. Santa is on his way!

Last night we had our friends, the Gros family, over for dinner and fun. Everyone was in the Christmas spirit!

And we had carolers too! That's our Tess on the far right, lucky us!

We began today golf carting around the area handing out bags of oranges and a leaflet with the story of Christ's birth. The church in our community puts this event on every Christmas Eve and the 4 of us were thrilled to be a part of it this year.

Then, smelling like oranges, we went to the show. Arthur Christmas was a great movie! It had awesome, imaginative explanations for the mystery of Santa Claus. But, D explained to me, this was just a movie and these are just "examples" of how it might work. No one really knows how Santa gets it all done.

 We had a nice, quiet Christmas Eve with D and C. Dinner, baths, the annual reading of Twas the Night Before Christmas, and cookies and milk for Santa.

I hope Santa has time to answer all of D's questions. Definately and inquiring mind...

Merry merry Christmas everyone!

Chillin' with the Guys

I came home from the gym this morning and found C in the driveway with the drivers from our neighborhood. He'd pulled up his little lawn chair to their chess game. Not sure if he can understand anything they are saying but perhaps he's picking up some Thai and how to play chess!

Wrapping Up Fall and On to Winter!

It is definitely a busy time around here. November went by in a flash, and it seems December will be the same. Hope I can keep up!

D and I began Girl Scouts this year and were welcomed into the organization with an Investiture Ceremony at the school. It was a really special night for all 90 of the girls! (Only 8 in our Daisy troop.) We were "pinned" and made official. With a few meetings under our belts now, we're really having a lot of fun!

We've also done our best to be involved in the continued flood relief efforts. C and I made our weekly trip to Makro, a local warehouse/club type store for supplies. He enjoyed the ride, and was a good little helper too. Insisted on carrying boxes of goods to the cart and then helping  the cashier bag things. Also tried sticking his hands in the cash drawer. People still just smile and love on him.

Thanksgiving was a wonderful celebration with friends. SO delicious, and we're still enjoying some leftover pie and sweet potatoes. HEAVEN!!! Thank you the Gros and Hopkins families for all your delicious dishes!

  Time to start D in some pie-eating contests! The girl knows good pastry when she sees it!

 Finally, on Sunday, we decorated for Christmas. Being that we've always travelled back to the US for the holidays, we have not done much decorating here at our house. But, a trip to our local Christmas decoration factory produced a tree, ornaments, and lots of other lovely things to make the house festive for our first Christmas spent abroad.

The opening of the Veggietales Nativity is always a cause for shouts of joy! Long time, no see Junior Asparagus!

C is quite the little decorator... if you like all the ornaments in clusters along the bottom branches. But how he enjoyed himself! Love him to bits!

Happy belated Thanksgiving and early holiday prep to everyone out there!

Pitching In

The parents, staff, and students at ISB have been doing something amazing over the past 2 weeks. They have launched a flood relief effort that is supplying food, water, medicine, and other necessities to flood victims in our area. (See my facebook page for an awesome and moving video of the middle and high school kids)
I took some snaps of D's class taking a shift in the Flood Relief Room at ISB today. Those 1st graders can pack a bag of necessities like nobody's business! So proud of our global citizens!
Here, they sit and listen to instructions.

 Ready at their stations. (D was in charge of the insect repellent)

 Fill those bags!

 They make a great team!

So proud of our kids!!!

Halloween 2011

It made the grown-ups (who remember trick or treating on cool, fall evenings) miss autumn weather back home, but our hot, sweaty kids had a great night out filling their bags with goodies!

 Group shot with Snow White, Reid the Fierce, a firefighter, a cowgirl, Spiderman, Batman, a little punkin, and a pirate.

 Trick or treat!

Happy Halloween friends and family! Such good fun!!!

Pattaya Mini Vaca

Last week an opportunity for a beach getaway arose and we decided to take advantage of it. T's office closed down Thursday and Friday due to the risk of flooding. So, we packed up our sand toys and headed for the gulf.

Diving for sand dollars.

Other fabulous Nichada families were there too so we had a ton of fun playing and dining with friends.

Who ordered the yummy cocktail served in a hollowed pineapple with carrots making up the facial features??? Me!

We also handed the underwater camera to the kids and let them snap all the pool fun. Love it!

The girls with creative hair-dos!

On our way back, we stopped at The Sri Racha Tiger Zoo. A real treasure of Thai family fun. :) We did have fun despite a very humid day. Tiger show, elephant show, feeding baby tigers, capybaras, and kids!

Hungry baby tigers.

Capybaras like green beans!

Kids like popsicles!

Who likes scorpions?! And I don't think this was featured just because of Halloween!

Another Fantastic City

We returned home today from our trip to Hong Kong. We are tired but we are happy! I'll blog briefly to say that we had a marvelous time and I'll post a photo album on Facebook. I've gotten some feedback that my video slideshows are not working properly for all viewers.

Anyway, we loved Hong Kong. Our friends Sara and Paul, and their gorgeous daughers, were wonderful tour guides and company and we hope to host them here in Bangkok soon!

 We only had 3 days but I think we saw the best of HK, including Stanley Market, Deep Water Bay, Repulse Bay,Victoria Peak and Victoria Harbor, the downtown area, sunset dinner at Cafe Deco, The Ngong Ping 360 experience, the giant buddha, Starferry and Harbor laser show, the bat wing junk, and last but definitely not least, Disneyland Hong Kong. I would surely go back to do parks and museums. We'll see if we can make another stop someday!

T is the Birthday Boy!

We all enjoyed celebrating T's birthday this evening. Dinner of his choice, ice cream cake, and the gift at the top of his wish list...

 All smiles while enjoying that cake!

 C, mastering the knife.

 Make sure you download some games for us dad!