Christmas Season

Jonah checking out the tree

Kaiya asleep on Jonah's play mat - one of the days she was sick

This year it has been hard for me to get into the Christmas spirit. The main reason being is that it still feels like summer to me. Also it is difficult to do our normal holiday traditions such as going out and picking out a real Christmas tree with hot drinks in hand. And to top it off, I have had two sick kids over the past week or so making it difficult to go Christmas shopping, do Christmas baking or get anything else done. However, we did go get a (fake) tree and decorated it (with cold drinks in hand) and it is slowly starting to feel like Christmas, just a new kind of one with new experiences and traditions.

A Favorite Place

Tiramisu and Strawberry Almond Cake

Within walking distance from our home is a little shop called Sugaroma. It is one of my favorite places to go. They have an amazing selection of desserts which varies each time I have been there. So far my favorites have been: the strawberry shortcake, tiramisu, the chocolate bomb (chocolate hazelnut mousse with a chocolate shell around it) and passion fruit smoothie. I am looking forward to taking my parents there this Christmas break so they can partake in the yummy goodness.

Thanksgiving Celebrations

Family photo at barn party

Family photo at the Marriott with turkey ice sculpture

Another family photo taken at our last Thanksgiving celebration of 2009

This year we celebrated Thanksgiving over three days. On Wednesday, the school where Jonathan works had a barn party for Thanksgiving. There were games, skits, singing and of course food. Our next celebration was on Thursday evening where we had been invited to a hotel for a Thanksgiving buffet. The pasta bar, bread and cheese table and the dessert bar were all a big hit with our family. Then Friday evening we got together with friends and a wonderful traditional Thanksgiving meal. Each celebration was different and unique, but we had a good time at all of them.

Loy Krathong

On our road, making krathongs

Kaiya (and friends) with the krathong we made

Getting ready to float the krathong

The sparklers were a hit

Several weeks ago there was a holiday here called Loy Krathong. Translated loy means 'to float' and krathong means 'raft'. For this holiday, people build little floating rafts from banana tree trunks and decorate it with banana leaves, flowers and candles. Then they take their little "rafts" to the river and float let it float out on the water. When I was here before (13 yrs ago) I remember doing this and seeing how beautiful all the candles looked out on the water. This year Jonathan was sick so we stayed home and were not going to do or see anything for the holiday. However when I went out on our street in the evening, there was a group of people sitting on a mat making the krathongs. Kaiya and I (with Jonah watching on) decided to make our own little krathong. We had fun decorating it and collecting flowers for us and others to use for the krathongs. Then later in the evening we went and put our krathong in our little pond near our house.

Friends and Memories

Thailand 2009: Becca and I

Thailand 1996: Myself, Becca, and Rebekah

Thirteen years ago, two friends and I came to Thailand as student missionaries for a year. One of those friends, Becca, recently came to Thailand for a visit. It was so nice to see her and take a walk down memory lane. I enjoyed meeting her daughter and it was fun to watch our daughters play together. I find it interesting and exciting how life turns out because thirteen years ago I never would have thought that one day we would be back in Thailand watching our girls play together.

Getaway

View of our resort from the end of the boardwalk

Rainy day poolside

Jonah sleeping by the pool

Not so sure about this whole ocean thing

Jonathan and Kaiya having fun at the beach

family shot on the boardwalk

Last week the school that Jonathan works for took a spiritual retreat. Five large buses transported the employees plus families to a resort a couple hours away. The weather was rainy the evening we arrived and all the next day. We still went swimming in the pool (twice that day) till Kaiya's lips turned blue. The last half day we were there, we were blessed with beautiful sunny weather and made the most of it at the pool and at the beach. While the kids and I had a nice relaxing time, Jonathan was keeping busy being the main speaker for the retreat. He did manage to fit some time in at the pool and beach also. Highlights of the trip: eating sticky rice cooked in a bamboo stalk; a beautiful 180 degree view of the ocean from our balcony; at sunset with Kaiya watching (large) crabs run out of the ocean waves; an amazing walk along the boardwalk that extended probably about 1/2 mile out into the turquoise ocean; watching jellyfish from the end of the boardwalk; watching Jonathan' s face turn beet red after accidently eating a green chili; and experiencing Jonah's first time at the ocean - he wasn't overly impressed. Lesson learned on the trip: to enjoy the journey as well as the destination.

Heave and Heat

My non-moving fan

Jonah's hair was wet from sweating as he lay beside me under the non-moving fan

About a month ago, I got food poisoning. It was miserable. I was up most of the night emptying out everything from my GI system. I will spare you all the details as it was not pretty. Needless to say I was very exhausted the next day (thankfully since my stomach was now empty I had stopped heaving). Jonathan came home from work early to help out so I could get a nap. Just a few minutes after I had laid down, I heard a loud bang outside and all of a sudden my fan, along with the rest of our electricity, stopped working. Something had blown out somewhere along the power lines on our street. So there went my nap, as it was way too hot to sleep without a fan. So I just lay there with Jonah beside me, not moving, in attempt to remain just a little cooler. It made me realize how much I depend on all the fans in my house and how thankful I am for them (when they are working). The electricity did return a few hours later, much to my great delight.

Six Months

Today Jonah turned six months old. Time has flown! It is fun to see him grow and get more interactive each day. He is such a bundle of joy and we are so blessed to have him in our family.

Rainy Season

Our flooded driveway

Wet after walking in the rain

Kaiya playing in the flooded driveway after arriving home

Jonah enjoyed the wet walk

We have arrived in Thailand during the rainy season. I think it was a good time for us to move here since the rain tends to cool things down somewhat. One day when the kids and I went to meet Jonathan for lunch, it started pouring. We waited a while for the rain to stop, but when it didn't, we decided to venture out and walk the ten minutes it takes to get home. The kids loved it and Kaiya sang "raindrops fall with a pitter pitter pat" the entire way home. We got some curious looks but a lot of smiles from the people we saw along the way.

Teeth

Teeth!

Kaiya wanted me to take a picture of her teeth too

About a month ago Jonah was gnawing on my hand and all of a sudden it hurt! Turns out that his two bottom teeth had broken through. As you can see, it has taken me awhile to actually get visual proof of these new incisors. Kaiya decided to "help" me get a picture of them since Jonah was disrupting her video when I was trying to get a shot of them.

Beauty in the city

One day as we were walking along the road during one of our explorations, we happened upon this Starbucks with these beautiful flowering vines hanging outside of it. I just had to take a picture because I thought they were so beautiful.

Discovery Museum

Fire women to the rescue

Katie and Jonah

Making candied apples

Kaiya and her creation

Lia, Madeline, Katie and Kaiya with their yummy apples

Laura, Ryan and family come to Bangkok for a weekend so we got to spend some time with them here. One of the things we did was go to the Children's Discovery Museum. Jonathan skipped out on it as he was ill during that time. It was a really neat museum and the kids had a great time. There was a large playground area, hands on activities and a little fire truck where the girls could pretend to be fire women. There was a kitchen station where the girls got to make their own chocolate covered apples, which were a huge hit. There was so much to do and see at the museum that we didn't get to it all that day, so we are looking forward to going back for more fun.

Squat Pots

Squat pot

On my trip up to my sister's home in Mauk Lek, I requested of the van driver to stop at a restroom and this was the result. These toilets are not one of the things I missed about Asia. Note the tub of water with a bowl in it, that is the "flushing" system. Regardless of the fact that this is not one of my favorite toilet facilities, I was happy that there was something there to use.

Travels to Mauk Lek

Jonah with cousin Madeline

Kaiya with her cousin Lia

I am finally able to start blogging again since I now have regular access to internet. I will try to play catch up on what has happened in the past month. I am fortunate to have family (my sister and her family) only about two hours away. I have been able to go up there twice already since arriving in Thailand. It is such a nice change to get out of the city and eat some wonderful home cooked food (Laura is an excellent cook) and get to spend time with family.

One of the days when we were out driving I noticed that driving in front of us was this tanker truck with this guy just riding along on top of it like it was the most normal thing in the world. On another day we drove into a town about 30 minutes away from Laura's house and along side of the road was a man riding his elephant. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera to capture picture.

Along for the ride

Laundry

View of other rooftops through our laundry

Doing laundry has taken a whole new meaning here. For those who do laundry for multiple people especially small children, laundry can be time consuming. When I finally figured out how and where to do laundry - it has been quite the process. First I have to climb up 3 flights of stairs to get to the washing machine (it is on the roof) hauling my basket full of laundry, laundry soap (good thing I haven't found Costco size ones here), fabric softener and my change. The washing machine takes 90 minutes to do one load, thankfully you can fit a good amount in it though. When it is finally done washing, then on to hanging it all out on the clothesline (hence the need for fabric softener). Once your clothes have been hung out to dry, the key is to leave them out long enough to dry, but then get them back in before the rain comes (it is rainy season currently). Speaking of which, I better run and get my clothes off the roof - I see dark clouds headed my way.

Pretty flowers

I saw these flowers the other day and was excited because it reminded me of my childhood in Singapore. I just had to take a picture of them and share them. It brought back a lot of good memories.

Take Out

The cook

Where all the action is

This is how they package the food to go

Pad see yu, fried rice and pad thai

Yesterday for lunch I went to get take out for the family, since Jonathan wasn't feeling up to walking around on his swollen feet (see previous post). I went to a little hole in the wall about a ten minute walk from where we are staying. They cooked the food right in front while I stood and watched. It was very good and we got all of it for about $1 dollar.

Not for the faint of heart or stomach

Blister on Jonathan's foot caused by reaction to poison ivy/oak

Right before we left California, Jonathan got poison ivy/oak (not sure which one). On the flight and since being here, he has been dealing with this. He has been a trooper and it hasn't slowed him down. We have made two trips to the hospital (most recent being today) because of his strong allergic reaction to the poison ivy/oak. Hopefully his injection today (second one) will do the trick and he can be at peace from all is itching and swelling.

First Impressions

We have been in Bangkok about 5 days now and have been enjoying it thus far. What strikes me the most so far is the contradictions in our surroundings. About a five minute walk from our house (that we are still waiting to get into) is a neat little coffee shop where we can get wifi and yummy coffee too. It has bookshelves full of books that you can curl up and read on the comfortable chairs or the bird nest swing. K enjoyed the rocking horse. Then on to the opposite spectrum: we rode a water taxi to the hospital to get our vaccinations. It was an adventure getting on and off the water taxi. There is a small edge that runs along the boat rim that you step onto and a rope that you hold onto to climb aboard. And you better be quick or the boat takes off without you! The sites along the ride were interesting. A lot of shacks and even a cookstand out over the water. Needless to say, I am enjoying taking in all the new sights and experiences.