CHRISTMAS PHOTOS

As long as our Internet is working tonight (and I can't sleep anyway), I thought I'd post a few photos from our Christmas celebrations.  It was odd sweating as I opened gifts and the sun shone brightly despite the living room curtains being closed...

wrapping presents in the bedroom

it took Gaow a little while to understand the concept behind unwrapping presents, but once he figured it out he couldn't get enough — his usual method was to briefly glance at whatever was inside before moving to the next gift...

Tim, on the other hand, relished each gift and had to be coaxed to move on; here she displays a nice stainless steel bottle opener sent by my sister as a souvenir of Disneyland

Tim and Gaow proudly wear their Mickey Mouse ears from Disneyland

my second biggest gift to my wife was a microwave; we didn't break it in until tonight when I heated some Thai-style clam-and-mushroom chowder

Gaow really enjoyed his new Ultraman toys; wish I could say the same for our community cats who he terrorized with the noisy robots

Tim models a shirt from Lyn

my number one big gift to Tim was this gold bracelet

Tim also gave me jewelry; she bought a heavy-duty teardrop-shaped holder and chain for the Buddhist amulet she'd given me several months ago (replacing the black string that I'd previously used)


at Tim's insistence, we bought Gaow a bicycle; she talked me out of the small one and this one is almost too big for him — I worry about the new neighbors who treat our formerly quiet soi like it was a racetrack but Tim assures me that Gaow will watch out for them...

on Christmas Night, we attended a party/dinner hosted by the one of the few Christian churches on Phuket — I'd been assured that a Western-style turkey dinner was to be served with all the trimmings and it was really the only reason I attended but, alas, there was no Western food at all...

Tim did a great job trying to stay awake: much of the party consisted of ministers preaching that we needed Jesus Christ in our lives (in Thai) and very badly-organized "games" and skits

we stayed until the end simply to see if we'd be lucky in the raffle drawings (I won a couple of hand-towels); I was actually called on stage to read the last 10 or so numbers which I did in Thai to the amusement/amazement of the remaining guests (I think I was the only farang to stick around so long...

And, that was what I did on my first Christmas living in Thailand.