Christmas in Bangkok

Since it's almost April, I thought I'd share some highlights of our Christmas in Bangkok.  I handled it pretty well since in my 40 years, only twice did I not wake up Christmas morning at my childhood home.  I guess it was time to grow up.

Nichada (our expat community) definitely gets into the Christmas spirit.  Cardboard Santas line the street, Christmas music plays in the local grocery store, and there is a Christmas house tour in the community.  As I told my sister, it's just one of those activities for we ladies of leisure to attend.

Only in Thailand would you see Santa driving a decorated tuk tuk.

Some people go all out and decorate one part of their house with a gingerbread storefront.

This house decorates each room in a different color.   You may not be able to tell, but I'm in the purple room.

At one point Austin thought we couldn't celebrate Christmas because it was hot here.  I quickly corrected him and made a mental note that we needed to review the true meaning of Christmas (i.e.: Jesus is the reason for the season!)
Since we weren't expecting snow or anything close to it, we visited a place called Harbin, which is a room with ice sculptures and slides.

We also went ice skating.  It was Camryn's 2nd time ever, and Carston and Austin's first time.  The boys eventually got the hang of it.  Though Austin hugged the wall most of the time, he eventually broke away from it to do a pair skating routine with the penguin.  Carston is our most persistent and determined one.  Check out the video of him doing a tap dance on ice.

In keeping with the true meaning of Christmas, the children presented the story of the birth of Christ at our church one Sunday morning.  We attended the Christmas Eve candlelight service.  And we  took part in a community outreach called the Orange Drop.  We packed bags with oranges and a track that shared the gospel in Thai.  Then we headed out on our golf cart to deliver bags to guards, store owners, street vendors, or anyone walking along the street.

Decorating bags for Orange Drop

That's a lot of oranges!

Delivering bags to the community

On Christmas Day...

Austin asked for a Tickle Machine for Christmas.  After searching Amazon and Walmart sites to no avail, I thought I'd make one.

The finished product

Trying it on for size

What's a Christmas without MORE Legos?

Even Camryn wanted Legos this year.

The boys loved digging for crystals and fossils.  Note to self:  Next time, we'll take this outside.  It left a ton of dust/sand/dirt.

Playing with our new Badminton set.