I didn't bring one Christmas decoration with me, don't ask why, Walter can answer that and I'm sure his answer will be I told you so. (Did you see that, that was me sticking my tongue out at him :)
I have bought a few things from various Christmas bazaars. Our super mall Central like to jack up all the prices on the very small plastic and tacky decorations that they carry, of course I bought a few things. Thais do not celebrate Christmas but they have absolutely no problem making several bucks off of us farangs (Thai word for foreigner) and all the imported junk.
We celebrated Thanksgiving. Actually we celebrated 3 times. As expats we tend to over celebrate holidays from home to make up on what we think were missing out on, though the only thing we are missing out on are the usual people we are with but in reality aren't we missing those people everyday and not just on holidays. Yes that is my brain thinking way to much into it. It was a great holiday and we had lots of fun. I cooked more than I cook at home and felt very fortunate to have made friends so quickly who included us in their celebration. I even was able to share our thanksgiving traditions and food with a few non American families who had never celebrated thanksgiving before. It was nice having so many distractions to keep me from missing out on celebrations we would have been at in the US.
This also was the first Thanksgiving holiday that I was not with 2 of my boys. Ryan being in the US and Jack getting home later that Thanksgiving night from Chiang Mai. We all survived and I was okay. :)
Ryan flew to San Antonio and was warmly welcomed by my sister and her family. He was very happy to be in a home surrounded by people who love him. Jack was happy because I saved him pie for when he got home.
Answer to a few questions: yes we get turkey very expensive turkey but it is a Butterball.
Surprisingly we even had fresh cranberries, expensive cranberries (7$ a bag) Walter brought me canned pumpkin from the states but I can find that here too. I really can find almost anything I want if I'm willing to look and go to 5 or 6 different stores and am not picky about brands. Pattaya is very international.
I can't believe it is December and we have lived in Thailand for almost 5 months. The first term of school is almost over. Winter break begins this Friday and the kids couldn't be happier.
Stupid Elms facts:
Finally had to buy our first pack of toilet paper since moving here. Why you ask? I brought lots in our shipment. Can you now imagine how much since it is December and I haven't bought any until now. That's a lot of toilet paper!
Dog food - just bought our first bag. Yep brought lots of that too. Guess Sparky is going to have to get use to eating non regulated USDA fortified dog food Hahahaha. She will survive. Don't pity her. She is spoiled rotten and fat as a pig. I think the maid secretly feeds her. Khun Maew LOVeS her!
Haven't bought paper towels yet but it's getting close.
Almost out of peanut butter but I can get that here. Olive oil dangerously close to being gone but again can buy here too. Our shipment home when we eventually return to the US is going to be extremely light without all this food now I have lots of room to buy pretty Asian things. :)
Cereal I brought is gone and can you believe that the Big K is not represented well here, well you can buy some but my boys swear it taste different. Can you believe big Papa works for the largest cereal company and my kids refuse to eat cereal here. Also if you buy the imported stuff it will set you back a good 9$ a box. Yikes even Walter refuses to buy it. He says he doesn't make enough money to afford it. 😜 He would rather have eggs, cheaper. Lol. If you come visit bring a box of "K" cereal. Lol.
My kids would like to add that you can't get sour patch kids. Candy is yuck, unless of course you like seaweed flavored candy or shrimp flavored. This is not a joke. True story. Biggest dried seafood section in the candy isle I have ever seen.
We still have our driver, though barely. He was in a motorbike accident and out of work for 10 days though he seemed to think he should get paid for all those days off. Khun Biayoon was saved by me but I'm out of saves. If he messes up again he is out. I like him and he is a good guy though he doesn't like to work hard. He is making his way through our movie collection. I make sure after a couple of weeks or so I change out the movies in the car. He appreciates it. 😝
Those 10 days I drove around myself. Yes scary I know but it did make me feel powerful and miss the ability to just jump in my car and go where I want. Sometimes with a driver you feel trapped and feel weird when you just got home and realize you forgot something at the store and need to go back or the thing at the Big C (like a target) wasn't at the regular Big C you go to and want to drive an extra 30 minutes across town to the other Big C so you can get what you want. Plus with a driver I am very conscious with what I spend because I can spend in one shopping trip what he makes in a week.
The kids are great and just livin life. Jack got back from his trip to Chiang Mai he had a fabulous time. I know when my kid has a great time when you don't have to ask how the trip was and he just talks and talks and follows me around the house telling me about his trip. He traveled by airplane with his group, stayed in a tribal village, visited the famous night market, plowed a rice field with a buffalo and got very muddy, rode in a go cart, learned how to fire a cross bow into a papaya, watched a traditional tribal dance, ate all kinds of different foods, learned how to cook over an open pit in the ground, slept at a school in the village, hiked to the highest peak in Thailand, fed pigs, taught English to the school children in the tribe, watched women make silk and did a study of invertebrate in a rain forest. All this done in 4 days with his school mates and this is why he slept for more than 24 hours when he got home. He was a tired boy! He loved this experience so much that we just put his down payment on his next trip to Nepal in February. Nepal for goodness sake. I want to be one of my kids!!!
I'm working on those adoption papers Kellie. ;)
Andrew made the Fobisea team. Fobisea is where the international schools come together to compete in various sporting events. Each school is allowed to only take 20 kids per age group. Andrews age, yr 7 and 8 combined, had over 50 kids try out and he was chosen. He is soooo excited. He is going to Brunei in the beginning of April. Yeah google where that is, I had too. Again can I say I want to be one of my children.
Erin is busy busy busy with school. She really loves it and is very happy. We have to compete with her over the driver on weekends. She seems always to have something going on. School is going really well and she is handling the IB program and work load effortlessly. Boyfriend is over but that is a good thing. She was sad but I told her who wants to date a boy who wears a smaller size jean than most woman anyway. I don't think she really appreciated that comment maybe one day she will understand. Lol
Last weekend Walters boss invited us to join him on a boat he rented. Walter and I don't pass up much in this life we are living and this was not an opportunity we were going to pass on. This boat ended up being a yacht. My kids were SO happy they didn't pass on this offer too. Wow. Incredibly beautiful and SO not something Walters boss does often. We took off from the Ocean Marina in the bay of Pattaya and traveled around. One of the things on my bucket list while being here was to go to monkey island. Monkey island is an island only inhabited by monkeys. Only way to get there is by boat. Monkeys are everywhere and will come up to you as you approach the shore. I got to go to monkey island on this boating trip. I was so excited. Walter, the kids and I swam from the boat to shore and were able to see these monkeys very very close up, like if I stuck my hand out I could touch them. It was really amazing. We did not bring any fruit with us to feed them but that didn't matter they still put on a show. Jumping from the trees and diving into water. It was so neat.
I had no idea monkeys swam but they do and even dive out of tress into the water.
Our ride
It was a red, white and blue theme day so we rocked our flags!
Big Papa with his girl!
This was a photo my girlfriend took that night. We were actually much closer than she was but I thought it was an incredible picture from that night. We could see these from our house too.
Since Walter had off and no school for Erin, Andrew and Jack we had a great day of tennis, movies and dinner.
Walter has been home almost a whole month without traveling probably the reason I haven't blogged much. It has been great having him here. We have gone out lots, finished the entire season of Breaking Bad (I'll just say OMG that was probably the best TV series I've seen in a while). Watched some movies and just been a family again. It has been nice. He leaves again later this week for Australia but it's ok, It's time for a break JK 😜 and he is only gone for a week. Plus Ryan will be here so I'll be distracted. Hahaha
Final Countdown
Ryan arrives in less than 5 days. Yahoooooo!!
My parents arrive in 11 days. Yipeeeeee!!
So much to be thankful for during this holiday season.
Life is good. 😊
Life here is "same same but different". - this is my very favorite sayings that the Thais say.
Cracks me up every time
Cheers
😘 M
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