We had our family Christmas the weekend Pawn's mom came to town. I'm not sure what she thought about our food, but she did eat it. I'm sure it's nothing like she's ever tasted before! :)
We had a pretty good spread. I forgot to make yeast rolls, but I mixed up some of my secret recipe mayonnaise rolls. I think Rusty enjoys them more than yeast rolls!
We invited all of our students and their families over to our house for a Thai BBQ on Christmas Eve. The regulars came, but we didn't have any parents of the new students. We'll try to work on them for next year. M's grandmother really helped us out by telling us where to buy the meat and coming over to make the dipping sauce. Haha...I love the shopping advice. We did it just like she said, and she approved. Success!!!
The kids always finish grilling first. The parents many of whom have to work late get started late. This is Sii's mom and Gam's parents. They have been so busy they haven't had much time to spend together so they were really enjoying this opportunity.
Since the kids are finished they get restless so we get up a game of spoons. We may not have a big table to sit around, but we seem to manage ok. There's always a lot of laughter.
On Christmas morning we were up bright and early to celebrate Christmas with the kindergartners. They got to play some games and draw numbers for their gift exchange.
This kid's bag of "chips" was almost as big as him!
After we finished at the kindergarten we headed over to the high school for their Christmas party. Every year was see a little bit more about the reason for the season through drawings and the performances. The group above is singing "Joy to the World" with Jessye who became a believer a few days before this performance.
Kru Dang gave the objectives for the event. Every event whether it's the English camp or the Christmas program which is sponsored by the foreign language department has to have its objectives read at the beginning of the event. She and the principal explained that the purpose was to include the religion of the Christians, to encourage the Christians in their beliefs, and for everyone to learn more about why Christians celebrate Christmas. Although the Christian group always takes part in the event, this is the first time that I know of the school including these specific objectives.
The Christian group had their Santa explaining to the children the real meaning behind Christmas using both the booklet Rusty handed out in class and showing the Thai video he used in class. Sometimes you wonder how much the kids actually pay attention, and then God lets you see something that encourages you.
The school also had a recycled Santa costume contest. They were supposed to reuse materials in order to create a Santa costume. I was a judge for the contest, and it was a hard one to judge! At least we got to pick the top three from each grade. That made it much easier!
We weren't finished after the Christmas program. We barely had time to run home before we had to be at the restaurant for the foreign language Christmas party. By the time we got to the restaurant I was very sick. I didn't enjoy the first half of it very much, but I revived for the last half. Some of the teachers didn't leave until midnight, but there was no way I would have made it that long!
At some point we finally got to open Christmas presents.
We all enjoyed the gifts and are very thankful for all who helped make our Christmas so special.
The biggest surprise probably was the Keurig from Rusty's brother Bryan. Thankfully we checked the voltage, dug our transformer out (that we have never used) and figured out how to use it.
I'm having to cut this post off as well, and I haven't finished. Stay tuned...
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