Christmas Afternoon and Evening

We had to work this day but it was fun! A mall in downtown Bangkok asked us to come and sing Christmas carols n Christmas, so we went. We sang in English and in Thai! I can sing many of the songs in Thai because we have been singing them all month at church! I am improving!

There were about 20 of us! People who walked by loved it and it was a lot of fun!

At night we had a Christmas party for members of Tai church and we had a great time! It was filled with shows, songs, games, and lots of gifts and fun! This is a picture of me and my friend Ning. She is 3 months pregnant and is so cute!

The party started with dinner! A little different than the American Christmas dinner I had the night before but none the less it was great!! We ate from 6 - 8 and then celebrated until 11:30! It was a LONG night but it was good! Merry Christmas!

Christmas Morning

Merry Christmas! Oh it feels like Christmas, jk! It is about 95 degrees outside, people are going to work, and it is just another Tuesday in Bangkok. I love this time of year and so I create my room like America, with a tree, Christmas music everyday, even presents under the tree! Love, joy, and peace are felt throughout the month! I love it!

I made French Toast for my two friends in the morning! I explained to them the typical Christmas day of my youth and they loved all the traditions! It is so much fun to talk about the past and the childhood memories I have! And then try to create them here!

There were a couple presents under the tree, with love from America! It was great to get everyones Christmas cards! Thanks for the pics and the love notes! :)

Our friend Noi gave us shawls for Christmas. Actually I got three this year from different people! It is a common gift I guess! It was a good morning!

Christmas Eve

I went to April and Arthur's house again for Christmas Eve dinner! Their house was decorated so nicely and I was able to have an American Christmas meal! Thanks April for being a great cook! :) Their tree is beautiful and I love going to their house for the holidays! We have a good time together!

Ubon

This past week, before Christmas, I was in Ubon. It is a province in the Northeast of Thailand. We just opened a daughter church there. I am on the start-up team. There are many things that are different about Ubon when I compare it to Bangkok. The food is totally different, you can see the stars, there are Buffalos and cows walking around everywhere, and look at the picture of the gas station! I have loved this experience. I think that most of Thailand lives like this and I decided that Bangkok is not really Thailand! :)
Ket's home is large compared to most. One of the homes we went into, in the photo above, was so small and it has no electricity. It was great to go and bless her with some love! We sang Christmas carols and we gave her a gift. We celebrated Christmas in my friend Noi's village and in Ket's village. It was fun and I was in charge of all the kids! Both nights we had about 20 kids! It was s much fun! They had never heard the Christmas story!
On Sunday the 23rd, we had our first church service in Ubon. It was at Ket's house. If you check out the photo link on the right then you will be able to see many pics of the week! I hope that you get a taste of Ubon!

Christmas Caroling

We went Christmas Caroling around the church! It was a fun time! We went for about 2 hours. We sang at some local restaurants, a bank, the police station, and on the bus! Yes, I actually did sing in Thai! One of my friends wrote the words in Karaoke for me! It was great! :)


This is caroling on the bus! The bus driver wanted us to keep singing and all the people enjoyed some free entertainment!



Here are the pastors kids! They are so cute! They did a great job and people loved them! Caroling is one of my favorite things to do at Christmas! I miss being with my family during this season! Every year we g around my Grandma's house! We have hot chocolate, cookies, and sometimes dinner! It has been a family tradition for many, many years! I love this time of year!

Dinner with Ket at the Baiyoke Hotel

For Christmas I took my roommate Ket to dinner at a nice restaurant. The restaurant is in a hotel that has 84 stories. The restaurant is on the 83rd story and the 84th floor rotates and you can look out all over the city. Inside the hotel they had many displays about Thailand. It was interactive and we could take pics on everything. We took a million pics! These a couple of them! We enjoyed dinner! It was a buffet and we left probably 15 pounds heavier than when we went in! But oh was it good!

Baking Cookies

Baking cookies is one of my favorite things to do this time of year! I absolutely love baking! I think I love it so much because I can eat the dough and eat the cookies when they are fresh out of the oven! Cookies are my weakness for sure! This year we baked sugar cookies, oatmeal raisin, and chocolate chip of course! It was great! I went over to a friends house to bake and we baked for a few hours, shared stories of Christmas memories! It was great but it sure made me miss home! I miss cooking with Gloria Hill, my friend Deanna's mom! She makes GREAT cookies! Mine will never be as good but my friends here will never know that!

China Town

I went t China Town for the first time! It was so much fun! SO many people! Everything was cheap but you had to buy 6 or 12 of everything. You could not buy only one thing. But it was so much fun to see all the people and to walk around! It was so crowded down each street. It reminded me of the old city in Morocco. The only difference is that in the old city in Fes there are only donkeys. In China town there were motorcycles! It was funny because the streets are so narrow and the motorcycles have the right-of-way! It is a bit crazy! Once you have been there for about 2 hours, you will be totally ready to go home!

Christmas Tree Decorating!!!

Here is the tree decorated and happy! I love the Christmas season! I wish all of my friends and family could be here with me to celebrate! Know that I am thinking about you, missing you, and wishing you a great Christmas season! Merry Christmas!!




These kids came over to my house to have dinner and decorate the tree! Their mom and dad went on a date and Ket and I babysat them! We only watched them for 3 hours but after that we decided that we aren't sure we want to have kids! They are a handful, although, look at how cute they are!!

Jeff's Wedding

This is my friends names in Thai. Their names are Jeff and Korn! They got married on Sunday, December 2, 2007. These pics are of the traditional Thai wedding. It is a Buddist ceremony.



During the ceremony the older people pour water over the couples hands and offer a blessing to them. Most of the time it is a blessing of wealth, many children, good luck, and things like that. After the older people gave the blessing then the other people in this part of the ceremony could give a blessing. I was one of two foreigners, the other being the mother of the groom, and s I was asked to give a blessing. I was a bit nervous so I just went up, poured water over their hands and said congratulations! I was nervous!



This was at the reception! It is the bride and groom giving a piece of the cake to the mother of the groom and they also do it to the mother of the bride. They were so beautiful and I was glad to be there with them! All the ceremonies and traditions are totally different than a Christian wedding but it was interesting to learn about the culture.

Eng Jet

This is my Saturday Level 2 class! It was all girls! We had a great time together this course! I look forward to many o them returning for level 3! In this class we practice conversation, pronunciation and listening! It is very good and I think that each of these ladies improved! I love this class!



This is my Tuesday, Thursday, Friday class! They are in Level 1! They did such a great job this course! I believe where they improved the most was listening and not being too shy to talk! I enjoyed them a lot!

Father's Day at church

The King of Thailand's birthday is December 5th! We celebrated it at church on December 2nd. We all wore pink shirts because now the king is wearing pink! It was a great day! We have 3 doctors and 2 nurses in our church and so we set up a mini clinic where people could come and get their health checked for free! It was a great opportunity to give something to the community and share with them about Jesus! We had a good time!