Christmas in Thailand

I knew it would be different. Really different. I wasn’t going to be home with my friends and family in the US. I wasn’t going to be putting out all the decorations with my family and decorating the tree - - - which actually isn’t my favorite thing to do, but disliking it has even become a tradition. I wasn’t home to go shopping for all my cousins and wrap the presents – which IS my favorite thing to do. I wasn’t able to watch the Hallmark channel with my mom for the entire month of December to see all the corny Christmas movies that steal my heart and make me want to live a life with an extra side of corny. I wasn’t spending time with my friends decorating cookies. I wasn’t exchanging gifts with people back home. I wasn’t helping my mom make Christmas dinner. I wasn’t home to play in the snow and then complain about the icy roads. I wasn’t waking up on Christmas morning with my family in the house I’ve lived in for most of my life.

I thought about this a lot. I tried not to think about it. I didn’t want to be depressed. But I still knew what I was missing. However, my and my roommates mission was to live it up. We knew it wouldn’t be the same, but it didn’t mean it had to be bad or sad. I was realizing that even though everything about the Christmas season seemed different . . . the main reason for the season wasn’t/isn’t/won’t ever be any different. This is comforting. Jesus came to earth to save us whether I am in Colorado Springs or Chiang Mai on the 25th of December. The reason for the season is the same.

So, we made a “bucket list” of things that we wanted to do for the Christmas Season.

We put up a loaned Christmas tree in our house and when we realized that it only had 2 of the 3 legs necessary to hold it up, we fashioned plastic ice cream containers, a ceramic clown, and a lot of packing tape to make do. Instead of ornaments, we put bows and gift tags and a hand made paper angel.
Since the weather is still mostly in the 80’s here, we spent an evening with the air conditioner on, watching a Christmas movie, cuddled up in blankets and sipping on peppermint hot chocolate. We also spent time making cookies. I didn’t go to CCR (my home church in CO) on the Sunday before Christmas to see the children’s play, but I went to Abundant Grace and watched a lot of my previous students in the Christmas program. Even though most of the program was in Thai, the kid playing Jesus that took the cross and kept accidentally swinging it around and beating his followers over the head makes anyone laugh – no matter the language they speak. Most of my 4th grade students were part of a hip hop Christmas dance and one of my sweet boys got up and did some break dancing (a lot like he used to do in the middle of class).

Instead of spending the Sunday before Christmas with my friends and family in the US, I spent the evening at the children’s home here that is near and dear to my heart. We played with some of the kids while other kids helped make dinner. We went Thai style on straw mats outside with no utensils eating buffalo and sheep on a stick, rice and fruit. We got eaten alive by mosquitoes, watched the bats fly over head with a little bit of fear, and were worried we would catch lice that some of the kids were being treated for. However, it was one of my all time favorite days in Thailand. We went shopping for eachother at the Sunday night market and had bags of tooth brushes, soap, food, etc. to hand out to the beggars that came up to us.

We had a work Christmas party with Spaghetti and Thai cuisine.
We spent Christmas Eve with our awesome friends, Daniel and Noelle and their foster (hope to be adopted) son Makham. We spent the day playing games, playing with Makham, eating, watching “Alvin and the Chipmunks,” making Christmas Hats, taking a walk, sipping on hot chocolate and watching “My Sister’s Keeper” (which I balled all the way through). It was such a fun and relaxing day.
Christmas Day, I woke up to the smell of Blueberry Muffins (thanks to mom and dad who brought them and thanks to Sarah for making them) =) and opened the “stockings” (actually the Christmas hats we made turned upside down) with my roommates.
Then I actually got to skype with my family and see them all. This was the first time I had seen Jessica since I left in June. LOVED, LOVED, LOVED seeing all of them and that made my Christmas special (since my family is so special – you can translate “special” however you’d like, hehe).

We prepared a Christmas lunch for our Thai teacher friend Khru Ooy and our fellow English (well, Scottish) teacher friend Gordon (or Gordito as we lovingly like to call him). Gordon brought us all scarves for Christmas, so we took a pic with them (below). The 6 of us sat around our small table and used our ironing board to place all the prepared food on (have to be resourceful ;). We at chicken and vegetables and sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce and laughed and translated (Scottish isn’t really a language of it’s own, but trust me – sometimes there is need for translation between the Scottish accent, English and Thai). We read the Christmas story and sang Christmas carols around the table and ate Apple Crumble for dessert.
I spent the afternoon and evening with my C&MA family eating a full Christmas dinner, playing games, having a Christmas program and doing a gift exchange. It was a blessing to be around so many families.

At 10:00 Christmas night, things finally calmed down for us roommates to finish unwrapping gifts. My mom sent a package from the states and it arrived promptly on Christmas day (which was fantastic because then I wasn’t tempted to open it early). She sent some awesome gifts along with Christmas movies from home.

The day after Christmas, we slept in and then while eating chocolate chip pumpkin oatmeal muffins (compliments of Amy’s fam for sending the ingredients) and sipping on coffee, we thought it would be funny to look like Who’s (from the Grinch). Please keep in mind while looking at this picture, this is a fresh out bed picture. We received some fun Christmas movies and dedicated the day after Christmas to a Christmas Movie Marathon.
So, Christmas this year was different. Very different. I still missed out on my normal traditions at home . . . but this is one that I will never forget. I am blessed. I hope you had a Christmas filled with friends, family, laughter, and the reminder of God’s love for you.