Merry Christmas

We didn't have time to send out Christmas cards or make one... so hopefully these pictures will fill the void of our absence this Christmas :(

I made these costumes for my classes performance and thought we would try to squeeze into them... Just a little holiday cheer :)

 

Christmas Party at School!

... will have to wait until I come back from Christmas vacation!

So... maybe it was a little longer... sorry! Brian and I both got sick after vaca and I'm only now getting back to the ole' blog.

Christmas at school was soooo cute. All the dances and costumes were so great! I have to admit our school does put alot into their shows. Looks good for potential customers and the parents after all... but still...

Calm before the storm :)

Stage

Angels

Cuties!

Beautiful

Love the stockings!

Rocking around the Teacher Michael Christmas tree.

Brother and sister :)

I was soo nervous for my students to go on, but they did great! They forgot to turn around for the beginning so I had to rush on stage to turn them around. They all had that deer in headlights look... all those people starring at them on stage... takes a while to get used too :) We practiced for a good month on the dance steps. It took me about a week to construct the costumes... some of the parents even took them home... but the ones that didn't, Brian and I used for our faux Christmas cards :)

My lil' Turkish delights - sisters Elif and Zeynep as presents

Two Christmas Trees - Mark and Daniel

Toby and Jeremy as presents!

Some of my girls...

My Class before the performance

Brian's class performance was awesome! He only has 3 girls in his class and the rest are all boys. His Thai teacher came up with a great idea for that! Brian was hired as a photographer by the school for this event so he got a lot of great photos.

Brian's girls working it!

Brian's friend Tom from back home was in town and he stopped by to watch and take in the Thai school system. Teacher Emily's family was in town and came to the event as well. The were in awe of how old the dad's were there haha... I guess we are kinda immune to it now, but thinking back to May - it is a bit jaw dropping :)

Not PC, I understand... but sooo cute and entertaining!

The girls shoot the boys :)

After clean-up we got to leave earlier. No Christmas party for us like the party they had after sports day. It was good though... Brian had to finish last minute videos for his side hustle and then we had to pack for vaca!!!!

Move over justin bieber :)

So behind on the blog... (it's really difficult to try to persuade Brian to fork over the pictures!)... so until I catch up enjoy the beautiful sounds of a 13 year old middle America boy wonder.

King's Birthday

or Father's Day....

It really wasn't that big considering what a production we did for Mother's day.

The children didn't put on any shows or get dressed up. Instead, they came to school bearing baskets full of food. It's tradition in Thailand on behalf of the King that everyone give food to the temples and monks. It was a nice experience. A bunch of monks came to school and collected all the items from the children. Brian got to take part in the ceremony because he's a boy and can accidentally touch monks unlike the diseased women of the world... haha... jk... but it is the monk's code not to have any physical contact with women.


I think the pictures will describe the day better. It lasted a while, but not long enough to get us through to lunch... sigh... so more teaching was necessary :)

Brian getting ready to help collect the food.

Look how little he's getting!!!

Big U - shape for the monks to travel around and get the goods.

Dumping loads of food into trucks!

Brian in a mass of orange.

Children and families giving food to the monks.

Teacher Tom and Teacher Gerry taking a load to the trucks.

Oh... and money too.

Loy Krathong

Loy Krathong is one of the many pretty festivals that Thailand has. At school, we had an activity day where each class made Krathong's which are the lovely flower floating thingy's that you would typically see associated with the holiday. I was really excited to learn myself. The base is actually made out of slices of banana tree trunk. You use banana leaves to make the outer decorations of the Krathong... and there are many different patters and designs you can use. I learned how to do the simple lotus look with my class. We used metal pins to hold everything together, but you can also use wood or toothpicks... more eco friendly... Brian's class used that and we instituted it on ours later.

Each of my students brought in flowers, candles, and incense for their krathongs. I asked my teacher if I could make one and she was thrilled that I wanted too. We also made a class Krathong for floating the next day in the schools pool. It was a fun day! I kept my krathong in the fridge until the actual day... it stayed quiet well in the 3 days!

My class hard at work!

Khun Kru Mi instructing...

I helped Toby with this design :)

Our classes pretty krathongs...

CHEESE

 The next day at school we had another Loy Krathong event. The school decided to have a beauty contest/ pageant. It was actually very cute to see all the girls AND boys get dressed up and strut their stuff. I heard some of my students say they woke up at 5AM to get ready!

The contestants waiting....

So Cute!

Some of my girls...

Ahhh so pretty!!!

Brian with his student Simon!

Some of Brian's boys...

What a cute couple!

So elegant!

Perfect :)

See even boys were working it!

And the winner is....

Her!

They made us all dance. Here's Brian shaking his money maker.

Launch at the pool.

There they are floating!

Urging my krathong to catch up.

 They even dressed up the female teachers in traditional long Thai skirts for the occasion.

Takes 3 to put me together :)

Photo Bombed by a lil girl haha. Love it.

Holding a krathong.

They stuck a plant in my hair.

The night before the actual day, we had another krathong making party at our apartment. Teacher Emily came over and we all practiced what we learned. It wasn't hard to find the supplies at the local markets, though some of the prices were clearly inflated for visitors.

Making some krathongs!

On the actual day, We started off at Jomtien Beach for the festivities. There were alot of people out and about. Lots of lanterns being sent up and fireworks going off. I was a bit on edge. Too many fireworks flying around unguarded for my liking. Brian and Emily thought I was crazy... but I'm worst-case scenario. I can't help it! And I must say after watching fireworks being thrown into the streets under cars my thoughts were not unwarranted.

Fireworks!

All those specks are laterns going up!

More laterns!

Brian's other love in life - fire.

We met at our neighbors store/restaurant/bar for a pig roast she was putting on for the soi. The pork wasn't that bad, but the homemade potato salad was awesome!

I dunno what he's doing :)

Poor piggy. But you were delicious!!!

We decided we wanted to go to Pattaya Beach to witness the big send off, but finding parking down there wasn't easy. We raced back to Dongtan beach minutes before launch time, but it wasn't very happening either. At midnight exactly, we made it back to Jomtien Beach right across from our apartment... right back where we started. There wasn't a big send of like we thought after all. I guess I expected to see a sea full of krathongs, but now I know that was my own minds exaggeration. Perahps in the smaller canals in Bangkok you would have that effect. We also got the times wrong... haha.. We thought everyone launched the boats at midnight, but it was really around 8 p.m.

BRIANS OWN PERSONAL LANTERN

No bad luck there!

Go in for the launch

Success!

Brian getting his ready!

So grizzly haha

Lighting of the incense...

Love the enthusiasm...

I put money in there! and pieces of my fingernail. Tradition!

Swirly...

Another success.

We headed in shortly after midnight. Monday had arrived. Time to go back to work :)