Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Well, we had a great Christmas and great New Year here in Phayao.  Christmas day was lots of fun but had a few tweaks that definitely made it interesting and very different from Christmas in Texas.  First of all, it was about 85 degrees, so that automatically feels pretty weird.  We looked on the internet and saw many of our homes in Texas covered in snow on Christmas day while we were tempted to turn on the air conditioner.  The next thing that was different was being so far removed from all of our family.  It was definitely nice having Gigi here with us but we still missed the rest of our family back home.  So to help cope a little bit, we had two computers turned on and connected to video chat all morning.  Sir (that’s what the boys call Chris’ dad) was with us all morning long via video chat and got to be part of the present opening.  It was lots of fun to be able to let him see the boys coming running into the living room and see all that Santa had brought.  We also got to talk to Tonya’s parents and Amy and Sid and later with Wes and Tricia in Tomball.  And finally, the last big surprise we had was a 70 year old Thai man knocking on our door about 9:00 a.m.  He is actually a christian who lives close by and had heard about us through a mutual friend and decided he would come meet us… on Christmas day… and stay for over an hour… while we were trying to spend time with our boys and talk with our families… and then invite himself to dinner that night…   Actually, it wasn’t that bad.  He is a very sweet man and full of joy.  It was actually very refreshing to meet someone of his age that obviously loves the Lord very much and has a desire to help build Christian community and see God glorified here in Thailand.

A few of the other festivities we enjoyed over the holidays were Christmas party at Ryan and Ning’s house, Christmas dinner at our house with everyone, and “Suki Santa” at our house on Dec. 26.  Click here to see some pictures of our Christmas fun or see the pictures below to see what Santa brought.  If you want to hear more about “Suki Santa” click here to read Tonya’s post about it.

The boys were all so excited to get presents from Santa Clause!

Our cute littel boys on Christmas morning

Corban Scout got a radio controlled car

Corban Scout's gift from Santa

Esan Ray got a drum set! Yeah for mom and dad! Thanks, Santa. I guess he wants us to go crazy.

Esan Ray's new drum set from Santa

Teagan got a car playset

Thank you, Santa

And finally, Tonya Gail got a clothes dryer!!  It may not seem like a very good present to some of you, but it is.  Dryers aren’t very common in Thailand and most people hang their clothes on a line to dry.  Well, that is ok, and yes, it does work; but the clothes end up being stiff and smelling kind of funny, especially when you live next to a muddy field used to raise cows and water buffalo and then breeze all day comes from the field.  Your clothes end up smelling a little bit like poopy mud.  Anyway, all that to say a dryer is a really good thing and really helps make this feel a little bit more like a home.  So here are a few pictures of Tonya with her new dryer and a short video of her actually getting it on Christmas morning.

She was so excited!

They're so soft and they smell so good, thank you Santa Clause!

Life in Thailand

The store where I bought, uh, I mean Santa and his elves delivered, er, brought the dryer to Tonya on Christmas morning about 8:30, which was perfect timing because the boys had just finished opening their gifts.  It had a big red bow on it and my mom had made her think I was getting her a T.V. for Christmas, which she would’ve hated, so she really was surprised when she came outside and saw it.  So, here is a short video of her getting it: