Thanksgiving?

Thursday was kind of Thanksgiving, but not really.  Technically, it was the fourth Thursday in November, but it was 95 degrees outside (who knows how hot with humidity), Vivi went to school as usual, and we didn't have our big meal.  We've decided to move Thanksgiving to Saturday instead.  That way everyone has off work (including our German friends who are celebrating with us), the kids have off school, and we will have been able to record the parade to watch in the morning (it would be on at 9pm here otherwise).  We bought the ingredients for sausage balls, so we'll see if we can pull together some of our typical Thanksgiving stuff, even though we can't do anything about the weather being completely wrong.

We didn't do a special meal on Thursday, but for a special treat I picked Vivi up from school.  Pick up came complete with a strawberry banana smoothie and time on the playground.  Unfortunately, it started to rain, so we golf carted home quickly.  After dinner, we all watched the Mr. Peabody and Sherman movie.  It was really cute, and everyone enjoyed it.  I was a little sad about my not really Thanksgiving, but I'm hoping that Saturday will make up for it.

Jeff took off Friday as well, which I was really happy about.  Obviously I enjoy his company, but he also hadn't been to Chatuchak yet, so I thought Friday morning would be a good, low crowd day to check it out.  We drove (with minimum confusion) and parked at JJ Mall.  Navigating from the parking garage to the front door was almost as complicated as getting to the mall in the first place, but we eventually figured it out.

We spent about an hour exploring and decided that our favorite part was the furniture and art section right near the mall.  I didn't take any pictures, because most of the places had a big "no photos" sign.

Even though the walkways are mostly covered, it was so humid that after an hour we were sweating profusely, so we decided to explore the mall a bit instead, since it's air conditioned.  It's not a very big mall, but it still manages some labyrinth moves.  As we wandered, we found a couple photo-worthy gems.

As far as I could ascertain, there is no chicken sold here, only fish.

Again, perplexing, because you'd think if anything Tony would be a Bengals fan.  This store had lots of super hero shirts too, so Jeff and I spent quite a bit of time looking around and holding shirts up to show each other.

After our fun, we got home quite easily, since we were stopped at a ridiculously long red light and could figure out where we were supposed to go.  We only missed one turn and had to do a maneuver  which was probably illegal, but over fast enough that no one saw us do it.  When we got home, we had some lunch, and then headed over to ISB to pick Vivi up.  She played on the playground with some friends for a bit, and then we took her across the street for her first Thai haircut.

First she got a complete shampoo and conditioning, including a scalp massage which she didn't appreciate.

Then came the standard trim.

After we gave it the okay, the hairdresser asked if we wanted it blow dried.  Vivi said please, please.  I don't know why she thought it was something she wanted, but I figured it couldn't hurt.  

She lasted a few minutes, and then she complained that it was hot.  Luckily, her hair was mostly dry by then.  I thought we were done, but then the hairdresser asked if we wanted little braids.  We said sure.

The braids are great, because they look cute and keep her hair out of her face.  The whole bill with tip was $10, so I don't think the braids cost very much.  We'll definitely get them again, and I'm going to try and figure out how to do it myself, because it seems like the perfect compromise for Vivian's desire to have her hair down, and my desire to have it out of her face.