Merry Christmas

Christmas morning started a lot earlier than we had planned.  Vivian was up around 3:00 am asking if we could open presents yet.  She popped out a couple more times, and put on a fancy party dress, before our previously agreed upon 6:00 am wake up time.

She hopped around while the grown ups armed themselves with coffee, and then we were ready to open presents.  We started with stockings.  Vivian was very excited that things were sticking out of hers and Elena's.

Elena liked the Donald and Goofy toys, but she was even more interested in the baseball bat that was intended for Vivian.

She put the ball on the ground and tried to golf with the bat for a while before ditching the bat and just throwing and kicking the ball around.  This was also Elena's first Christmas being able to at least attempt opening packages herself.

The most popular items were My Little Pony related.  I think the Power Ponies were intended for Vivian, but Elena was mesmerized.

She decided they went well with the My Little Pony sleeping bag and pillow.

She was willing to share though.

The best Christmas gift was having family here to share the day with us.

We fueled up on a breakfast of sausage balls and pancakes, and then we were off to the airport and Chiang Mai for a long weekend adventure.

The Force Awakens in Bangkok

Jeff and I have not gone to a movie together since we moved to Bangkok, but we were both so excited about the new Star Wars movie, that we decided it was time to change that.  My sister really wanted to see it with us too, and so our original plan was to wait until she got here with my parents and then all go together.

Star Wars came out in Thailand on Thursday, December 17, and that morning one of my neighbors posted that she had extra "couch" tickets.  Movie theaters in Bangkok have reserved seating.  Most of the theater near us is stadium seating, but then the back row is a series of couches, so you can get one and snuggle.  The tickets cost about $8 each.  It was too good an opportunity to pass up, so Jeff and I decided to buy a couch from our neighbor.

Jeff comes from the school of punctuality where if you're not fifteen minutes early, you're late.  Therefore, he really wanted to make sure we were at the theater well before the 7:30 pm start time.  I figured that "Thai Time" would apply to movie starts, so I wasn't overly concerned about getting there early, but I figured it never hurts.  We got to the theater around 7:20 and found several of our neighbors sitting around the concession area, because they weren't allowing anyone in the theater yet.  We sat and chatted, and 7:30 came and went.  Around 7:35, they let us in the theater, but they had already started the pre-show stuff and turned out the lights, so Jeff had to use his phone as a flashlight for us to find our seats.  Then we had about 30 minutes of previews, commercials, and standing for the King's Anthem.

It was all worth it though, when STAR WARS appeared on the screen with a Thai subtitle.

In order to avoid spoilers, I'll just say that the movie was really good.  I laughed, I cried, and I was totally ready to watch it again on Christmas Eve with the family.  We also brought Vivian along, and upgraded ourselves to the first class movie going experience, which is an option they offer here in Thailand.  

It was good that I had already seen the movie once, because the part where I cried, Vivian had a total meltdown.  Still, she liked the movie overall.  We also all liked the first class experience, which meant we got to go up a special stair case, have little snacks before the movie, and unlimited popcorn during.

But even in first class, they waited until the last minute to open the doors to the actual theater, after they had turned off the lights and started the previews.  We decided not to stress about it, and just enjoyed the big reclining seats and the good movie.

When we got home, Young and I got our super yummy Christmas Eve dinner ready.

Later that night, we relaxed even more with foot massages.  It was my sister's first, so we got a picture.

It's so great to have my family here enjoying some of the best parts of living in Thailand.

Snow Town

We're lucky if it gets in the 60's here in Bangkok, so there's not really any "winter" to speak of.  We have some friends who have never lived in a real winter climate, and so they invited us and some other friends to go with them to Snow Town.  In typical Bangkok fashion, Snow Town is in a mall, the Ekami mall in this case.  They get it cold enough and spew some snow on the ground.  They even have a slope and you can rent sleds for the full "winter" experience.  Vivian was in heaven.

I had fun too.

The trickiest part of the day was figuring out a winter wardrobe.  Vivian insisted on wearing her Hello Kitty rain boots.

We didn't bring Elena, because it would have bumped into nap time, and plus, I didn't think she would react well to the cold and the snow.  This is a kid who is still coming to terms with sand and waves.  She had a lot of fun messing with the hats and gloves that came out of the winter storage box, but she didn't want me to take her picture in them.

Before we got to the main Snow Town area, we were greeted by a polar bear in a Santa costume with a sign in book, no explanations given.

The polar bear got out from behind the desk to pose for pictures though, so it was all good.

Then we got to the main event.

The sledding was definitely Vivian's favorite part.  It wasn't a big hill, but it wasn't super cold in Snow Town, so the top layer was a bit melted and very slick.  It was hard to get on the sled at the top without unintentionally sliding down.  There was an employee at the top to help the kids with that, and one at the bottom to try and help avoid crashes.  Vivian took full advantage of their help.

She also liked the big inflated igloo and the regular solid igloo.

After about an hour of playing, Vivian declared that she NEEDED a hot chocolate, because she was so cold.  I figured if she got some, her friends would want some too, so they had a hot chocolate break in their igloo.

The snow/ice mostly came out of a big tube.

But there was one time when it came out of the wall in pretty flakes.

Two of our friends got really ambitious and decided to make a snow person.  There really wasn't enough snow to make a full sized one, so they made what I would call a snow midget.

We stayed a little while longer until Vivian started complaining about being cold.  This wasn't surprising since she was soaked through from rolling around in the snow, and it was quite chilly in Snow Town.  We changed the children into dry clothes and then went back out into the Bangkok heat.  Vivian asked if we could go again tomorrow, so I think she had fun ;-)

Jelly Belly Factory Tour

Jelly Belly makes its products for U.S. distribution in California, but they also have a big factory here in Thailand, just a couple hours outside of Bangkok, where they make products for Asia, Australia, and Europe.  During regular production they make about five tons of candy a day, crazy!  They were slowing down a bit for a holiday break, but there was still plenty of candy and Jelly Belly goodness for us to enjoy.

We started our tour in the conference room.  There were some little touches you would expect, like a Jelly Belly clock.

Then there were some things that cracked me up.  For example, the projector was propped up on a Jelly Belly box.

But the best was the Ronald Reagan wall.

He's probably the most famous Jelly Belly fan.  When he was president, he had a standing order of over 300,000 jelly beans a month which were distributed throughout the White House and other federal offices.

One of the head American people at the factory came to show us around.  There were also several Thai employees who helped us out as well.  They started the tour by handing out hairnets for all and coats for the adults.  Viv was not too pleased about the hair net, but she got over it.

We got a little more information, and then it was off to the factory.

They make other candy there too, so our first machine and sample was a round jelly candy. 

Then they took us to see where they mix the jelly beans.  They boil the ingredients in big vats.

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Can you guess what the main ingredient is?

Yup, sugar, and boy did they have a lot of it.

Oh no, that's not all of it.  They had big cans full,

and a whole warehouse section, full of sugar.

There were other ingredients too.

Not sure I want to know too much about those.  There was a big flammable sign, but the mixing guy seemed to know what he was doing.

Our guide showed us how they do periodic checks during mixing to make sure that all the mixtures have the same color and flavor, for a consistent Jelly Belly experience.

Usually, they spin them in these big drums to build up the jelly layers and then add wax to make them shiny, but the drums were empty because they're slowing down production for a holiday break.  They close the factory for a week.

They had a picture of what they look like full in the conference room.

We were a little disappointed not to see them in action, but we got over it when our guide took us in to see the cooling trays.  We were in a refrigerated room with stacks of Jelly Belly trays.

They pulled off one of the trays to show the kids.

They even gave them some to try.

As our guides were holding out gloved hands of jelly beans, one of the kids noticed two jelly beans fused together.

When he asked what they do about those, our guide told us that those are called "Belly Flops", and they actually package them and sell them separately at a discounted rate.  He also told us that, ironically, there's a growing demand for Belly Flops, so there's a factory in California that makes them on purpose now.

After that we got to see how finished jelly beans are transported, sorted, and packaged.  The grape Jelly Belly conveyor belt was Vivian's favorite.  One of the ladies gave her a big handful, so her smile looks funny, because her mouth is stuffed full of grape jelly beans.

The jelly beans take lots of interesting paths to the packaging floor.

Those tubes are FULL of blue jelly beans.

The mixed fruit one was my favorite though.

Even at this point, there's still lots of quality control.

They let the kids hold one of the finished bags.

Vivian's favorite assembly line though was the one to fill the Jelly Belly boxes.

The boxes got a final quality check after going through the machine line.

Then they got put into big boxes,

and sent to the warehouse with all the other candy.

We had a lot of fun.  By the end, Vivian was pretty tired and totally in love with Jelly Belly.