Christmas Decor, Thanksgiving Two, and Football Sunday

Since Thanksgiving was technically over, we decided it was okay to start decorating.  Vivian has been begging us to decorate in the hopes that her elf, Pixie, would come.  Jeff took Friday off, and so, while Vivian was at school, we set up the village and the snowmen.  Elena was thrilled with the snowmen.

Luckily, I have a couple stuffed ones that she can play with.  So far she's been good about not touching the breakable ones or the Christmas village, but we have a month to go, so we shall see.  Vivian wanted to hang the stockings and help with the tree, so we saved those for her.  The stockings were easy, and Elena thought it was great that her name was on one of them.  She recognized Vivian and Young, but wasn't sure about who Jeff and Nicole were.  We don't have Mommy and Daddy stockings ;-)  

We decided to save the tree for Saturday.  Vivian woke up in full Christmas spirit and put on the classic stop motion Rudolph movie.  Elena watched it happily with her, while eating her first sausage ball.  I was so proud.

After fueling up on sausage balls, we took some time to beautify ourselves before decorating.  Jeff took Vivian to get braids, and I went and got my nails done.  In honor of Elena sharing my snowman obsession, I got some extra decoration on my big toes.

Jeff and I started by putting the lights on the tree, and then Vivian had to help with the star.

While Elena was napping, Jeff, Vivian, and I got the ornaments on the tree.  Young was on roasted vegetable duty for our big Thanksgiving dinner.  That means that the end result was not only delicious, but also beautiful.

On Friday, I had made my second attempt at pumpkin pie for the big dinner.  This time, I put it on a cookie sheet before I put it in the oven.  I managed to keep the pie level, which meant no spill, no fire, and a perfect crust.  I think I've got this!

I also made fresh whipped cream, the gravy base, and some onion dip to go with sliced veggies for munching before dinner.  My friend put my simple veggies and dip to shame though with her turkey cheese ball.

We had so much fun cooking, talking, and laughing, that we didn't stop to take many pictures.  The kids are always photo worthy though.

For Thanksgiving dinner Elena ate carrots and Vivian ate broccoli.  I had a feeling that might happen, which was why I had volunteered to be in charge of the veggies.  For dessert, our hostess had kept with the turkey decor theme and gotten some over the top cupcakes.

The kids, of course, were thrilled, and wasted no time destroying them.

By the time we were done with dinner and dessert, we all had that happy, tired, full feeling.  Again, the children demonstrated it the best.

We decided it was time to call it a night and get the little people home.  We also knew that we were going to be back the next morning at 7:00am to watch college football, so an early night seemed like a good idea.

The next morning, Elena got to experience her first football Sunday.

No surprise, she didn't last long, so we set her up with some coloring supplies, and her buddy came with her for company.

Every so often they have a cute moment together,

but not two seconds after I got this picture, Elena was shoving him off of "her" bean bag.  It's about the best you can expect from toddlers.  Luckily, the big kids get along much better.  I had prepared some Thanksgiving craft projects for Saturday night, but the kids had made enough fun on their own, so we hadn't used them.  They ended up coming in handy for a lazy Sunday morning though.

Vivian likes her new dolls, but I've put away all the rest of the Thanksgiving stuff.  We are now officially decorated for Christmas.  Vivian's elf has shown up atop her tree.

We're not going to get any snow or need any hot drinks, but we've got the Christmas spirit.

Thanksgiving - Take One

Jeff gets Thanksgiving off of work, but Vivian still has school.  We're also twelve hours ahead of the U.S., so the Macy's parade hasn't happened yet, and neither has football.  Last year we decided it was better to do the big celebration on Saturday, but that made Thanksgiving itself sort of sad, so this year I decided to do a pseudo- Thanksgiving dinner before our big Saturday celebration.  I made roast chicken instead of turkey, with stove top dressing and brown gravy, plus the requisite two kinds of cranberry sauce.  I even broke out the nice, china plates.  The finished result looked fancy and made us all happy.

Jeff decided that the chicken needed its own close up.

The one thing I could not compromise on though was the pumpkin pie, which is Jeff and Vivian's favorite part of Thanksgiving.  Vivian started her Thanksgiving morning singing, "Pumpkin pie! Pumpkin, pumpkin pie!"  Elena thought this was great, and "sang" along by randomly yelling out "Unkin!" and "Ie!"  So that was the start of my Thanksgiving day.  I had also made sausage balls the day before, so that they were ready to be enjoyed for a parade-less Thanksgiving morning.  The ones on the left are "spicy" with jalapeno jack, while the ones on the right are just regular cheddar.

After fueling up on sausage balls, I was ready to start my big morning project, my first, from scratch, pumpkin pie.  Thank goodness for technology.  I called my mom a couple times to check on crust recommendations (cooked or uncooked), and then I called and actually put the camera on, so that she could help me decide if my pie was done.  

The pie cooking got off to a bit of a dramatic start, because, even though my mom had warned me, I spilled a little of the filling into the oven.  My friend, who was over for a play date, helpfully tried to clean it up, but she got a little too close to the burner, and the napkin she was using burst into flames, which I beat out with my oven mitt.  She put the rest of the flaming napkin in the sink, and the drama was done.  It somehow seems fitting that my first pumpkin pie attempt had a little fire to it, kind of like a rite of passage.  Hopefully, it will be my only Thanksgiving related fire.

Even though it took the pie about an hour to fully cook, the filling turned out great.  The crust had a slight malfunction though, because, in the area where the filling had spilled over, it stuck to the protective aluminum foil, and came off with the foil.  Still, it looked good.

And with home made whipped cream, it tasted fabulous!

For extra fun, we served it on my grandmother's bird plates (for my bird loving pumpkin pie eaters!), and Jeff broke out some fancy port.  It was fun to do a special meal, and it wasn't too hard.  Maybe next year I'll even step up my game and make more things from scratch.  Maybe even try cooking a small turkey, who knows?  Living far from home can be tough, but it feels good to embrace the challenge and make something special out of it.

Loy Kratong

In the middle of all our preparations for Thanksgiving, we took a break to get in the Thai spirit for Loy Kratong, a full moon festival.  Nichada arranges a party near the lake, so that people can put their kratongs (made of banana tree and leaves or bread) onto the water to make a wish and let their cares float away.  Just like last year, Vivian made her kratong at school.

The lit kratong looks more impressive on the water if it's dark, but the line gets REALLY long then, so we decided early was better.  Last year they had a big open flame on the pier to light your kratong.  I'm not sure if something bad happened, or if they just realized that open flames and kids don't go well together, but this year the flames were inside little lanterns.

While this was pretty and more safety conscious, it made it much harder to get the kratong to the fire.

Add to that, the fact that it was windy, and the whole process made Vivi quite tense.  Young had gotten a pink bread kratong for Elena, but she was also a big help with lighting Vivi's and keeping it lit.

We made it to the platform.

Jeff stayed on land in a stalker position to take pictures.

He got some cool pictures of the lake.

We got the kratongs in the water, and watched them float away.

The fish were really excited about the bread ones.

After kratong release, I took Vivi and her friend over to the games area.  They had "games" like fish the egg out of the pool and the number you get inside it tells you what prize you win.

Vivi was very pleased with her prize.

There was also a dunking booth.

Viv totally missed, but had fun trying.  Her friend, on the other hand, nailed the circle twice, but apparently not hard enough to initiate dunking.  Several people asked me if "my son" was on the baseball team.  When we met back up with his mom, Vivi excitedly told her how everyone had asked if he was on the soccer team, and I was like, yup, that one's mine, the one who gets baseball and soccer mixed up.  Sigh.

It was getting close to Elena's bedtime, but Vivi really wanted to stay for the Thai outfit fashion competition which she had signed up for.  It was supposed to start at 7:00, so I figured she and I could stay a little longer.  We sent the rest of the family home, and just sat and enjoyed the full moon and friends.

We usually start Vivi's bath and bedtime routine around 7:30, and when the fashion show still hadn't started at 7:20, I decided we should just call it a night.  I knew that it would be Thai time late, but I wasn't willing to sacrifice the next day at school or the next evening which was Thanksgiving, for a fashion show which may or may not have started before 8:00.  Vivi, who was approaching bedtime anyway, was NOT happy about my decision, but I just walked us out towards the parking lot where Jeff was going to pick us up.  I knew it was not the nicest thing to do, but I was hot and tired too, and I just couldn't do anymore party.  I offered her a compromise, if she stopped crying, we could get ice cream as a special treat.  Bribery totally works.

It was a fun night, and I was glad we were able to end it on a high note rather than a meltdown.

Craft Shopping and Dim Sum

Working on my PhD keeps me busy, but I'm also studying the art of being a stay at home mom.  One part that I find simultaneously intriguing and terrifying is crafting.  I am not naturally inclined to be crafty or even artistic.  I am a stick figure kind of person, but many of the friends I have made here are very good at craft projects, and they're very willing to share their knowledge.

One of my neighborhood friends invited people over to make fabric pumpkins, so that we could feel somewhat fall-like in 90 degree weather.  She even made a crock pot version of pumpkin spice lattes and cranked up the air conditioning, so that people could wear sweaters if they wanted to.  I was nervous, but willing to give the pumpkin thing a try.  We picked out different materials and cut them for different sized pumpkins and leaves.

The process involved turning the material inside out, tying off the ends with rubber bands, turning it back right side out, and stuffing it with pillow fluff.  As I was finishing up the stuffing on my first one, I pushed on the wrong place, and my pumpkin fluff exploded all over the place.  I had been so anxious about doing it right, that I had a moment where I almost started crying, but then I realized how funny the whole exploded pumpkin thing was, and I started laughing.  After a good laugh, I started over again and completed my three pumpkins without any further explosive moments.

We were all quite proud of our finished pumpkins, so we made a pumpkin patch on my friend's sofa.

I do realize they're kind of lumpy and funny looking, but I'm still very proud that I made something that didn't fall apart, and Elena loves them, so I'm quite pleased with the whole project.

The next craft project my friend is organizing is a Christmas craft swap party, where each mom brings supplies for a different craft, and then we swap so that we all have lots of advent crafts to do with our kids.  I got the angel craft, so I needed white feathers, and a couple other things that I wasn't sure I could find easily.  The Chinatown in Bangkok has tons of shopping stalls, most of which are down little alleys, and you can find almost anything if you're willing to look long enough.  I went there once when Mom was here last year, but I haven't tried to go with an actual mission yet.  Luckily, I had friends who wanted to go too, including one with a driver, so we went exploring together.

It's almost impossible to capture in photographs the narrow alleys full of people and inexpensive things to buy, especially since motorcycles regularly come through, and you have to watch your feet and elbows.  We did manage to find all of the main items on our list, including red felt, so that Vivian and I can have matching poodle skirts for the mother daughter sock hop in January.  Overall, I was very pleased with my loot.

Our next adventure was lunch.  You can get good street food in Chinatown, but I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to lunch out with friends and try one of Bangkok's hundreds of interesting restaurants.  I thought it would be good to stick with a China theme, and so we went to The China House restaurant next to the Mandarin Oriental hotel.  

There was an incredible tree shrine next to the restaurant.

The restaurant decor was all about red, black, and privacy.

It was cool and quiet, a nice change from the heat and hustle of Chinatown.  The big draw though was their unlimited dim sum menu for about $30.  You got soup, dumplings, rice or noodles, and dessert.  All three of us went for the dim sum with lime soda, and so they brought us three of almost everything to try.  I say almost, because we weren't brave enough to try ones like "steamed assorted mushrooms, ear fungus, and winter melon."

We decided the lobster and spinach dumplings were our favorites, and the only one we sent back uneaten was the chicken and abalone experiment.  I had also tried and did not like the chrysanthemum ice tea which tasted like super sweet soap.  I got a corn soup and fried rice, which I liked, but they brought the rice after the dumplings, and I really couldn't eat much of it.  For dessert, I chose what the menu described as "chilled cream of coconut, sago pearls, with rock melon ball."  I was expecting something white, but instead it was a bright green chilled soup.  The sago pearls are little tapioca balls, and the whole thing tasted like melon.  After I got past my initial surprise, I realized it was quite yummy and refreshing.  I'm also getting used to the tapioca balls.  I liked these ones better than the ones in the bubble tea.  They were smaller, which made them easier to manage.

I got another lesson on not judging food by its appearance when we got the bill, along with some adorable little panda buns.

They were white dough filled with bean paste and were tasteless.  We each took one bite to try and then gave up.  Thank goodness we had a driver, because we were all so full and sleepy it would have been rough getting home on our own.

Vivian had swimming that afternoon, and traffic was kind, so I managed to get to ISB just as she was finishing up.  Swimming usually tires her out, and Elena had had a full day as well, since my friend's little boy spent the day with Elena and Young while we were downtown.  Jeff was out of town on a trip, so luckily, the girls were as willing as I was to have a quiet reading kind of evening.

It was a fun adventure day, and I'm starting to feel more confident about this whole crafting thing.  We'll see how the holiday craft projects go though, before I make any claim to having a clue about what I'm doing.

BBQ for Veterans' Day

Veterans' Day was on a Wednesday this year, which meant a Tuesday night downtown for me and Jeff.  All of our downtown friends have been raving about the BBQ at The Smokin' Pug, and BBQ seemed appropriately patriotic, so I made us reservations.

Since it was the middle of the week, and there was a lot going on out in the burbs, we opted not to stay downtown for the night.  Instead, I met Jeff after work and we took the BTS down to Saladaeng to go exploring.  We hadn't walked around that part of Bangkok before, and we had enough time to wander a bit.  There were a lot of restaurants and massage parlors.  My favorite was the statue outside a Mexican restaurant, part Thai and part Mexican.

The restaurant was one block up, so we had a bit of an adventure finding an alley that went all the way through.  There was no sidewalk, and there were motorcycles zooming around, but we figured if we followed the motorcycles, we would be on the right track.  Sure enough, we soon popped out on the right street.

Unfortunately, the sidewalk was mostly under construction.  There were parts that looked like they'd been recently completed, but I can't say whether or not it was an improvement on what was there before.  It was obvious that they hadn't been careful about drying the cement.

By that point we were quite hot, so we found a place that was offering happy hour drinks, a little cafe outside the De Arni hotel.  I like to try coconutty drinks, and the menu had one that looked promising.

Of course the actual drink looked nothing like it, and was 75% ice cubes, but it was tasty and cold.

After drinks, we were ready for some BBQ.  The Smokin' Pug is quite small.  There's a bar and a some tables for two.  There's a room upstairs that can seat more people, but there was a party there that night.  Everyone had warned us to make reservations, and I was glad we had, because it got full fast.  

Jeff and I decided to go full on BBQ, so he got the brisket platter and I got ribs.  The plates were jaw droppingly full of goodness.  We tried to capture them in the dim lighting.

It was delicious, but we definitely needed a walk after dinner.  The Patpong night market is right over in that area.  We knew it could get a little sketchy later in the evening, but we figured it was still fairly early, so we would probably be fine.  We did get offered some sex shows, but nothing too aggressive.  We also found t-shirts we had been looking for.  It was interesting bargaining for them, because I'm sure the woman thought we were tourists.  She started with 1,500 baht, which is about $50, but quickly bumped it to 750 when she saw the expression on my face.  She had a calculator she was typing the prices into, so I typed 300, which is a fair price for two t-shirts.  She typed 600.  I typed 300 again, and she offered 400.  I figured, fine, and we went with that.  I'm not good at bargaining, but I draw the line at being completely ripped off.  As we were walking back to the BTS we saw several tables being set up with bongs and dildos for sale, so we decided we were leaving at the right time.

Even though we left a little later, there was still a ton of traffic getting home.  Luckily, we are both geeks, so we put on some podcasts of NPRs Science Friday, and had a great time listening to the show and talking for the drive home.  It was nice to sleep in our own bed after our adventuring, so we might put a hold on staycations for a little while.