NNR Christmas House Tour

The NNR is our local women's group.  They organize monthly outings and work on many charitable causes.  For the holiday season, they organized a tour of the Christmas decorations in six different neighborhood houses and they did a coin collection to raise money for a new playground for the daycare that our neighborhood has for local workers' children.

I went on the tour last year and getting a peak at the different houses was just as much fun as ogling the Christmas decoration decadence, so I signed up this year as soon as I heard about it.  I spent most of the tour with friends who also have small children and another big part of the fun was imagining what our houses could look like when we don't have toddlers anymore.

The big group was broken into smaller groups and we rotated through the houses in different order, so that no house was too crowded at any one time.  Ironically, the first house we went to was on my street.  I've admired the incredible exterior decorations, but it was even more fun to go inside and see what she'd gotten up to in there.  The house is the same layout as mine, but I don't think I could ever reproduce what she's done.

You know before you even go in, that Christmas is important in this house.

Near the front door, they have one of the most complex nativities I have ever seen.

There's one main Christmas store near Nichada where most people get their decorations.  This house had things from there, but you could tell that she's been working on her Christmas decorations for a long time, and she's picked things up from all over.  She also has incredible furniture pieces that you notice as soon as you walk in the door.

It was quite a house to start off with, but our second house was just as much fun.  It was back in a little neighborhood that I drive by almost every day, but hadn't gone in to.  The houses had a totally different layout than mine, and lots of Santas and angels.  

The next house was REALLY the super Santa house though.

Even though I doubt I will ever reach this level of super Santa, the houses also had fun ideas for things I could pull off once the girls are old enough to be trusted not to throw and pull on things.

The decorations at the next house though are on a level and scale that I will never be able to replicate.  This is the house that starts out with a custom made gingerbread house door.

Then you walk into their pool area.

The regular front entrance is also fantastic.

Many of the decorations were ones I had seen last year, but they were still awesome.  I mean a purple themed room and a black and white Christmas tree, how cool is that??

The new thing this year is upside down Christmas trees.  They had one on display at the Christmas store when I went a couple days ago with friends, but it was something else to see it in a house.

Again, not something I could pull off in my own home, but definitely something worth seeing.  Each house also had little treats to eat, and, not surprisingly, this house had some of the best, including mincemeat pie, which I had never tried before.

There isn't actually any meat in it.  It's fruit, nuts, sugar, and some citrus.  It was really good!

The final tour house, wasn't a house, but an apartment.  I was really excited to see it, because it's in the new buildings that just opened this year, and it's all the way on the top floor.  They even have their very own rooftop pool.

I also liked the sun room with a view.

But again, it was the beautiful furniture with fun Christmas touches that really made the house special.

After that, we went back to our starting point house for a party, Christmas store sale, and a raffle.  Even though it wasn't officially on the tour, it was a beautifully decorated house.  It's also fun to see the Thai culture seeping through our Christmas tour, since everyone took their shoes off before going in.

The house is right on the lake, so that's what you see when you walk in the door.

I didn't win anything in the raffle, but it was a lot of fun to get in the Christmas spirit Nichada style.

Central World Adventure

Since the King's birthday was on a Saturday, this Monday is the observation holiday.  Central World is doing a Disney themed Christmas display (appropriate since Walt Disney and the King share a birthday), and we thought it would be fun to take the girls to check it out and let them pick some Hanukkah presents at Asia Books.  The holiday meant there was no traffic going downtown, and getting there relatively early meant parking wasn't a problem either.

We had a fun walk along the skywalk to get from the parking side of the mall to the display side.

We decided not to take the stroller this time, and Elena was a champ.  I think she liked the freedom, because she walked quickly, swinging her arms, with a big smile on her face.  The display plaza brought her up short though and got the reaction we had been hoping for.

It was a combination of Disney and a pink flower explosion for what I think was either a sunscreen or a lotion company.

There were tons of great places to take pictures, so we started on the pink side where both girls ran for the merry go round that didn't go round, but looked pretty.

We hadn't planned it, but Vivi's shirt went perfectly with the flowers.

There was even a bench for us to sit on with the flowers in the background.

Then we migrated over to the Disney side.

Elena was so excited, it was difficult to get her to stay still for pictures.  She kept running off.  Luckily, in this one, she ran towards Jeff, so he caught her before she got too far.

Elena was also very concerned about the Donald egg in this display and kept saying, "Oh no, Donald.  Oh no."

I think it's supposed to be an Easter egg basket.  Thailand is a Buddhist country, so I'm going to give them a free pass on keeping the Christian holidays straight.

We also found a fun Bangkok sign.  That's Vivi's face looking through the letter O.

By that point we were getting hot and were ready to go back into the mall.  We had already found some of the 999 painted elephants on display.

We thought they were awesome, but we also got a kick out of the "chocolate" bears.

The big open area at the end of the mall is always elaborately decorated, and the Disney theme carried over, including a floating castle.

We admired it from many angles on our way up to Asia Books and the kiddie play area.  The girls looked over all the books before making their decision.

Elena also tried out pretty much every seating option.

Once they made their selections (illustrated classic stories, Inside Out feelings book, and a My Little Pony book with toys to share), we went around the corner to the play area.  Vivi went right for the big slide, but Elena got distracted by a parking lot of kid-sized push cars.  They were free to use, you just had to give your ID and sign one out.  I did the paperwork, while Jeff took Elena for a ride.

The coolest part was that the little handle that Jeff is holding at the top was actually the steering mechanism, so he could turn the car from up there.  She did not appreciate being stopped for a picture though.  She played in that for a while, and then realized she was missing out on sliding, so we turned the car back in.

Vivian was a super big sister, and escorted Elena up the stairs and down the little slide.

We let the girls have quite a bit of play time to work up their appetites, and then took them over to a Mexican restaurant called Mejico.  Jeff has been craving Mexican food, and this place advertised fresh guacamole which is something Vivian and Elena both like.  By that point Elena was worn out enough that she was happy to just sit and have some water.

They guacamole ingredients came quickly, and the waitress mixed it together at the table for us.

I also got paella, which Elena interpreted as something with rice, which meant she would eat it.  Both girls ate their fill and were happy and well behaved, which may be a restaurant first for us.  We decided to head home while we were still on a good streak, and had a smooth traffic free drive home.  It was a nice, easy outing, and it helped us get in the holiday mood.