Christmas Shenanigans pt 2

 I got all creative too... aside from making my advent calender out of paper, I also made stockings for the kids.  Jackson says "look like casts"

 Christmas Eve tradition lets the kids open one gift of my choice... (pjs of course)

 We were given a complimentary dinner at the restaurant in our buildings which we decided to make our special Christmas Eve dinner.  A delicious four course meal, and fancy... just look at the beautiful smoked salmon appetizer

 Pumpkin soup in a bread bowl, Jovey's favorite, followed by a turkey dinner with all the fixings

 and Christmas stollen to finish it off.  we were so full we took it home for Christmas breakfast!

 We followed dinner with the Studio C Christmas episode in our new pjs

 And enjoyed opening presents in front of the dual 'fireplaces' (thanks netflix!)

 Lego minifigures and hot chocolate all around!

and Coryn with his binoculars from Santa (he spent all day carrying them around in the accompanying satchel)

Christmas Shenanigans in Thailand pt 1

 They have a love of Snoopy... at least at the Central mall chains...

 Coryn is chatting with a few new friends from church at a Christmas party

 Jovey and Carter are freaking out over the abundance of toys they have been missing...

 And we sang some Christmas carols with our new friends.

 Unfortunately our shipment of household goods is too late for Christmas, so we had to get a 2 ft tree to supplement.  I already know where I'm going to put it next year if we are still here.

 As part of our advent calendar the kids got to do some winter crafts, like make snowflakes.  Carter's phrase of the night: "wow, its prettier than I thought it would be"

 Our new home had a caroling and hot chocolate get together, we were able to get to know some neighbors

and as far as I can tell, they didn't have any santas to talk to, but the malls all had fancy setups like they would if they could find a santa to sit there... elderly bearded gentlemen of the world might be able to find a job here...

Loy Krathong

Loy Krathong is a Thai holiday in which people make boats to float down the river carrying prayers to the river gods.  like any good party, it started with some food

 Then we got to try our hand at making a boat, or krathong.  the circle is a section of bamboo and we added banana leaves for decoration followed by flowers and candles and incense.

 They had some traditional costumes on display and had some dance performances as well.

Here are the boys' finished floats, Coryn had some help from some Thai ladies and they didn't have any flowers left when Carter was finished.  We didn't feel up to floating them that evening, so they ended up as table decorations for a week or so.  Next year I plan to be up in Chiang Mai for their version which includes lantern floating akin to what you see in Tangled.

So we moved again....

 alright, you guys already know we moved.  here is the swimming pool on the 25th floor of the hotel.  its pretty sweet.

 first day of walking around exploring and we mistook that statue for a gorilla... nope, just a buff horse.  slap a couple of tiny wings on him and he'd be Buff Biceps (MLP reference)

 We heard there was a Halloween party happening the day after we arrived at our local church, and we figured it was the perfect time to get acquainted with the river taxi.  exciting!

 see... I told you there was a Halloween party.  We never did end up trick-or-treating on the actual date, the only place we knew about that was doing it was pretty far away and people didn't feel well that day anyway.  But here you have a Jedi, Mike Trout, and a purple princess. Jovey has never seen Sophia the First, she just saw the purple dress and fell in love because its her favorite color.

we already know where to find some crazy food, and no I didn't buy or try these particularly crazy items.  Ew.

Irish Family Visit Mar 2013

 We love us some Aunt Natty!

 Pet rocks from Grandie!

 Jovey didn't know where to look, but she also wasn't the happiest about the baby being around the house... she likes him better now, but man was she jealous!

 Kiki Joe and Linc!

 Grandie and Gpop

all of Irish blood.  Jovey really didn't want to look at the sun anymore.  :)

Beautiful Monterey Peninsula

 Drove down to Big Sur

 To hike...

 To a "water-fall-down" as Jovey used to call it.

 Jovey walked most of the way

And we got to see some redwoods

Fun with the Grandparents Irish

 Jovey spent the day stuffing this zebra-print pillow in her shirt, I think they are talking about it like another baby but I don't remember...

 Coryn loves his Grandie!

 Attack!

 Apples anyone?

 Apples to apples that is.

Kiki!  (and Lincoln I guess) 

Fun at Grandparents Messinger House

 Toys we only see here...

 Digging into stuff...

 Piano!

 The Great Grands

and more relatives than usual in town for Aaron's wedding.

Thanksgiving Weekend

 In what seems to be a tradition of sorts now, Jackson's family likes to come visit for Thanksgiving.

 We played at Lover's Point, they went to Coryn's Thanksgiving play at school.

We ate a picnic lunch from Compagno's




And Gpop took some pictures, so now you get to see me too.

Yay family!  (my family came a month before this but I was lame and didn't take any pictures...)