Merry Christmas from Bangkok!

Bangkok really does a great job decorating for Christmas. It seems like every shop and mall has at least a Christmas tree with lights. Most of the larger shopping malls go all out with elaborate wintery scenes complete with the traditional Christmas themes of rabbits, penguins with antlers, and straws.

Five story Christmas tree in Central World

The elusive antlered penguin- a rare find!

Santa scaling MBK to reach his helicopter

Nothing says Christmas better than "Yeah" in plastic straw form

Christmas bunny and drinking straw tree

If seeing all of these Christmas displays wasn't enough to get you in the Christmas spirit, there is an ice skating rink in Central World that might do the trick. If only I wasn't deathly afraid of strapping boots with thin metal blades on my feet and stepping out onto slick ice. It was a lot of fun watching everyone else though.

Our personal Christmas celebration began on Thursday night (would that be Christmas Eve Eve?) when we opened gifts from Eric's sister and my mom. Thanks to Skype (as a side note- Skype is the greatest invention EVER!) we were actually able to video chat with Eric's sister and our nephews while we opened their gifts for us.

They have the same smile!

On Christmas Eve, we celebrated our friends Dani and Oli as well as Megan and Jason at a Mexican restaurant where we had "traditional" Christmas Eve burritos and margaritas. After dinner, we decided that karaoke was the best way to finish out the evening. This was the first time Eric and I had been to a karaoke place where you rent a small room and you just sing with your friends, and not an entire bar full of people. It was so much fun to belt out pop hits without worrying about the reaction from strangers. Of course I didn't bring my camera along, so I don't have any photographic evidence of how much fun we had- but rest assured, much fun was had by all.

On Christmas Day, I prepared a home cooked meal for Megan and Jason, complete with mashed potatoes, spicy fruit salsa and apple pie. Just like Christmas back home, there was way too much food so there were leftovers to eat for the rest of the week. (secretly this is my favorite part of holiday meals) After dinner, Megan and Jason schooled us at Trivial Pursuit. I did impress everyone with my knowledge of Murphy Brown though. Booya!

Sunday morning was spent Skyping with Eric's parents, opening more presents ( Buffalo Wild Wings sauce and Milky Ways-we have the best family ever!) recovering from our food coma, and playing video games. 

All in all, it was a great, if nontraditional, Christmas in Bangkok. Thank you to all of our family and friends! You guys rock!