Happy Holidays

We started 2015 in Zagreb, Croatia (with lots of snow) and ended it in Chiang Mai, Thailand (with no snow.) Theo keeps asking when the snow is going to fall from the sky, and we keep explaining that it’s unlikely, since the high regularly nears 90 F.

Our end-of-year holiday season was pretty low key. The most festive parts came from Theo’s preschool, where he’s been bringing home paper Christmas trees, ribboned Santa ornaments, cotton-ball-covered New Years hats, and other holiday-themed crafts on pretty much a daily basis.

His school also invited parents to a Christmas party, and children were encouraged to wear fancy Christmas clothes or costumes. With limited exceptions, the Thai children dressed up in holiday costumes, often complete with Santa hats or reindeer horns, while the non-Thai children just wore spiffy shirts or dresses. (Below, Theo is borrowing a Santa hat.)

We don’t really talk about Santa much, but after watching a video on a plane, Theo periodically drags around our red laundry bag and distributes gifts (mostly laundry.) This year, we put Theo’s gifts under a paper tree that he brought home from school. And yes, that IS Brian’s sock, with only a few holes, as a stocking. We’re festive like that!

While Theo liked his bubbles, ball, clay, and stickers from us, I think that his favorite new toy was a plush milk drop that he brought home from school with a box of milk, presumably as some sort of marketing ploy by a milk company. Here, the milk drop accompanied him to a temple, Wat Suan Dok.

We celebrated New Years Eve with swimming, pizza, a night market, and our continued tradition of not staying up until midnight. Just like last year, though, Brian and I woke up at midnight to fireworks. (Theo stayed asleep. After Diwali in India, these fireworks were very low-key in terms of noise.)

Here is to a year of adventures and exploration, large and small, in 2016! Happy New Year from all of us to all of you!