This is the last update for 2011 before making more memories for 2012 🙂
~ Fun making a Fort ~
The kids decided they wanted to sleep outside insisting they needed to make a fort. With the enlisted help of Moe they cut down bamboo for the frame and draped sheets all around. It was a pretty cozy fort, I spent a night or two out with them.
(the creative juices flowing on how to set up their fort)
(The kids slept out here for over two weeks every night enjoying the fresh crisp air)
~ CMAC Football Tournament ~
One of the interesting adjustments to living abroad is that soccer as Trent and I know it, is called football by our kids. It sounds so strange to say “get your football kit ready” because mentally I am thinking American Football.
(So proud of Em. She was asked to move up to the U16 team and she scored one of the two goals, winning the final game)
(The boys did great in their championship tournament, exciting to watch. East was dominating out there)
(Trent is the coach of The Panthers U11 boys team, he is such an amazing coach and cute too 🙂
(Ev loves his football. He continually is pulled up to the older teams and does not waiver matching up to 11 – 12 years olds)
~ Queen’s Botanical Garden ~
(Made our way to the Queen Botanical Gardens not far from our house and saw some stunning flora. The kids loved this Tropical house where they played hide and go seek in the mist of all the beautiful plants)
(I love the beauty of the water lilies)
~ Tree Decorating ~
We always have a great time decorating our Christmas tree each year (after I get the lights on, right family) it is beautiful because of the kids creativity.
(The carols were playing in the back ground to try to get us into the spirit. The kids really don’t know any different since they have been celebrating Christmas in various places most of their lives but I miss the chilly weather (for about 15 min) the hustle and bustle of the craziness the season can bring 🙂
(Em and East ~ love you munchkins)
(one of our favourite finds this year… our Snowman stuffies)
(Ev and Trent ~ who is still rocking his stash for Movember)
(Awesome job kids… the tree is beautiful as always)
(We also had a real life tree all decorated, it even talked 🙂
(a family afternoon of making paper snowflakes to decorate the house. Creating a winter wonderland (sort of ; )
~ Annual Chiang Mai Santa Breakfast ~
The breakfast grew in numbers this year. The word is getting out about this wonderful family event but I am not sure how many more kids Santa can handle early in the day 🙂 Again the event was at the Gymkhana Golf Club and we had tried to cap the numbers at 250 people but more people kept showing up. All in the spirit of Christmas, it was wonderful. Citylife Magazine came to take some fun pictures.
(Some kids enjoyed decorating gingerbread cookies that were delicious. After the cookies kids had a choice of a multitude of crafts to create, face painting, balloon animals, a magician show, pinatas, listening to the live singer Anna Gracey, all while waiting for the main man ~ Santa!)
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(Santa came in on a sleigh this year (with wheels of course)
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(Many kids running to try to catch a glimpse of Santa)
(Santa ~ (aka Trent) was swarmed as soon as he stepped off the carriage, it was awesome to see the kids faces. Many really believed he was the real deal… so special for so many children)
(Each child waited so patiently for their special gift from Santa. One little girl said “he is for sure the real Santa because he new my name AND he gave me a real candy cane!) Candy canes are not easy to find and definitely not cheap, but well worth it though ~ Can you find Santa among all the little faces?)
~ A few Family Shots ~
It is always fun to assemble for a few pictures for a Christmas card. Love looking back over the years at all the different stages, interesting places we have been and analyzing our laugh lines on our faces.
(Essie only wanted to take two pictures then she was out of here)
(Our Christmas card picture for 2011. If you would like to be on our mailing list please forward me your address)
(our zen-ful offspring…. peace & harmony….. lets bottle this up and use it more often kids 🙂
(Our three amazing, wonderful, talented, smart, funny, loveable, super people I am so proud to call my munchkins)
(Me and my Babe. I love this man!
(Ev said “OFF WITH IT!” He wanted his head shaved so out came the clippers, no easier haircut than this. Trent was excited to play barber)
(Easton LOVES to cook. He got a new cookbook and he put his order in for all the ingredients, making us chilli for supper with the help of his assistants. I promised I would be completely honest with him and it was DELICIOUS. It gives my chilli a run for its money. Love when you cook Pal)
~ Gingerbread Houses ~
One of our favorite traditions is decorating gingerbread houses. It is so nice to just sit down, relax, be creative and watch my husband and kids put a candy on their house – then in their mouth – on their house – in their mouth..haha.. A work of art these are.
(Christmas carols filling the air, candy spread across the table, stockings hung, tree decorated, all together = special times)
(The fun of decorating the houses…. squirts of icing in the mouth)
(Emma so proud of her house)
(Our creations starting with Trent’s on the left followed by mine, Emma’s, East’s, Ev’s)
(Ev and Essie dancing around before bed)
(Eddie our favorite nocturnal pet)
~ Decorating our House ~
This was our first Christmas in this house so we had fun getting creative. I found a Thai florist who lived in Germany for many years and she made stunning fresh wreaths that smelt just like Christmas as a kid. I hung them all over the house. We went through multiple cans of spray snow, and lots of garland through out the house with poinsettia’s everywhere. It was beginning to feeling a lot like Christmas!
(song playing in my head 🙂
(song playing in my head 🙂
(All the paper snowflakes the kids made decorated our glass windows)
(One of my favourite decorations this year was my sustainable bamboo, palm leaf Christmas Trees. We had a big Christmas Eve dinner and I wanted some Christmas Trees outside. It was not feasible to buy more artificial trees, so I had to be a bit creative and this is what turned out. Can’t wait for next year I will have them all over)
(Christmas Eve we had some wonderful friends over for dinner who did not have family here to celebrate with. It was a night of great food, lively chit chat, fire works, and carollers. A festive way to share the Christmas spirit)
(An hour before our guests were due to arrive a snake made its way onto the scene. A copper head razor snake. The boys are very educated on snakes and couldn’t wait to be involved moving the creature. Oh my, I had to walk away)
~ Carollers ~
(Our Burmese gardener is a Christian and he had his church come out to our house to sing some Christmas carols on Christmas Eve. It was absolutely beautiful and really created an amazing spirit of Christmas. Some carols were sung in English other were in their native tribal tongue)
~ Merry Christmas ~
Christmas morning the kids woke up and were ready to go.
(All Emma wanted for Christmas was a hen and some baby chicks. You can imagine to all our surprise when we came downstairs to find little chirping feathered friends…. we are really turning into a zoo around here)
(Somehow magically Santa managed to get the Death Star to Thailand for the boys. They were jumping out of their skin with excitement, even happy when it took us 3 FULL days to built the monster structure)
(Christmas morning 2011 – Chiang Mai Thailand)
(For Christmas Day dinner we were invited to some friends, The Green’s. We dined on an amazing 7 course delicious meal and had many laughs)
(One of the best parts of the day was the Secret Santa. Trent’s secret Santa picked out the croc hat for him… to funny, he wore it all night. The lady beside Trent was a hoot! Believe it or not she is the personal companion/nurse to Harry Potters (Daniel Radcliffe) Gramma back in England, she was the life of the party 🙂
(As the night progressed the music got turned up a little bit more and the dance moves were busting out. Easton sure drew a crowd with his awesome rhythm and wild moves)
(Boxing Day we spent at a National Park, enjoying some great BBQ food, sunny weather and a swim in the river)
~ To have chickens Em needed a coop ~
Emma and her beloved chickens..hahaha…
To house the new pets some of the Christmas break was spent constructing a chicken pen until their bigger home will be complete. Trent, Emma and Easton had a great time getting their hands on some tools to make the new shack.
(Trent said “it was fun building a rectangle coop with not so straight wood,”
I think he was being sarcastic)
I think he was being sarcastic)
(Two long days and the temporary home was built. Em and East were getting palm leaves to put on top to shade all the chicks)
(Hay in and so are the kids… they love going into the cage to play with the chickens…ahhhh, I never thought I would have chickens)
(They love playing with these crazy yard birds)
~ New Years Eve Celebration ~
We went out to The Nest for the night to ring in 2012. It was great as they had carnival games and other entertainment for the kids.
(Ev getting set up to play the ring toss… If you were a lucky chap you won a prize including a bottle of whiskey ~ you have to love Thailand)
(Em and Ev teaching other kids how to play yatzee)
(Trent cracking open the champagne, ready to celebrate)
(The night was magical with the chilly air, beautiful music, romantic ambiance and always delicious food)
(We rang in 2012 dancing away while the kids slept soundly in the cabin
~ a great night 🙂
(At school the senior students have a “day out’ each semester giving them a break in studies to explore other creative options. On Em’s day out this term her class went to the local market, purchased certain ingredients to then head back to the campus’s cooking school to make a Thai meal. Here Em is recreating one of her yummy dishes Pad See Ew (one of my favourites) Delicious Babe 🙂
~ Adventuring we will Go ~
(Since the kids wanted to just chill around home for the most part during Christmas break, to appease Mommy & Daddy we did a few side trips to get out. Here the boys are working their Harry Potter look in Burma)
(We drove up north and stayed in a little town called MaeSalong. The history of this mountain town is years ago many Chinese left China (which is not that far away) trekked through the Burma jungle to finally settle in Northern Thailand recreating their own little Chinese village. The architecture is Orient inspired, the food is authentic and the signs Chinese symbols. We did not feel like we were in Thailand)
(MaeSalong Villa was home for our time up in the mountains. This was one of the best accommodations recommended. It was classed a 3 star, 2 stars might be pushing it 🙂 In the evening the view was stunning from the roof top restaurant though. The kids opted to settle down early with a movie while Trent and I enjoyed wine and a variety of chinese teas)
(What made MaeSalong unique as well was this town produces Tea. There are acres upon acres of tea crops that were stunning)
(This path reminded me of the fall season back in Canada)
(From the balcony of our hotel room we could see this strange object across the mountain range. To satisfy our curiosity our crew went to find it. We had a good chuckle that we came across a giant teapot ~ very fitting for this Chinese Tea Village. I took a picture of my ” I’m a little teapot, short and stout” singers)
(There were two HUGE lions that made us feel like little ants. Have to love the Chinese passion for their culture)
(To learn about the process of TEA we went to a Tea plantation. Here we were greeted by this woman (who did not speak nor understand english) with her babe snuggled on her back. The woman brewed and shared with us multiple different teas, the kids were right into it. Emma loves tea and to remember her time up here she got a tea set that is beautiful)
(To get my baby fix I nabbed the woman’s adorable baby boy while she served tea. Loved squishing him!)
(Time to head home…. Along our travels Em requested some pineapple. We stopped at a side stand which we do often however this was not a regular pit stop. These tribal woman desended upon our truck like white on rice. Oh my, they wanted us to buy everything, they kept putting bracelets on our wrists, bags in our hands. All we could do was laugh, they were so sweet but very aggressive at the same time. Trent dumped out our change jar to give them everything we had left. Em was a trooper, so sweet with them)
(This lady was practically jumping though my window putting all her merchandise on me. I love taking pictures of older woman, they are so wise and special to look at)
(They drained us of money so all that was left was a picture)
That is our final story of 2011. Another chapter closed and so many amazing memories to keep close to our hearts. With a new year brings a new spark of possibilities, opportunties to make a difference for someone else, more pictures to be taken and continue to count our blessings.
Thanks for all your support. I also want to say a special thank you to a very supportive woman who has made a difference in my life even though we only met once for a brief time. Thanks for all the encouraging words and all the positive uplifting messages you send me Louise Richer 🙂
Have a fantastic week.
With lots of love
Trent. Jody. Emma. Easton. Everett. Essie and Eddie
& (way to many chicks to name)
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