christmas-y things.

They arrived! My parents arrived last Saturday, and they smelled just like Christmas. They also brought us suitcases full of Christmas treasures, including wrapped presents, Goldfish, five boxes of cereal!, candy canes, pretzels, coffee, M&Ms, Memory games for the neighbor kids, new Christmas music…the list is incomprehensibly long.

We are slowly attempting to take in all the deliciousness and sparkles and smells and blessings. It’s hard to explain how food or gifts can be overwhelming, but they can be: things that are too familiar, too special, too rare, and too lovely to receive all at once.

But we did delve into the peanut butter M&Ms.

While in Chiang Mai to meet them at the airport, we soaked it up: a day at the zoo and a visit to a snake farm.

One of the best things about the Chiang Mai zoo is feeding the animals. You pay about $3 for entry, and then you can feed most animals for about 30 cents. You can even feed the tigers, cheetahs, and jaguars raw meat on a stick. We learned to put the meat up higher so they’d growl and jump for it.

Apparently we are only brave until provoked.

Mae Sot doesn’t look very Christmas-y, but Chiang Mai does!

And as the city full of surprises, we managed to search a couple grocery stores and find egg nog for Stephen to enjoy.

We spent a few days in Mae Sot and made Christmas here. Our tree is looking gorgeous and sparkling, and now surrounded by surprises! We also had carolers two nights in a row and gave my parents a true picture of our lives, including trips to the pharmacy and dinner cooked in a kitchen full of kids.

We’re out again tomorrow to visit Noh Poe refugee camp for a Christmas party, and our poor neighborhood kiddos are a little confused at all the comings and goings!