home.

It really was better than I could imagine to come home to Mae Sot.

We arrived the evening before Thanksgiving, and spent most of Thanksgiving day cooking for a dinner with a group of American friends. We did take a break while the bread was rising; I went for a run and we swam some laps at the pool, to make it a very weird and tropical Thanksgiving.

And then we decorated for Christmas!

Every year since we’ve been married, we’ve had a small Christmas tree:

{2009}

{2010, just before moving to Thailand}

{2011, our first Christmas in Thailand}

{2012, when the no-extra-charge ruffle pajamas kind of overwhelmed the tree!}

But this year, our tree outgrew us!

Some friends of ours upgraded their tree, and that meant they were selling their old one!

We had some friends come to watch us decorate and enjoy the Christmas spirit! They have all been ooo-ing & ahh-ing over the lights and singing Christmas songs.

Since returning home, we’ve had six people taken to the hospital & three teeth extractions; one child who had three accidents on our floor and three vomiting escapades. I discovered one of them when I heard an, “Uhh, Kelli…” from the community space. I came around the corner to see a little eight-year-old running to the door with her hands cupped. I then saw that a little eighteen-month-old had been eating sprinkles while his sisters worked on a puzzle. I think he choked, and then just kept vomiting. The three girls were taking turns catching his vomit in their cupped hands, and then running across the room–dripping along the way–to then throw it over our porch. So gross. I wasn’t really sure where to start with the child still vomiting, eight kids in the room, toys strewn about, and vomit across the floor.  I appreciate their effort to help, but I might have preferred a contained hazardous waste area.

I did get to bake gingerbread cookies with one of my favorite little sweethearts!

She usually likes to come in and help when I cook, so she had been watching me chop pumpkin for soup. A neighbor came over, so I went out to say hello and came back to her holding our butcher knife and attempting to help cut the pumpkin! To make it worse, she was using it like you use a machete–holding it high and slamming it down to the counter. I was terrified! I did appreciate her effort to help, and she did! We made pumpkin soup for dinner, and gingerbread cookies & snicker doodles for a Christmas movie night.

It is so good to be home, and it is so good to be celebrating the holidays!