To read the rest of this article,  follow this link over to the mommyhood memos where I had the honor of  writing as a guest blogger this week. If you’re visiting from the mommyhood memos… Welcome! Here are some posts from our archives that you might be interested in:

On Cross Cultural Pregnancy, Parenting & Kids:

• My Akha Pregnancy Guru
• The Birth Story
• It takes a village
• A Million Butts Can’t Be Wrong: Elimination Communication
• Diaperless Update: 3 Months
• EC Update: 1 Year
• Our Trilingual 2 Year Old
• A Different Kind of Milestone: Noodles and Chopsticks

Or if your interested in learning a bit more about the Akha people, our work, or our crazy life in the village, here are a few posts you may like:

• About the Akha
• Traditional Akha Vocals
• Vernon Vidcast #1: Our most recent ministry update
• 5 Minute Documentary about the Vernons
• The Akha and the West: Relevantly Traversing the Cultural Divide
• Pulling teeth on our own
• How to take a village shower
• The Rat and the Cat

Whether you’re an old friend or a new visitor,  thanks for stopping by! Leave a comment below and let us know you were here!

Well, to get back to the story, Abi has been showing a lot of interest in chopsticks lately. At mealtime she always steals one of our chopsticks to play with and ends up trying, unsuccessfully, to stab at her food. So today, as I served up her noodles, I remembered a blog post I read recently about children’s chopsticks. So, I threw together a pair of “training chopsticks” and she went to town. I swear she ate more at that meal than she has EVER eaten (at least when feeding herself!)

As I was sitting there watching her eat with as much parental pride as is legally allowed, I realized that the heightened degree of sentimentality with which I was viewing this milestone was not really normal (at least not for the majority of Americans). Most of our American friends will not have pictures of their children using chopsticks for the first time at the age of three. Nor will they forever cherish the first set of “baby-chopsticks” given to their children by their Akha Grandpa.

So, I guess I just thought I’d share one of the little differences about raising a child overseas. What are the milestones and memories that you have cherished from your child’s life?

This year was especially exciting for me because a large group of women from the villages around Mae Salong came down for the retreat. Everyone (about 20 passengers total) piled into our truck for the 2 hour drive down to the city. Upon arriving, they quickly embraced the freedom of being away from the duties of children and work. It was awesome to watch women hug and reunite with friends from other villages (most of whom they don’t see except for this one time each year).

The sessions included some amazing speakers and worship. During one session in particular, the healing presence of the Holy Spirit was so rich and the worship was so beautiful that most of the women were weeping (which is quite unusual, as Akha rarely show this kind of emotion.) There were also plenty of times filled with joy & energy ; everyone enjoyed many silly songs, games and dancing (check out the pictures below!)

Last year I merely translated, however this year I was honored to be asked to teach one of the sessions. I taught on parenting, mostly encouraging the mothers that God has prepared them for job he has set before them. Too many Akha parents believe the lie that they are not equipped to raise their children because they haven’t had any formal education. This is the reason that many Akha children are being sent to be raised in boarding homes unnecessarily, which, in turn, is slowly destroying the family system. I taught in Akha (though admittedly, it was rough at times) and tried to use several examples from daily Akha life to further convey that God values the Akha people and way of life and that they have something so valuable to offer their kids!

One of my favorite parts of the women’s retreat every year is the craft time. I’ve lived in an Akha village for 5 years, so I’m fairly accustomed to seeing Akha women working on their various sewing projects, but there’s just something so awe inspiring to see so many women, so much skill and expertise, so much culture all in one room! This year they introduced a new aspect to the time. During this craft session, the Bible students (aged 18-25) living at Akha Outreach Foundation were encouraged to join in and learn from their elders. While most young women know how to do Akha cross stitch, some of the more uncommon skills are being lost to the younger generations. The female students sat amongst the mothers learning how to make pom poms and sew applique, while the young men sat with the grandmothers (whose eyesight no longer permits them to do the intricate work) and wrote down Akha proverbs, Akha stories, and the stories of their lives. It was an awesome sight to witness the passing down of traditions from generation to generation!

FOOD FRIDAY: EAT LIKE AN AHKA

Posted on 29. Jan, 2010 by April

As we’ve mentioned more than once, last month we went up to an Akha village for a few days to experience their culture.  Part of that was, of course, their food.  My favorite part was using chopsticks to eat it all.  Since we only ate Akha food a few times, we decided to bring in an expert to tell you all about it. Lori Vernon graciously agreed to be our guest blogger today to teach us about Akha food and even share a recipe!

Guest Blogger: Lori Vernon

Akha food is fairly simple compared to Thai fare. Most Thai dishes seek to find the perfect balance between many different flavors (sweet, sour, spicy, salty, etc) using a multitude of ingredients like coconut milk, curry paste, lemon grass, chili peppers, fish sauce, sugar and lime to name a few. Most Akha dishes, on the other hand, are savory and have very few ingredients. Akha dishes rarely use more than salt, garlic, chili pepper to flavor the main ingredient. However, this doesn’t mean, by any stretch of the imagination, that Akha food could be considered bland. Quite the opposite, Akha food is very flavorful and spicy!

Of course, rice is the main staple for the Akha people. At a meal, each person has their own bowl of rice, and the accompanying dishes are served family style. There are 5 categories of Akha food; a traditional meal would include at least one dish from each category.

1. STIR FRIED:

This category can vary greatly. Any combination of vegetables, eggs, meat or beans can be stir fried for an Akha meal. An Akha favorite is a spicy stir fried minced pork dish called sa byeh which is the exception to the “simple-ingredients-list rule” and has many herbs including a special type of tree bark. It is almost always eaten for special occasions like weddings, funerals and festivals.

2. PICKLED:

Greens can be pickled when the crops are in abundance and preserved for use at a later time. Often pickled greens are also dried and reconstituted when ready to eat, increasing their shelf life even further.

3. BOILED/SOUP:

Greens, squash or potatoes are boiled with pork and bones to create a savory broth soup. The Akha also make a thick rice porridge soup with chicken that is eaten to celebrate the birth of a child or to feed to an invalid unable to eat rice.

4. DIP:

The Akha use a mortar and pestle to create very spicy dips to be eaten with fresh vegetables, or spooned directly onto the rice. The most simple version would contain tomato, salt, chili peppers, green onions & cilantro. However, we have tasted many variations of this dish including ones that contained crushed peanuts, sesame seeds, fish, dried beef, and bamboo worms. This is a dish that is different at every house, because each family has their own secret recipe.

5. RAW:

The dip mentioned above is generally eaten with a variety of fresh greens and vegetables. Some commonly served items from this category include cabbage, green beans, sweet pea greens, cucumbers, mint, thai eggplant and other herbs. (which I don’t know how to translate into English.)

Eating Akha Style

If you’d like to taste a bit of Akha food, here’s a simple recipe you can try at home:

Spicy Akha Peanut Dip

This is normally made with a mortar and pestle, but since those tools are not commonly available in American kitchens, I’ve included instructions on how to make this using a Cuisinart (a blender may also work.)

Ingredients:

• 1 small clove of garlic (optional, depending on how much garlic breath you’re willing to tolerate)
• 3 medium plum tomatoes or one large American Tomato
• ¼ cup of roasted peanuts
• 1-5 Thai chili peppers to taste
• ½ tsp of salt (or to taste)
• green onions, chopped
• cilantro, chopped

Instructions:

1. Boil/blanch tomatoes and chili peppers for several minutes… until the tomato skin splits. Remove from water and let cool.
2. Chop peanuts roughly in a Cuisinart.
3. Peel skin off of tomatoes & add tomatoes in with the chopped peanuts.
4. Add blanched chili peppers and garlic clove. Use the pulse setting to chop/mix.
5. Add salt to taste
6. Remove from Cuisinart.
7. Stir in chopped green onions & cilantro to taste, reserving a small amount for garnish on top.
8. Serve with raw vegetables or over rice.

- Lori Vernon

Jason is an excellent photographer and took some great pictures of their visit (which you can see below). After looking at their pictures, we’re reminded how differently we take pictures now that we’ve been here for 5 years. For example, we NEVER take pictures of the chickens anymore because we’re so used to them, but they really are a very important part of the village ambiance!

Thanks for coming to visit, guys!

(To see captions, click the full-screen button in the bottom right corner- from full screen mode you can click “Show details” in the top right to see captions. You can also adjust how quickly the pictures change)

Let me go back a few years the beginning of Esther’s story (at least the beginning of her story with us!) I was pregnant with Abi and had horrible morning sickness that kept me confined to bed or running to the bathroom most of the day! Paul was running himself ragged, trying to take care of a sick pregnant wife and keep up the with laundry, dishes and the house. Seeing our predicament, Nancy, a seasoned missionary, mentor and friend, encouraged us to hire a “helper”. We grimaced at the thought, partly because we were too stubbornly independent to admit that we couldn’t handle everything on our own, and partly because we hated the thought of having someone do our “dirty work”, it seemed so elitist! However, we were clearly in a pickle and even beyond that, we began to realize that our independence was more a reflection of our American culture than the community-centric Akha culture to which we were trying to assimilate.

So, we began to pray! We prayed that God would bring us someone who would be so much more than a housekeeper. We prayed that He would bring someone who really needed a job to help support her family. We prayed that he would bring someone who would become part of our family, someone who would be a disciple, someone who would be a co-worker with us in our ministry. Esther was the answer to those prayers.

Esther came to live with us full time. When we were in the city, she was there. When we went to the village she came along! We immediately began to see that Esther had so much potential! She is brilliant, passionate, bold and diligent. She has a great head on her shoulders and a desire to learn. We were immediately blessed by her ability to make friends instantly wherever we went; her personality was the perfect fit for our unusual mobile lifestyle.

But even more than that, we could see that she was hungry for God! She had grown up in a Christian home, going to church every week for her whole life. But like many teens, when she first came to live with us, she was doubting the faith she had grown up with, asking hard questions like “Is God really real? If so, how do I know?” Knowing the importance of the these times of struggling, we encouraged her to continue seeking God and stood by her through her journey.

Over the next few years, we had many amazing conversations with Esther. She always initiated the most interesting topics; we discussed polygamy to freewill, ethics to nose rings… and everything in between. About a year after she came to live with us she started saying things like “I think I’d like to go to Bible school… But I DON’T want to go into ministry! I just want to learn for myself.” We secretly hoped that she would one day decide to go into ministry because we could see such great potential in her, but we were happy to see her faith growing and hoped, at least, that she would be a solid member of the local church.

In August, she was baptized, publicly declaring her faith in God. And this last weekend, Esther announced that she wanted to go into full-time ministry, carrying the gospel to her unreached Akha brothers and sisters internationally . When I asked her what brought about the change, she said that she was thinking about her future (she had always imagined herself selling produce like many of the Akha women do) and realized that she wanted to impact people and do something “special” for God! We are ecstatic! We are so honored to be a part of Esther’s life and hope that she will be able to impact areas that we cannot!

Please join us in praying for her future!

Anyone who has visited our village knows A-Paw, 8, is the younger of the two siblings. She is a beautiful and truly remarkable child. She is so smart and has a personality that just lights up a room. Her older brother, A-Wa, 15, is a handsome young man with a lot of confidence and potential, as well as a certain knack for getting into mischief.

Unlike many deaf children in America, these two have very little opportunity for “success”. Without any method of communication (they have had very little exposure to sign language) they have no opportunity to succeed in school (the Thai / modern definition of success) and very little opportunity to find someone to marry (the Akha / premodern definition of success).

The, in June 2009, we were honored and blessed to host Kristin & Dave – who came halfway around the world just to be a blessing to this family. Kristin is an audiologist and is currently working for the Denver Public School system. They not only brought the expertise to diagnose these kids, but they also brought first class equipment and top of the line hearing aids which had been donated to give to this family!

It was an extraordinary experience to see these two children hear for the first time ever. Both children have very minimal hearing, so much so that if you were standing right next to them, yelling their names… they wouldn’t hear you. But with the hearing aids they could hear even quietly spoken words!

After being fitted with her aids, we “spied” on A-paw as she was tried them out on the real world. She went outside, and was standing 50 meters from some of her friends who were playing with a bamboo stick by hitting it on the ground. As she heard the hollow, echoing sound of bamboo floating across the distance, her eyes grew wide and she looked back at us in amazement as if to say “Hey… that makes an incredible sound!”

We are so grateful for the opportunity that has been given to these kids. We know that the path will not be an easy one, as special needs education cases are largely ignored in rural Thailand. Also adding to the difficulty is the significant cultural and emotional adjustment as a child goes from a silent world to an audible one. We are hoping to get them some speech therapy (we might even do it ourselves if need be!) and help them to catch up in school, but these things will take time and patience.

Through this experience, however, we are again reminded and awestruck by the way our God lavishes his love upon the poor and the needy.

Ingredients:
* ½ pound of ground meat (we use pork)
* 3 large-ish eggplants
* 1 small onion (I used yellow here, but we prefer purple)
* 2 Eggs
* Green Onion
* Cilantro
* 3 cloves of garlic
* Thai Chili pepper (or similar)
* Salt
* Oil

Instructions & Notes:
1. This dish is served with rice. So it’s best to start your rice first, because it will take 15-20 minutes. (In other words… DO NOT use Minute Rice! Learn how to cook rice here.)
2. Cut the eggplant into large pieces. Boil with the eggs for 10-15 minutes. Stir occasionally. When finished, drain and rinse with cold water. Set aside.
*Note: For some reason we like green eggplant best. Purple seems to be more watery and have less flavor, but I don’t even know if green eggplant is available in the U.S.
3. Chop the onion, green onion and cilantro. Set aside.
4. Prepare garlic & chili peppers. We use a mortar and pestle, but a garlic press or any number of kitchen gadgets would work fine, I’m sure!
*Note: Add chili peppers to suit your family’s taste. We use about 3 to achieve “medium” spicyness… but it’s all subjective, so start slow.
5. Get your wok (a.k.a. “pan”) nice and hot. Add oil, garlic, peppers, meat and onion. Stir-fry until meat is browned.
6. Usually, by this time, my boiled eggplant has cooled off enough to handle. So, remove the meat from the heat for a moment and chop the boiled eggplant.
7. Now, add your chopped eggplant to the meat mixture in the wok and stir-fry. It should get a little mushier and a little browner when it’s done. Add salt to taste (approximately ½ to 1 teaspoon should be about right.)
8. Reserve a small handful of the chopped green onions & cilantro. Add the rest of the onions & cilantro to the wok and stir-fry for another minute or so.
9.Transfer to your serving plate, and garnish with sliced boiled eggs and remaining green onions and cilantro. Serve with rice.

However, I think one of the best stories came from a moment when the kids where having a hard time understanding…

One of the teachings we did was based on the story of the Lost Sheep in Matthew 18. We talked about how important each person is to God and that God loves everyone and seeks a relationship with everyone! After the teaching, we split the kids up by age groups to do the craft and work on the memory verse for the day. I was working with the older kids (age 9-13) and we were learning a separate but related sheep verse, John 10:27, 28. After repeating the verse several times, I asked the kids if they understood what it meant. They all stared back at me blankly (not even a glimmer of understanding!)

As I struggled to find the right words to explain this metaphor to kids who had never seen sheep, one of the kids piped up and asked a village grandpa (who was there repairing our roof from the storm the previous night and seemed to be enjoying eavesdropping on our little lesson) if he could explain the verse. Sure enough, he had the perfect illustration! He explained, “You know that if a chicken wanders off, and it’s owner goes looking for it, the owner doesn’t only look with her eyes, but she calls ‘Ku Ku Ku’. And the chicken knows the sound of its owners voice and will come running when it hears its owner calling. We can know God’s voice just like that chicken!” Simultaneously, the kids all had an “Ah-Ha” moment! Three cheers for Grandpa! This is what I love about living in a village; nearly everything is done with a little help from our friends!

In the end, we did a VBS in three different villages and ministered to about 90 kids (not to mention many parents and grandparents who hung around to enjoy the fun!) This was the first year we have done this and we were really pleased with it’s success; I’m sure it will become a yearly tradition!

As Abi is getting older, it seems I’m always on the lookout for new activities for her. She’s such an active little girl and really needs alot of stimulation to be happy. I recently started following this blog in which one mom shares about homeschooling her toddler (Tot School). I’m really excited to try out some of their intentional play ideas and will keep you posted as I am able to get going on these. But for the time being we’ll have to be content with the few games I’ve run across that require little or no planning… like this bean game. A few months ago, Abi was bored out of her mind and I happened to have a couple bags of black beans (that were several years old!) and thus was created the bean game. This is by far Abi’s favorite activity. She absolutely loves dumping the beans from one container to the other, or spooning them back and forth!

Another favorite game recently has been bath paints. I ran across this blog and I realized that we had all the ingredients in the house. So I whipped up a quick batch of bath paints and into the tub she went! She loved it! So this one has definitely gone onto the rainy day list.

Since there are so many inexpensive by-the-road style restaurants here in Thailand, we almost always eat lunch out. (Actually, let me clarify, when we’re in the city we almost always eat lunch out. However, when we’re in the village, we rarely eat out.) Anyway… where was I? Oh yes, inexpensive restaurants! A standard lunch in Thailand will cost you about 25 baht or 70 cents. The lunch pictured here, is actually a bit more expensive and runs 35 baht or 97cents. But it is so delicious that we don’t mind “splurging”!

We eat Khao Mok Gai about once a week. It is an halal dish in which the rice and the chicken are all cooked together with many spices like coriander, cinnamon, tumeric and cumin. These spices combined with the fat from the chicken make the rice so rich and tasty. The main dish of rice and chicken is usually accompanied by a cucumber, onion and chili pepper salad with a sweet vinegar sauce. Also, a broth soup is usually included. Mmmmm so good! I’m so lucky to live in Thailand and eat this great food!

Three of the four clinics we did were especially exciting for Paul & I because they were in villages not associated with our organization. As is the case in much of the world, sometimes, here in Thailand, church groups have trouble getting along.Unity among Christians and Christian organizations is one of the areas that Paul and I really have a heart to see improve among the Akha. So, in providing a “no strings attached” clinic, we hope to not only bless the individual receiving the medical care, but to build relationship with village and church leadership which might remind them that the body of Christ can still function even outside of denominational affiliation!

In January we were blessed to have my (Lori’s) parents in country for a visit. Their arrival coincided with the Grand Opening of the new Foursquare church and ministry center in Bangkok. We flew down to meet them in Bangkok and while there took the opportunity to see a few sights. Can you believe that this was their fifth trip to Thailand and they had never been to the Grand Palace! (We must not be very good tour guides, eh?)

After a few days in Bangkok, we headed down to Southern Thailand for a few days at the beach! We ended up staying in Songkla (just outside of Hat Yai) for 3 nights. Our little hotel was right on the beach and we had such a nice relaxing time!

Esther (who has lived with us for almost 2 years now) and one of her friends came along as well. Neither of them had ever flown in a plane or seen the ocean, so it was exciting to be with them as they experienced these new things. It was also Abi’s first time seeing the ocean (Although, it certainly wasn’t her first time on the plane… she’s been on nearly 30 plane rides thus far and she’s not even two yet!) and, of course, she loved it! (Some photos of her at the beach are bound to show up on the baby blog sooner or later. So stay tuned!)

After we made it back up north, we all headed up to the village for about a week. My parents were troopers, braving the cold showers and hard beds with ease. We stayed pretty busy pouring a concrete pathway and building a deck as the finishing touches to our “new” village home. My dad, the builder, loved getting his hands dirty, working alongside the Akha men and noticing all the differences in how things are done here. And my mom, (not so keen on getting her hands dirty) was the resident baby sitter and kept Abi and her village friendsoccupied and out of harms way.

Mom & Dad… thanks so much for coming! We can’t wait for your next visit!

My role in the event was mostly “observer” with a little bit of “translator” and “photographer” thrown in. For one of the sessions, we were blessed to hear from an American friend, Marlene. Having been a family counselor for many years, she shared out of her expertise about the different stages in a woman’s life. This is an important topic for Akha women, because in traditional Akha culture it’s generally considered taboo to talk about things like menstruation or menopause, which often leaves women unprepared and scared when natural changes occur. In any case, I was elected to translate for this session.

Although I’ve been here for nearly 4 years, my language is not what you would call “microphone worthy”. So I stumbled through the session saying things like “Do you understand me? Did I say that correctly?” and “How do you say _________?” It was like being tossed in the deep end and told “Sink or swim!” While moments like this are difficult, for sure, I’m grateful for the opportunity to step up to a challenge and find that, even if I can only doggy paddle, at least I didn’t drown!

My other, less challenging, job was to take pictures during one of the craft times. My mission was to capture a picture of every woman for the slide show scheduled for the final night. As an added bonus, I got to witness the skilled craftsmanship of nearly a hundred women making traditional men’s headdresses. Take a peek at the pictures to see for yourself!

The final diagnosis was “food poisoning,” though we’re not sure where she was infected. By the time we got her to the hospital, her potassium levels were depleted from all the vomiting and diarrhea and she was quite dehydrated as well. They treated her with IV electrolytes and antibiotics for three days.

Everything went pretty smoothly. Our normally very active little girl was generally pretty content sitting in her hospital bed watching Sesame Street on the laptop. Even being tethered to the IV was not nearly as difficult as we anticipated. We explained to her that her hand was drinking the water in the bag, so she would hold her IV hand up to her mouth and “sluuurp”. (So darn cute!) In fact, she became so accustomed to having the IV pole follow us around everywhere that she actually cried when they were wheeling it away!

All that being said, the time certainly had it’s difficult moments as well! The worst being the several times they had to draw blood and/or insert the IV. To begin with they had to swaddle her to keep her immobilized, which she absolutely hated. Then, her tiny veins were apparently impossible to find so the nurses had to poke her and “dig around” in multiple locations to find a suitable vein. Meanwhile, Abi screamed and cried at the top of her lungs! And to top it all off, the whole process always left looking nasty looking bruises on her arms and legs as reminders of the traumatic experience!

The other difficult thing was the matter of sleep. Abi is really not a very good sleeper to begin with, so the constant flow of nurses in and out made it pretty hard for her to sleep. The first night she woke at 2am. When 3pm arrived and she hadn’t slept for more than about 45 minutes, we decided to ask the doctor for some sleeping medicine. Boy, did it do the trick! She slept like a rock from about 4pm until midnight. She woke up, went potty, had some dinner, took a walk around the ward and then slept again from 2am to 8 am. (Without a doubt, this was the BEST nights sleep I’ve had in 2 years!)

All in all, we’re thankful for God’s healing hand and for the availability of good health care in Chiang Rai. And, of course, we appreciate the prayers of so many during this tough time!

Well, this week marks the end of a busy season in the Vernon household. In fact, this is the first real down-time we’ve had since Christmas (which is why the blogs have been so quiet recently!) The past couple of months have many worthy stories of family, ministry and travel and hopefully I’ll have time to tell a few of them this week. (So stay tuned!) But before I get to those, I was going through my photos today and just had to tell you about this one.

I’ve been trying to share glimpses of some of the unusual things that we find in everyday life here in Thailand. And this certainly counts as “unusual” in my book! Allow me to introduce The Dye Man. He rides through our neighborhood once every few months. As he rides, he plays a Chinese hand drum (as seen in his right hand) to let his potential customers know that he’s approaching. He has a metal bucket hanging from a rack on the back of his bike which contains black dye as well as a fire to keep it hot. If people need something dyed they can flag him down and he will dip it in dye right there on the street in front of the house.

For months, I wondered what this guy’s trade was. I thought it was SO wierd that he rode around with a black bucket of fire dangling from his bike! Finally, I flagged him down and asked him. Now I know, but I still have a hard time getting my brain around it! Why would people need to dye their clothes black? Maybe something has gotten stained? Maybe they have a funeral to go to? But are there really enough people wanting to dye things black for this guy to make an living of it? Apparently so…

Here are a few pictures from our Singaporean friends! Thanks guys!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?
Wrapping paper, for sure! Actually, here in Thailand it’s really hard to find Christmas themed paper and I’m a bit of a Christmas Nazi, so when ever I see a bin of wrapping paper for sale you’ll find me pawing through it trying to find anything remotely Christmas-y.

2. Real tree or Artificial?
I’m from Oregon… so in my opinion real trees are the best! (Again that’s part of my Christmas Nazi tendencies!) You just can’t beat the smell of a Christmas tree in the living room! Every single Christmas until we came to Thailand I had a real tree. Of course, here in Thailand we have an artificial, but I don’t really mind it too much. I’m just happy to have a tree at all!

3. When do you put up the tree?
As soon as humanly possible following Thanksgiving day.

4. When do you take the tree down?
Sometime in January. Whenever I get around to it.

5. Do you like eggnog?
Yes, but not strait; mixed half and half with milk is best!

6. Favorite gift received as a child?
I can’t say for sure… but *one* of my favorites was a Playdoh Diner set. It had all sorts of gadgets to make hamburgers and icecream cones and the like.

7. Hardest person to buy for?
Hmmm…no one comes to mind. I guess it would be ME! Paul is always asking for a Christmas wish list and I can never think of anything I want!

8. Easiest person to buy for?
Esther.

9. Do you have a nativity scene?
Yes, somewhere in storage in the U.S. Unfortunately it’s not here in Thailand. One of these days we’ll bring it out.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards?
Neither. I don’t send out snail mail cards because I’m too lazy and I don’t send out email cards because it’s too impersonal. Go figure!

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
Can’t think of one… generally, if it’s wrapped, I like it.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie?
No question about it… White Christmas with Bing Crosby! I’ve already watched it at least seven times this season already.

13. When do you start shopping?
Whenever I think about it. Usually sometime in late November.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? I’m sure I have…although I can’t think of a particular instance at the moment. Apparently I’m a bit brain dead today; I can’t seem to think of good answers for quite a few of these questions. (This is why it’s been so long since I’ve written a blog here… I’m really this brain dead all the time! It’s called being a mother!)

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
Appetizers. I can do with out the the formal dinner and the Christmas ham. For me, Christmas is all about the finger foods… black olives, pickles, crackers and cheese, summer sausage, etc. And don’t forget the sweets… cookies, fudge, candy… you eat those with your hands so they count as finger foods too!

16. Lights on the tree?
Again, this is an area where the Christmas Nazi in me comes out. I am very picky about my tree lights. They have to be interwoven into the branches so that you can’t see the wires, not just haphazardly strung. Also, there should be A LOT… this year I used 9 strands of lights on our tree.

17. Favorite Christmas song?
“Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanuel” Or “The Hallelujah Chorus” (which could also be considered an Easter song, but my home church always sang it on Christmas eve.)

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home?
Either is fine.

19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer’s?
Let’s see…”You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen. Someone and Someone and Donner and Dixen. But do you recall…” Guess not!

20. Angel on the tree top or a star?
I prefer star. In theory I’m ok with either, but more often than not I think the angels are gaudy and the stars look much nicer.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?
Growing up, our family opened all the presents on Christmas eve (except for the stockings and a present or two from “Santa” which we opened Christmas morning.) I never thought I’d change, but somehow Christmas morning has become our new tradition!

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year?
Trying to make an American Christmas in Thailand. It’s hard to make everything “just right” here. We can’t even buy proper candy canes! Also, I tried to make some candies that were dipped in chocolate, but the Thai chocolate won’t melt properly and is all lumpy!

23. Favorite ornament theme or color?
No favorites really. My current tree is Silver, White & Blue themed, but those colors were only chosen because I didn’t like the yellow, green & red ornaments.

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner?

If I’m choosing between a Turkey or a Ham dinner, I prefer Turkey. Although,like I said earlier, I don’t feel too deprived without Christmas dinner (afterall Thanksgiving was just a month ago!)

25. What do you want for Christmas this year?
Maybe a new watch? I dunno! Sorry Honey…wish I were more help!