Christmas in Thailand
- erinwlsn
- Dec 25, 2016
- 9 min read
As I previously mentioned, being away from home during the holidays can be extremely hard on people. This being my second year without my mom, and fourth year without my dad, made me really worried I would be upset. Plus my friends were really missing home and talking about family traditions they have and a lot about their parents. Obviously that is totally normal and wonderful to reminisce, but it made everything extra hard. I would never say anything to make it awkward or bring my drama into it to make anyone uncomfortable. But I have to say this all has really brought me patience in some arenas and I've gotten a lot better at holding back tears.
Now that I have probably depressed anyone who is reading this lets hop to some happy and fun things that happened! Stick through the downer bits, it gets better, I promise.
We had set up Secret Santa with some of the other expat English teachers in our group and it was finally time to exchange gifts! It was decided to have it on Christmas Eve and Allison was kind enough to host in her room. So we made sure to BYOB (bring your own beer/booze), supply cookies and chips, and invited everyone over. We set it up so anyone coming over would let us know what they wanted so we could order pizza. Some people were out of town during the party, but did have their gifts dropped off so everyone was able to participate. It was a good time. Nothing too crazy and the presents were fun.
I got the young English guy in the group so after a great suggestion from a friend, I went with soccer (football) themed present. The market always sells soccer jersey so I thought I'd look to see if I could find one for his favorite team, or Tottenham since that is who my family is supposed to like (English brother in law to appease). Unfortunately I couldn't find either teams so I went with the generic Manchester United. If nothing else he got clothes to exercise in so that works lol.
The guy who had me is from Texas and an ex-marine. He is super nice and funny. As fitting to his sense of humor, he decided to wrap my present in duct tape! Thankfully he only wrapped it with one roll of duct tape and not the three that he later informed me he had available to use. The present included two bracelets and a notebook with an adorable dog on the front. It is actually a hand painted picture and from "Rescue Paws" which is an organization in Thailand that helps out stray dogs. Thailand is full of them so I really want to check it out and see if I can help at all. So I was very surprised and super happy with what I got. He did good! Well him and his helper, Keiona, who gave much appreciated advice.
So after the gift exchange, pizza, chips, cookies and drinks the next stop was Money Pub. Money Pub is a bar or club down the street from our apartment building. Maybe a 2 minute motorbike ride max. The bar is actually really large, has live music and a bar inside and outside. We sat inside to enjoy the live band, who doesn't disappoint. The guitar player has amazing long hair, half of it pulled up in a bun with a sweat band on his head. The bass player is pretty basic and looks super laid back in his plain Tshirt, glasses and a goatee. The drummer, well I couldn't really see him, but he sure could keep a beat. The saxophone, trumpet and trombone players were just normal guys. The singers were the best part. They both have glasses and jean shorts that are cut a little too short.
Seeing how we had pre-gamed a little before leaving our apartments, we then got drinks, and Chad bought us shots (ahh). We were the only ones dancing in the whole club. Or so I thought, until I saw another group of farangs (foreigners) across the club. There was a kind of awkward recognition of our groups and then nothing more had to happen. In the end Allison and I ended up dancing down closer to the stage and had a great time. We both drank too much, but had a lot of fun.
When we safely got home from Money Pub I was on my mission to do two things. The first was to not get sick, keep it classy! The second was to deliver the secret stockings I had made for my friends. I didn't have and couldn't find stockings so I used Santa hat's and wrote their names on it in glitter. Then put the "stockings" full of small gifts in plastic bags and hung them off their doors. Luckily everyone received theirs and no one stole anything, I don't think. I wanted to make sure that when my friends woke up they had something to open. That and we always have stockings at home. My mom handmade our stockings when we were little kids. Mine has holly on it, my sister has a bell and my brother has a tree. I can only hope that my stepdad, ex stepdad(?), delivered them to my sister and brother in law. Never the less, it is a tradition that has to be kept up regardless of location. Last year I made stockings for everyone when we were in England. You always get a toothbrush, a few silly useless things, usually gum and deodorant. Essentially you end up feeling like you must smell really bad or have terrible hygiene. It is a truly magical Christmas feeling.
I very quickly, and I hope quietly, delivered these stockings and then went to bed. This was followed by climbing in bed and scarfing down left over pad thai. Let's be honest, it is kind of like the "pizza" of Thailand. It is amazing hot or cold! Especially from this one woman in the market. There are two places that sell it, but she has stolen my heart and stomach!
The next morning we got together for a Christmas brunch. Emily has a hot plate and some pots and pans so her room was the best kitchen option. I woke up hungover and tried to look slightly decent for Christmas morning. While applying the most basic of basic makeup I had a knock on my door. At it were two girls in adorable Santa hats with their names on them. It was Emily and Jenny lol. They came to make sure I was up and to come over for brunch. I finished getting "ready" and headed to her room.
I am pretty much useless in a kitchen so I just brought my Santa hat, some melon, and a hungover smile. =D Allison was probably the roughest out of us, but she did have the most fun the night before! Emily was our chef and Jenny our sous chef, the meal was delicious! We had french toast with banana slices and honey, scrambled eggs, fresh fruit, I had tea and the other girls had peppermint white chocolate coffee (which was yummy but I only like peppermint in my gum).
While cooking and after the girls opened their presents. Emily's was the hardest to watch because she broke down crying. Her little sister wrote an extremely sweet letter that was with her presents. All of us teared up a little bit after seeing her start to cry. It hit me hard how much I missed my family, especially my parents. It took all I had not to break down into sobbing tears. I managed to keep it together. After eating and opening presents was done I headed back to my room.
My teachers from school told us they wanted to take Emily, Jenny, Allison and myself out for lunch on Sunday at 2 pm so we had to get ready. I reached out to my teacher to confirm the time and was told it had been moved to 3 pm. This was a little difficult and frustrating because the four of us decided we wanted to go to this restaurant, the Treehouse, and had to go before sunset. As with most things in Thailand, meals tend to be longer than normal. We pretty much assumed we wouldn't have time for dinner, but didn't want to cancel our plans.
Before attempting to get ready for dinner I passed out for about an hour and it was wonderful. It also felt like a real Christmas. Everyone opened their stockings (which I did receive thank you's in a group chat and in person from my girls), we ate breakfast and opened presents, and then took a nap. That was pretty much the most normal Christmas every year of my life.
After relaxing and napping for a couple hours we were off to have lunch/dinner with some of our teachers from school. They were so sweet and picked us up, gave us Christmas presents, ordered some amazing food (and made sure Allison had something to eat), Possibly best of all... there was karaoke. Now I am not a great singer... at all. But I do love singing some sweet karaoke. Luckily, they had plenty of songs in English as well as Thai. Nothing quite like singing The Beatles and Gloria Gaynor (I will survive).
The best part was that we ended up going to the restaurant we were hoping to! Dinner was at the Treehouse!! What are the odds? Sometimes life can be crazy, but also works out. Ok maybe that wasn't the best part, but it was still pretty darn great. I almost cried when I was there. My Christmases will never be the same again. Being surrounded by such caring people, that I've only known for a couple months, was really special. It meant a lot that they took the time to get together and make us feel included and celebrate one of our holidays. Being surrounded by them and having a lot of fun made Christmas almost feel normal for a moment. I find myself tearing up now while I think about it, because I know that it might not seem like a big deal to others, but it was a very big and special deal to me.
It is hard when you know that you can't see or talk to your parents anymore. You can't see them open the lame or amazing present you got them. See the look on their face as they watch you open something that they knew, or thought, you would love. It is moments like that that are heartbreaking. Knowing that I can only remember them, which I'm grateful for, but never get to see again.
So needless to say it was a very special meal to me. And true to most things in Thailand it took a little bit longer than we had planned. But I loved every minute of it. Ok enough of all the feels...
After the delicious dinner, ice cream and singing our teachers took us back to our apartment and we headed off to our rooms. Most everyone was going to Skype or Facetime with family or friends at some point. I had made plans with my sister and brother in law to talk the following morning, but I was feeling a little emotional and wanted to talk to at least my sister. I waited until it was a little later so I didn't wake anyone up.
We kind of just chatted about my day and what they were going to do. It truly is the little things in life that make you realize what is important. Probably the most important thing... family. And friends. Which I am so lucky to have a great group here, and back home.
After talking to my sister I had to watch only the best Christmas movie there is, Die Hard. I had watched all of my Christmas classics, most from my childhood, leading up to Christmas. A Charlie Brown Christmas, Garfield's Christmas Special, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas (cartoon and more recent versions), Claymation Christmas, and Love Actually. The only two I didn't watch was It's a Wonderful Life and The Wizard of Oz. My mom loved those movies. She said The Wizard of Oz always reminded her of Christmas. I was able to watch part of it, but the wifi went out before I could finish it. I had the similar issue with It's a Wonderful Life, but couldn't even get it to start.
The following morning, Monday, I Facetimed with my sister, brother-in-law, my grandpa, and aunt's family. Casey and Pete went to Tampa to spend Christmas with them. It was really great because I hadn't seen or talked to my grandpa in a long time! We talked for about half an hour and then I had to get ready for work. It threw me off for the day seeing how it was the evening there and still Christmas. But I have to say it was a wonderful day and I feel very lucky to have been able to enjoy Christmas with such wonderful friends!
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