Téa wakes up at 4.40am. She’s been told under no circumstances is she to wake us up until after 6am. She next looks at the clock at 5.25am. Then 5.40am, then 5.55am, and THEN she bursts into our room (where her sister has arrived at some point during the night) and says IT’S CHRISTMAS, GET UP GET UP! Joe told her to lay down and go back to sleep, but shortly thereafter the two of them went into the living room and put on a Christmas movie while they waited for Maylin and I to wake up.
When we finally roll out of bed around 7am, we see that presents have appeared beneath our tree! This is the tiny tree that Téa asked for when we first arrived in Hua Hin, to make it feel more Christmassy in our AirBnb condo. Plus some festive garland Joe picked up later.
We also had paper bag stockings! We each picked a paper bag from my selection from our travels so far, for example Maylin had a Japanese Pokemon bag, Téa had an H&M bag, and Joe’s was a sports store bag. We decorated them with stickers and our names, just so Santa would know which bag belonged to whom.
Much fun is had while we open gifts and stockings. The best gifts are of course the ones that didn’t come in our bags, but when you’re a kid, toys matter too. And yes, I did in fact carry three of Joe’s gifts from Canada through Japan to Thailand, because I got them for him in January!
Once we’d uncovered all the paper bag surprises that the morning had brought, I started making the pancakes we had bought for this occasion. I picked up pandan custard at the grocery store the other day, and it is delicious with pancakes!
Our Christmas morning is the perfect relaxing affair. The girls unbox some of their gifts, and spend hours at the dining room table building a tall teddy bear house (Téa) and not one but TWO Pompompurin characters (Maylin).
I even have time to message with a friend for a bit, and we decide I have a new title: International Snack Expert! That of course lead to me having to experiment with an AI photo of sorts… (no, I did not pack a button up shirt or a blazer, and I would certainly not be wearing them on Christmas morning!)
Joe and I have a tradition of putting the craziest new and different snacks in each other’s stockings. It gets even more fun when we are abroad, because EVERYTHING is new and different! I got Joe some crispy spicy fish skin snacks (they were truly so delicious!), while he got me these fun fish chips! I think we think alike? These were a little too sweet, but such a fun texture and flavour nonetheless.
We cleared out some of yesterday’s pork leftovers for lunch, added it to ramen and slurped it all up. We are really feeling the pressure of having about a week left here, and needing to finish all the food we’ve bought. We don’t have all that much, but we need to eat more lunches at home! Dinners will still be out, after all, Tamarind market is only closed ONE day between now and our departure!
No day is complete without an hour or so in the pools, so the afternoon is swimming, showering and more video games. Joe and the girls have discovered a new video game called Overcooked!, which can be one to four players, ideal for our family. Even I get in on a couple of rounds, which are chaotic but the girls giggle and have so much fun the entire time!
Then, after 5pm, it’s finally time to head to Tamarind. First things first, we secure our smoothies:
Maylin has so much fun with the hot dog vendor. I think tonight was her second or third time shopping all by herself at the hot dog stand, and the vendor lights up when she sees Maylin approach. It’s so cute!! But a hot dog? For Christmas dinner? This truly is a different Christmas Day…
We have fruits at home, and had mango sticky rice yesterday, so we skip the dessert round tonight, and head home. At home we play our family version of the solitaire game, and some Christmas trivia, courtesy of Joe’s new presents. It’s a warm and cozy end to our Christmas Day, and tomorrow our countdown to leaving Hua Hin starts. One week to go!