The Relatives Came

Boxing Day found us cleaning, gathering air mattresses, and generally preparing for having 11 people in our home for the next ten days, as the Georgia Mills were due to arrive that night. And arrive they did, in the wee hours of the next morning; thus began quite an ideal visit...it's not often in life that you get to spend that much concentrated time with members of your extended family, and it was a sweet time.

at the Jim Thompson House in Bangkok

We spent some time resting and talking and doing our favorite things...

Scrabble with Papa Jeff

...and some time out on the town adventuring.

by the river

This picture is one of my favorite memories of our Bangkok time. We were exploring Wat Po, the temple of the reclining Buddha, when we came upon this man in the midst of painting an exquisite watercolor likeness of the temple grounds. We stopped to express our admiration of his work, at which he point he pulled out two canvases and gave them to us, saying that he loved to share his work with people who appreciated it, especially visitors to Thailand. We were quite blown away by this act of generosity and goodwill, and now each of our families has one of these gorgeous paintings to remind us always of our special time and of the kind heart that characterizes our brothers and sisters in this beautiful country.
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On New Year's Day we headed off to our next adventure...a 6.5 hour road trip that ended at a gorgeous, isolated beach near the Cambodian border.

we were treated to lovely days...

...and majestic sunsets

 

 

these best cousin friends couldn't have had a sweeter time together

JuJu gets his courage up to ride the banana boat...s-l-o-w-l-y

the 'big boys' couldn't get enough of paddle boarding!

The other thing that's worth noting about their time here is that the weather was amazing. All the loveliness of cool season was concentrated in that time period- we felt the need to tell them several times, "It's not usually like this!"

Soon enough, it was time to pack them all into taxis and send them off, and for us to get back to regular life...but the time we spent has given us memories that will last always. We're ever so thankful.

Time flies over us, but leaves its shadow behind. -Nathaniel Hawthorne

Christmas morning- traditional Christmas story time and snuggle to begin the day!

Yes, time does fly. We often think of this phenomenon with a negative connotation- where is the time going?- but I'm pondering time a lot these days, these growing days, and it's not flying by and leaving no trace. Its trace is in these beautiful faces living their childhood days; its shadow is the mark forever imprinted on our hearts and these souls bound for eternity. I choose to be thankful for these growing, changing days- the years that are piling up- thankful that I have the privilege of living them with these dear ones. The days are not always easy- we have drear and discouragement and days of ick- but they are nonetheless vibrant and important- building us in vital ways, each of them. 

So here we are, in retrospect again, because we've been busy living these days! But I think they're worth chronicling, so we'll go back to those magical days leading up to Christmas...

that's our girl- front right

There's not much that can beat a performance of strings music for Christmas beauty. Our season and our lives have been much enhanced by the addition of the cello!

In the music vein, Tim and I had the fun of spending an evening out at a jazz concert- one of my favorite memories of this season by far.

And speaking of my favorite artist, he entered a local ceramics show- a good experience and opportunity to be in the art world here in Bangkok. These great friends came to support him.

This is the closest we got to snow, but we did get some pleasant weather this Christmastime- when it dips below the low 80's around here, everyone pulls out their jackets!

We celebrated Christmas in community- here with friends at Grace City's Christmas party, and with a house full of friends and neighbors on Christmas afternoon.

But Christmas morning was just our little family, with the addition of one sweet little dog, who deserves her own post and will get her moment in the sun at some point. Lily has made our home warmer (and much more hairy)...

'twas a puppet sort of Christmas

Just a little flyover- every year I think we had the sweetest Christmas. We are savoring these golden years.