Christmas Day

I know it is not yet December 25th, but here in Thailand, Christmas is whenever we say it is and just like in America, you celebrate Christmas whenever you can get together with your family. Today, just happened to be the day all of my Thailand family decided to call Christmas and celebrate with parties. From 8am this morning until...now it's 11:30pm, I have been from one party to another.

I started out the morning meeting P Dang and the Kayes. We carpooled to Bang Na for the Concordia Daycare Christmas celebration. Sarah, and the teachers at the daycare have been planning this and practicing with the kids for at least 2 months already. When we got there the house was packed for this big event. One of the dad's who is an artist came in and draped the tent really nice with Christmas colors and decorations so everything was complete green and red. The kids performed several Christmas songs and dances in both Thai and English. In between performances volunteers and staff were introduced.

The big event was the children's performance of the Christmas nativity. Almost all of the kids performed in the show. Behind stage, it seemed like utter chaos, but it went off without a hitch! The final surprise came when the big man in red showed up to give the kids their presents which were all donated by one of the volunteers Rochelle Allan. Everyone was sad that she couldn't come because she passed away two weeks ago. The children adored her and apparently they had the same effect on her. Her husband came instead and helped pass out gifts to the kids. It was nice that he came. I'm sure Rochelle would have been happy, but the whole time I just wanted to hug him because I knew the whole time he was there it was very hard for him.

After gifts it was time to eat, and eat we did. I was starving, but didn't pay attention to pace myself for the afternoon's activities. A bunch of us said our goodbyes and loaded up into Dang's car to head to the other side of town. We had an hour to burn, so Sarah, Pastor Carl and I went to Villa for groceries, and then took a brief break at Starbucks!!! After we refueled there we headed to Concordia Daycare in Prachachuen where Goi is the director. They had so many wonderful events planned, that everyone had just a wonderful time. We got to make cute Christmas tree ornaments and also play games. In fact our corner which consisted of Pastor Carl, Sarah, Seth and I agreed that we had the best time playing Bingo together. We all raced to see who could fill their card first. In between crafts and games I sat out on the lawn with Pastor Carl and Pastor Sompong who were sharing jokes back and forth. I joked that I sleep through Pastor Carl's sermon, which he mock scolded me and I told him not to worry because I sleep through Pastor Sompong's sermons too. This led off to him telling a joke that stuck with us the rest of the evening. It goes like this:

A bus driver who is a Christian dies and goes to heaven. Not long after that a pastor also dies and goes to heaven. When he gets there he sees that there are different levels to heaven and so he looks up and notices that the bus driver is all the way up on the top level which is really nice and has a great view. He looks around where he is and thinks to himself that it's really not that nice and kind of dingy, so he complains to God about it. He says that he doesn't understand why he is down on this low level and why the bus driver is so high because he was a shepherd for God's people, taught the faith and preached the Word and served God always, but the bus driver; all he did was drive a bus every day. God's reply is this, "when you were working preaching everyone slept through your sermons every Sunday, but whenever the bus driver was working, every person on the bus was praying the whole time!" LOL

Okay, so everyone came from church to sing Christmas carols. When they were done, Sarah, Pastor Carl, and I hitched a ride with Pastor Sompong. We did not have problems getting to our next destination because it was his house. We sang and then were invited inside to eat som-tom, wings, and sticky rice. After that I was full but we still had more stops to go! We sat around for awhile and then loaded up for our next destination. Well on the way we got a little lost so we teased Pastor Sompong that we were praying the whole time to get to Dennis and Boom's house, but not to worry because we were setting him up for a better position in heaven! We finally made it and after songs were graciously welcomed by our kind hosts. It was neat seeing Boom's collection of manger scenes sprinkled all over her house. I assured them that even though we were full from Pastor Sompong's we would help eat their food. I am satisfied to say I was able to fulfill the American custom of overeating on the holidays this year. Robin, my dear friend, was wound up, and circled a rumour that they spiked the punch, which in turn gave everyone else an excuse to be wound up too! She even taught Pastor Sompong (skinniest man alive, even skinnier than Jeff Leininger) how to be the Pillsbury dough boy! Yep, I know, exactly! Hi-larious! Man our group was just a riot! I absolutely loved it. The fun didn't stop there either. They decide that the next place we were going to was Joe and Ar's house. We got lost againish on the way over there, and our carpool prayed...again! LOL! Ahhh, Joe and Ar had the desert table and I sprawled on the couch holding my stomach from all the food while everyone bantered back and forth. We didn't stay too long as everyone agreed we still had a long night ahead of us before yet another party tomorrow. That will be Christmas Day #2. More on that tomorrow. Also, my camera died after the Bang Na daycare so when get pictures from my friends of the other venues I will put them up along with these from the daycare!