DREAM WORLD, DECEMBER 24, 2010

We went to Dream World to celebrate Haley's birthday. She brought her friend, Midori, with. We picked Midori up the night before. She lives downtown Bangkok at the Emporium, which is a nice mall with hotel/permanent living attached to it. What a lucky girl to literally live at the mall. We got stuck in bad traffic jam on the way home, so next time we visit Midori we're going to try taking the BTS skytrain. The skytrain gets right off at the Emporium, so easy access. We'll drive our car to to the closest skytrain point to our house and park the car and hop on the skytrain. This is a great way of getting around Bangkok and avoiding the traffic jams, which are bad and sure to get stuck in everytime. On the way home from picking up Midori (Dec. 23 Haley's birthday), we stopped and Haley picked out a watch for her birthday and picked out an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. Yay, we're excited we just got a Dairy Queen, only ice cream though. I can get my carmel lattes again. After Dream World (Dec. 24) we came home and opened presents. Of course, once again, stuck in a traffic jam and didn't move for about 15 minutes. Bangkok really tests your driving patience. To drive a few miles takes a long time sometimes, especially on weekends or when the rain is heavy. No road rage here though. The Thais stay calm waiting in traffic and waiting in long lines anywhere else. The Thais sure know how to maintain the "mai pen rai" attitude (chill out, take it easy, cool heart).

We got to go sledding on a hill at Dream World indoors. -1.5 celcius, which is about 28 fahrenheit. It felt good at first after being in the heat, but I wanted out soon. The kids loved this. Sledding in shorts with rain boots and a long-sleeved kind-of winter coat on!!

We missed our family and friends on Christmas and so strange to have warm/hot weather and no snow. It just wasn't the same, but we made the best of it and had a nice Christmas. Santa even came to Thailand and left the kids presents. Corbin didn't think santa would come to Thailand. We ate steaks on the grill imported from USA ($23 per pound). They sure tasted delicious (a roy).

We wish you a Happy New Year!