Christmas Eve Parties at School

Friday, 24 December 2004

A man delivered a big red cooler full of ice cream, along with about 100 ice cream cones (compliments of Phu's family), while other students' families brought an assortment of food from tom yum soup to pork balls to chicken skewers to lamb to Kentucky Fried Chicken and french fries. Not suprisingly, with all the variety of delicious Thai food, for eight children, most were only interested in eating the Kentucky Fried Chicken and french fries. I roamed the classrooms all day, taking a peek at all the variety of potluck foods, and ate a bit at each classroom I stopped at. Seafood, mussels, clams, squid, prawns, chicken, pork, and out front, the 4th, 5th, and 6th grade classes were having a sit-down 8 course meal. After already eating about two times already, I sat down with the teachers to eat the familiar set eight course dinners I have had at Christmas parties over the past week. All day long, they played English Christmas songs over the loud speaker, we served ice cream cones to many students and teachers, and our kids watched "The Incredibles". We did some art projects with Christmas stickers I gave them, and we did a gift exchange game (each child brought a gift that was 50 baht, about $1.25). In the afternoon, the older kids played relay races with water balloons and musical chairs. Our kids lasted about 10 minutes with the middle school and high school students, after sitting in the hot sun and their water balloon popping during their race, which ended in Prael with tears and sulking in the corner for an hour. After that, all the kids wanted to do was watch "The Incredibles" a second time. So, to the office with air-condition and easy entertainment. Miss Jill came to visit and gave the kids funky glittery top hats and post-it notes as gifts. They were very excited. Christmas caroling with the teachers tonight, more eating, and then sleeping over at Ajarn Linda's house to wake up Christmas morning and see if there's anything waiting in my stocking. Think I'll bring my gifts over to open them up there. Merry Christmas to all!