A very Clara Christmas

This year marks my second Christmas in Asia. Last year I had a very Japanese Chrisamasu, KFC and creamy Christmas cake and all. This year of course, I am in Bangkok. I was pretty bummed because we didn't have a tree (I have the most beautiful glass decorations at home) but I was cheered up immensely by helping my American friends decorate theirs. We did that a few weeks ago aided by some of my cinnamon hot chocolate. And the polar bear hats of course!!!!

Then on Christmas eve we had a little "family" get together at Kim, Nick and Morgans. Kim made some delicious chicken and broccoli pasta, some salad and provided the wine. I made some gingerbread men!




We decided to do a little secret Santa instead of individual presents for everyone. Marisa was my Santa!



She got me a super cute tea set and some patches! Loved them!




It was a really fun night! We drank wine, played charades (we finally kicked the boys butts!), talked to Kim's parents on skype, played dress ups with Morgan and Marisa's ridiculous Santa and Mrs Claus costumes and had cushion races down the hallway!


Thai style posing.




the bearded lady


We call him Sven.

Mr A and I slept in (with the exception of my sister calling at 6 am - urrrggghh) and got up around 10.30 for presents. He got me this adorable strawberry shaped pot with matching bowls and a cookie cook book! Some of my presents still haven't arrived from the Internet so I get double presents! Yay!!



I got Mr A a bunch of retro tin toys he'd been eyeing off for a while.



We then indulged in some deliciousness in the form of Crepes and Co and their delicious cheese fondue crepe and Moroccan mint tea. MMMmm. We got home to the lovely present of almost having our power shut off due to Mr A's inept receptionist and spent 2 hours wrestling with them over the phone. We managed to get them to hold off on cutting the power ill the next day. PHEW!

In the evening we caught up with Ms Morgan for some Japanese buffet and ice skating. I put on my more festive, chrissmassy outfit! The buffet at Shabu Shi was delicious. It's always good! A little odd for Christmas though!





After stuffing ourselves silly with sushi we went to the top floor to go ice skating. To our horror, some Scrooge had hired the whole venue out on Christmas. This photo best expresses my disappointment.



So we decided to go bowling instead. It was really fun! I am the worlds worst bowler!! We were in the Christmas bowling spirit!





Bowling butt shots!!!







Craziness!!!




We played 2 games and after scoring a miserable 57 in the first game, I won the next one with 109!



I can do it!!!!

I had an excellent Christmas. Different but excellent. I will confess, I am looking forward to finally having one at home next year. My own tree, my lovely cat and family. Yay!

Have a great New Years everyone!!

Not So Turkey Day!

So you have heard about a million times already about my lovely American friends over here who keep me sane. It great having them, not only for friendship but experiencing new and exciting things! Case and point: Thanksgiving! I was so excited! I always liked the look of American holiday food (my family don't really celebrate anything much) so was really excited to see what everyone would bring! Of course I forgot to take photos as per usual so I pinched these from Morgana!


My chickens! Turkey was way too expensive so I vetoed it. This is my favourite recipe, although you don't want to make it too often. You stuff the breast with herb butter so it's super fatty but I figured it was a special occasion.




Kitchen bitches Morgan and Kim, complete with adorable aprons!



The FEAST! Well, actually about half of it. The dessert is on another table.

Here's what we had:

Herb roast chicken (me)
Apple cider glazed pork roast (me)
Gravy (me - best gravy I have ever made)
Roast garlic (me)
Goats cheese and pear salad (Kim)
Cranberry and apple stuffing (Kim -
it was so good!)
Jalapenos mashed potatoes (Nick - super delicious!)
Sweet potato casserole (Morgan - it's some crazy arse southern dish but OMG it's good!)
Jalapeno Corn bread (Morgan)
Rolls (me! That's right, I made bread!)
Marisa was supposed to bring veggies but she turned up after everything was cooked. But she also had the ice cream for dessert which consisted of:

Apple crumble pie (me)
Sticky rice (Dwight)
Fruit salad (Cayla)
Cinnamon cupcakes with cranberry glaze and cream cheese icing (me)
Rum ball and cookies (Natsuko)

We were crazy stuffed full afterwards. I was a great night. Two people turned up without food which was kinda annoying because everyone had put so much effort in and they just mooched. Especially when one of them bragged about going to three thanksgivings! Grrrrr! But what can you do. We ended the night watching hilarious Japanese game show clips on youtube. Naturally!

Swimming in the Rain

My lovely American teacher buddies came over for a swim in our lovely roof top pool. Sadly, the Bangkok weather had other ideas for us and issued a down pour of biblical proportions. Lightning and thunder too! It's the wet season here so the weather can be pretty unpredictable. As I am typing the clouds are gathering and I can hear thunder in the distance.

So after about 2 hours of sitting inside (and several G & Ts) we decided to hoof it up to the roof, with our drinks, in our togs and go for a dip. Even when it rains here it isn't cold so that wasn't a problem. The temperature was peeeerrrrfect. We took Mr A's Olympus camera up with us, which is actually waterproof, and of course that resulted in some ridiculous photos. It was crazy fun! Here are just a few of them. (Kim sadly didn't go in the water - she was scared of the lightning.)

Marisa, Morgan and Me in the rain!!

Kisses!!!!

Mr A and Nick - drinking and linking buddies!
My attempt at being "fierce". Mr A ruined it! Tyra would totally call me out for my left foot not being pointed anyway (I have developed a HUGE obsession with America's Next Top Model)

Gosh he can be a worry sometimes.


YEAH!!!!!

Circle of friends. Mr's A eyes freak me out in this picture!

Fun times were had by all. It was still raining when we left the pool. Once we dried off we had more drinks and played the champion drinking game of "Guess that Cover!" It was pretty hilarious. These guys are the best and worst thing about living overseas. They are wonderful because they are so so fun and great to go out with but I'll miss them like crazy when I leave!! I will be super sad!