For Christmas Eve, I stuffed a chicken with apples and onions for just the two of us. We attended Christmas Eve mass at St. Nikolaus Church in Pattaya, Thailand. The church was lit up like the Strip in Las Vegas, and even Santa Claus had a spot on the altar. The usual talented musicians must have been on holiday, because we were led by two very young boys on guitar and piano - sometimes playing the in the same key, sometimes not. It was sweet. The children from the Father Ray Orphanage sang some Christmas carols at the end of mass. Their leader said they would sing fewer songs this year in respect for the passing of the king. Still, the songs they did sing were pretty upbeat.
Had a quiet Christmas with our tiny tree. Our driver and his wife brought us our now-annual gift of Essence of Chicken, a symbol of wishing good health in the coming year. We spoke to our boys, always the best part of any celebration.
Santa brought us a Cribbage board we'd been looking for for a while
We made reservations for the Christmas buffet at the Hard Rock hotel here in Pattaya. The food was great, with lots of dishes to satisfy our western tastes. The crowd was predominantly older white males with their young Thai ladies. The staff wore an interesting mix of Christmas and Easter headwear...
New Year's Eve was quiet this year - no fireworks in deference to the king's passing. We managed to stay awake until midnight, and could hear the countdown from a party at the hotel next door as we toasted the new year on the balcony. The first day of 2017 was pretty tough, as you can see in the picture below.
Lovely day down by the water
After the first of the year, we got together with our friends from Tea Village. We met them at the shop, where they so generously shared some tea with us, as always. Then they took us to Caravan, a central Asian restaurant not far from their shop, which specializes in Russian and Uzbek cuisine. This was a first for Tim and I, but our friend suggested some very tasty dishes. We especially enjoyed the borscht, having never tried it before. The service was a bit spotty, and the staff spoke only to our Russian friend, not acknowledging us at all. Perhaps we have become a bit spoiled by the usual warm welcome of Thai servers. I understand that smiling does not come so naturally to some other communities. Anyway, we enjoyed the evening, sadly saying good-bye to our friend who would be returning to Russia at the end of the month.
Borscht
Our Tea Village friends gave us a lovely gift of a tea set and some teas. One was labeled "Blooming Art Tea." When I opened the package, I saw there were several individually-wrapped balls inside. I put one in the teapot, and added water, and this happened:
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