We are happy to report that, indeed, Santa does fly all over the world. We had a lovely Christmas morning. That tired, after the opening rush, new toys laying all around feeling that coffee does not help with at all was familiar and exactly the same. Games, jump ropes, tea sets, a new Barbie, puzzles, and new beauty kits dominated the day. That evening the girls presented their version of the Nutcracker for us. Christmas Eve, we went to colleagues' house, Joe and Theresa. (They have an adorable nine month old named Nikko.) Their 13th floor apartment has a fantastic view of Phu My Hung and Saigon. It was fun to have dinner and XMAS cookies with others. It was at this time that I missed my family the most. In fact, there have been a couple of moments that were hard in my first Christmas away from my parents in 40 years. Over all, though, we had a good Christmas.
We had a chance to Skype with family a couple of times, which was great. For a few minutes I felt like we were with them.
Sophie models her new birthday cake hat, traditional Vietnamese Ao Dai (prounounced ao-zy), and not quite ready for Vogue makeover from her sister's new beauty kit.
Maeve and Sophie in their new traditional Vietnamese outfits.
A couple of days after Christmas we ventured downtown to see the water puppets at the History Museum. Very fun! Water puppetry is uniquely Vietnamese I understand. It has this interesting feeling, kind of like the feeling you get when you see a snake in water. The themes are traditional Vietnamese stories (fishing, the golden turtle, for example. Charles said he would be sure to get me a fishing outfit like the one the puppet in the picture is wearing next Christmas...) One of the highlights was the dragon who came out at the beginning breathing fire and spit water at the audience. (I got a little wet. Charles is convinced the puppeteers were having a bit of fun with me.) When Maeve told my family on Skype about the water puppets, someone asked "Did you get wet?" She said "Yes. And a kindly lady brought Sophie and I paper towels to wipe off."
When we arrived to see the puppet show, they said there was no room and to come back at 2:00. We have learned that tenacity and sometimes playing the naive American role can work to your advantage in Vietnam. In the end, they put a few plastic chairs in the front for us.
Our fellow audience at the water puppets.
Sophie launched a personal campaign against the ants in our apartment. (Everyone has them, and there seem few ways to get rid of them - one of the little pain in the behinds about Vietnamese life. They are annoying at the least.) In any case, she cut and made flags with sticks to put into each plant on our small patio, and in Charles' new kumquat tree. "Ants please love us and don't eat our plants." is what they say.
After a long wiggly-wobbly time, Maeve finally lost her first tooth. The tooth fairy left dong and dollars! Very exciting. She even put the money in a beautiful, small, pink embroidered bag. Cool, Vietnamese tooth fairy!
Maeve used her Dong to go to the new kids play place at the Lotte Mart. We had a wonderful morning hiding in the ball pit that has ball load and shoot cannons, sliding down the giant roller slide, and playing with the unique games there. It will be a great place to go from time to time to play, exercise, and have fun.
Things are gearing up here for the biggest Vietnamese holiday, Tet, which comes up at the end of January.
We are gearing up for our big trip to the beach on Friday and are very excited. It had been raining a lot this week so we are hoping the dry season will return to us. The resort is a stay in a bungalow on the beach, all meals included, sleep in mosquito nets place. We're hoping for a week of sand castle building, reading, shell searching, and swimming. The pictures of Doc Let (pronounced yop-let) Beach are stunning. We will be sure to take a few ourselves to share.
Happy New Year to you and yours! We'll check in when we are back from our tropical paradise.
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