Trip to Samui

 Quick get away to the Island of Samui.

We stayed in a traditional house 

Christmas Lunch and Cookies

Prepping for the excitement

The final products

Fun...

...And games

The main event.

The peaceful calm, afterwards.

Cookie Recipes

The family secret is decorating with red hots, but we were always limited to 3 per cookie.

 

Cultural Weekend

 I teach at a Karen school, so I thought it would be good to take a cultural tour, to learn more about this Northern Hilltribe. The marked photos (Three at the end of this blog post) were taken by Khun Samart, the proprietor of Spicy Villa.

The main event was a weaving class.  K. Nan and I worked to make this cute little purse.

We didn't stay with a local family but at Spicy Villa.  The food was great and they always made more than enough.  They did a great job incorporating vegetables and fruit into our meals, which is always a concern of mine, as Thai food doesn't have lots of veggies.

My room complete with mosquito net.

We also took a cooking class

The next two pics were taken by my friend, not me.

My friend taught us a highly addictive strategy game called Splendor.

We hiked to this lovely waterfall.  The idea is that you can go swimming, but it was a little too cool for that.

During our hike, we had to step aside to let some cows pass.  Probably the same ones in a pic further below.

Here is an authentic local house, to compare the rest of the pictures to.  Wouldn't you love to have that view!

Here's our accommodations.

They have an organic farm that is part of the Royal Project, which is a huge agricultural project started by the late king.

water buffalo

Cooking

Weaving

Thanksgiving

 If you have been following my blog, then you know it is my tradition to make a thankfulness tree.  We write what we are thankful for on leaves and stick them on the tree.  Next year, I will edit them, before they are added to the tree.  Who knows what the other teachers will think, when they see some of the errors. ;)

We ate ice cream, pumpkin pie, deviled eggs, and sausage balls.  The favorite was the sausage balls.

We hung up some traditional decorations.

We also made the ice cream in class.  Here they are, hard at work, measuring out the ingredients.