merry {thai} christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!!

Gosh. I can not believe that it is already Christmas. For me, Christmas signifies the end of the year. It is kind of (in a way) a reward for getting through another long year.

For me, this year’s Christmas has been a completely different experience than others. I am currently in Thailand and having Christmas 13 hours earlier than everyone I know back at home.

Usually, Christmas consists of my mother cooking up a storm in my kitchen while I assist and patiently wait for my grandma, grandpa, two uncles and aunt (on my mom’s side) to come over. Once they are at my house and dinner is served, I impatiently wait for everyone to finish so I can open my presents.

You see… I am a biiiig receiving gifts girl (If you don’t know what I am talking about look up the 5 love languages.) Gifts are something that I have loved my entire life. I always feel a bit selfish saying that but the thought behind the gift is just as, if not more, important than the gift itself. Normally every Christmas everyone buys gifts for each other and we have a big unwrapping with the family.

This year was completely different.

This year my uncle and new (yay!!!) aunt hosted dinner in Thailand. They made tostadas and Thai food and we got to spend Christmas with my aunt’s family. After dinner, we then taught my aunt’s family how to play a white elephant and replaced our extravagant gift unwrapping with a small game of white elephant.

If I am honest… it was hard for me not to get a ton of gifts this year.

And if I am even more honest… opening gifts is my favorite part about Christmas.

As I sit here writing this post, I realize that I am so thankful that we did not open all the gifts and fancy stuff because it forced me to focus on the part of Christmas that is steadfast and true:

Jesus

It is soooo easy for me to get wrapped up in all the glitz and glam (and mainly gifts) of Christmas. I am thankful that this year… in Thailand of all places… I was able to center my Christmas on the most important gift that I have ever received: the birth and coming of Jesus Christ.

Thailand is amazing and has truly allowed me to see how crazy thankful I am to have such a devoted, crazy and loving family.

I will write a long and more focused post about Thailand later but man… what an experience it has been to spend Christmas over here with my family.

With that said, whatever your family looks like, I pray that your Christmas is blessed.

This Christmas, I got to share what the holiday means for me and my family with my aunt’s Thai family. I thought I would share it with you to close this post.

I love you all so much… and Jesus does too.