It was so great to get back to our little house in Royal Home Village. We had one full day to de stress, relax and recover from the journey back from Malaysia then Tehya started school on the 23rd December. They celebrate Christmas in Hua Hin but not in the same way we do in the UK and the school was due to be open on the 25th December. We had decided to let Tehya go to school for two mornings on the 23rd and 24th as that would give Gav and I time to do the Christmas food/drink shopping and finishing the last bit of present shopping too.

It was wonderful – Tehya loved school immediately and we had time after school each day to let her decorate the tree and the house. On Christmas eve we surprised her with tiny miniature tree for her bedroom and over all the excitement in the house was much the same as it would have been if we were in England.

We were invited out on Christmas eve by a friend of Jon’s – he was having a Swedish Christmas meal at a restaurant in town. So Tehya and I joined in and ate some tasty Salmon and potatoes – while Jon and Gavin got to dine on meat balls and salted fish…….yummy!! We sat in the restaurant garden and drank wine relaxing in the warm Thai evening……we certainly would not have been doing that in Cornwall.

We got home at about 10.00pm to deposit an exhausted and very over excited Tehya into bed (after leaving carrots and sausage rolls out for Father Christmas and Rudolf). We sat up late into the night with Jon – drinking Port and beer and generally getting pretty drunk……..

Christmas day dawned with clear blue skies and very warm…. Tehya woke at about 7.00am a very respectable time!! We arose with hangovers to start the day with egg and toast for breakfast and present opening. Tehya was delighted with all her gifts and to make the day extra special she received two small parcels from her two aunties in Australia Becca and Oonagh. The rest of the morning was spent riding up and down the street with Jon on the new bike her Big Nana and Big Grandad bought for her – it was definitely her favourite present…. it plays a tune and has a squeaky rabbit on the front to the dismay of all our neighbours!! The rest of the day was spent relaxing and drinking the odd glass of wine……. Jon popping in and out at various points of the day, preparing food for the evenings BBQ, playing with Tehya and her new toys, a cat nap or two and chatting with family and friends on the computer.

The evenings BBQ was a great success we had  huge fresh prawns, trout, sirloin stakes, home made garlic bread and crackers with blue cheeses and olives and salad. We drank red wine, beer and port with the cheese….. all in all it felt pretty traditional or at least as traditional as you can make it with no oven and a BBQ as your only way of cooking……. We fell into bed that evening exhausted and happy.