Thankful for Thanksgiving and Friends

For Thanksgiving this year, we had an open invitation Thanksgiving for anyone and everyone that didn't have a place to go or family to celebrate with. Kevin and I kept going back and forth on what to do for Thanksgiving.  He invited a few people from work that are unaccompanied and I wanted to invite a few close friends.  We compromised by deciding to open it up to everyone, accompanied and unaccompanied.  Everyone we came across, we asked if they had Thanksgiving plans, and if they said no, then we invited them to our dinner.   

A small miracle happened with the location, it was actually really neat.  Kevin went to the Mustang Center a week before Thanksgiving to see if we can reserve the Mustang Center Multipurpose room.  He walked in and asked if the room was available, he was told that he was about the 30th person to ask, but it was actually available because the Mustang Center personal thought the center was closed for the day, and just a few minutes before Kevin came in, they were informed by their boss that the building will be open and the room is available to reserve.  

We ended up having about 70 people for the Thanksgiving dinner.  We had over 20 unaccompanied, over 20 kids, and about 10 couples. There were about 5 main families that came and each brought a full Thanksgiving dinner with them.  We were originally so worried about not having enough food, but there was such an outpouring of love and service from the families that there was plenty of food, and actually enough food to send plates of leftovers with all the unaccompanied.  The food was absolutely delicious!  There were 6 fully cooked turkeys, mashed potatoes, corn, gravy, rolls, jello, salads, sweet potatoes and so much more. 

The kids had such an amazing time.  My really good friend and co-organizer, Corianne Schwartz set up some super cute crafts for the kids.  They took time at the beginning to make some centerpieces for the tables, it was a super cute pumpkin made out of toilet paper.  Corianne also provided a craft table with paper and crayons.  The kids also ran and played around the perimeter of the room while all the adults talked and ate. I think they all just loved spending time with their close friends.

After everyone had eaten firsts, seconds, and thirds, we brought out card games and board games and everyone played games, talked, visited and laughed.  There were so many groups of people playing games all around the room.  It seemed as if everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  We ended up staying so long, that the Mustang Center worker came in and said we had to start cleaning up.  Everyone helped to clean, and it was all taken down and clean in less then ten minutes. I am so grateful for amazing friends that made this a wonderful Thanksgiving as we were able to be together and serve those airmen and women who sacrifice so much to be here without their families.  It was a day that was filled with much love and service.

I know our kids are grateful for such good friends too.  We seriously have the best of friends here and our kids are best friends too.  I love being part of the military and moving and meeting the salt of the earth.  I am humbled to be among such amazing people. I am so thankful for being in South Korea this Thanksgiving.

Thailand: Doi Suthep

Hello, there, this is Big Sis and I am going to tell you all about our adventure to the top of a mountain to see the highest temple in Thailand. The drive to the top was very harsh and miserable for almost everybody. Dad, Mom, M&M, and Little A all got really car sick on the drive up. The road was really uneven, windy, and bumpy so they started to get really sick. Surprisingly, I didn't get really sick but wasn't feeling that bright either. After about 30 minutes of the miserable drive, we finally arrived at the top where cars had to stop. We took a lunch break to recover and get over the dizziness and then set off to see the temple. 

As we started to set off, we realized that there were two options  to get to the very top of the mountain which is where the temple was. There was the cable car and the stairs. Since Little A still wasn't fully recovered from the car ride, she, dad, and Monster took the cable car to the temple and mom, M&M, and me decided that we wanted to see the extra ancient structure on the way up, so we took the stairs. 

The stairs were just like Korea, uneven, slippery, and VERY steep, but that wasn't going to stop us from seeing the temple. On the way up there were giant gongs, huge gold buddha sculptures, and many other interesting monuments. 

My favorite structures were the seven-headed dragon and the giant gong. The stair railings were super long and very beautiful hand-carved seven-headed dragon sculptures. They were so colorful and they were at least 300 feet long. 

After taking the stairs for about 15 minutes, we made it to the top where dad, Little A, and Monster where waiting for us.  It was very crowded but was super cool. 

What was really interesting was that since we where so high up, we were technically in the clouds. It just so happened to be party cloudy that day, but for the temple grounds, it was very cloudy. 

We decided to walk into the actual temple.  We had to take our shoes off, and it was kind of gross because all the people walking around barefoot or in socks and the floor was wet-ish and sticky.  I felt like I was inside a snow globe. The temple grounds where huge and it was so golden. There were so many people though. They were everywhere.  Everything was covered in a gold color.  

There were golden buddha's everywhere too.  The spears of the pagoda were so tall.  It was so pretty and so neat to see this temple and to walk all around the entire thing.  I am glad we came and saw this.

Thailand: Handicraft Village in Chiang Mai

This is M&M here and I am going to tell you about the Handicraft Village in Chiang Mai. The first part of the Handicraft Village was the umbrella making place. 

We were able to see people that didn't even have shoes make absolutely beautiful umbrellas. We saw them make the skeleton. Then they put the top on. Next they made decorations inside the umbrella. Lastly they painted the top. 

They made such beautiful umbrellas and it was very cool watching them make them too. After the place where they made them, there was a store that sold them and we bought a few. Big Sis, Little A, Monster, and I picked out some small umbrellas that didn't have decorations on the inside for one American dollar. Mom and Dad picked out a big green umbrella with pretty zig zags and designs inside. It was a winner and we bought it. 

The next part of the Village was a poetry making place. We saw people make pretty poetry that was ridiculously expensive. So we didn't get anything there. There were signs everywhere that said no photographs were allowed, so we didn't get any pictures at the pottery place.

The second to last part of the village was a jewelry making store. All of the girls including me had a blast here. We saw people make all kinds of jewelry and other products. We were able to go into this HUGE room that had jewelry everywhere. Mom bought beautiful earrings and Mom and Dad bought me some pretty Elephant Earrings for my birthday.

The last place that we went to was the silk-making store. We enjoyed the silk making process so much because it was educational, something we haven't ever seen before and it created something gorgeous.

We saw a ton of silkworms.  They were all in different stages of the life cycle. To get the silk, they took the cocoons and boiled them in water.  As they stirred the water, a hand made machine would pull the silk out.  I wondered if they boiled the silkworms alive?  It kind of made me sad for them. We then saw people taking silk from silk worm cocoons and spinning them into thread.

Then we saw people weaving the tread into fabric and turning them into things like clothes, scarfs and shawls. It was a really cool village to see and truly one of the coolest places in Thailand that we saw.

Thailand: Temples around Old Chiang Mai

We wanted to take a day to see old town Chiang Mai, so we hired a driver and went all around Old Town and saw some of the temples. There are over 200 temples in Chiang Mai and the majority of them are in Old Town, so we had no chance of seeing all of them, plus the kids would have lost all interest and the appreciation of the culture and the beauty of the temples, so we decided to just stick to a few.  

Wat Sri Suphan (The Silver Temple):

The first temple we stopped at was Wat Sri Suphan, but it is most commonly known as the Silver Temple. This temple was amazing because it was completely covered in silver, from every statue to every intricate detail.  

Originally this temple was built in around 1500 and it was the main temple for a silversmith town. Everything in the temple inside and out is covered in silver, including the Buddha. Kevin was the only one that could go in this temple because there was a huge sign that stated women were not allowed to enter.

The detail on the temple was unbelievable.  Everything was hand made, with the detail unmatched.  There were plates with all the Chinese new year animals, there were also plates with main world wonders and landmarks.  

Wat Chaing Man:
We especially wanted to see two of the main important religious Chiang Mai temples: Wat Chedi Luang and Wat Chiang Man.  We first stopped at Wat Chiang Man. Wat Chaing Man is the oldest temple in Chiang Mai and inside the temple, it holds the oldest Buddha statue.

The oldest structure on the temple grounds is the Elephant Chedi.  There are 15 elephants which hold up the structure on their backs.  This was build about 1296, and it was amazing to see the elephant trunks and tusks still intact.  Since we just came from Cambodia and after seeing the elephants at the Elephant Terrace, I was expecting to see only partial elephants.  It was such a treat to see beautifully complete and intact elephants.

We had read that the oldest Buddha statue was held here at the temple, so we went in search to see it.  We entered the larger of the two religious buildings, know as viharns.  This building held a Buddha statue and two small ancient statues in closed cases.  One was stone and one was marble.  We weren't positive if these were the ancient Buddha's we were looking for, but we were pretty sure. 

Wat Chedi Luang (The Temple of the Great Stupa):
Our next temple stop was at Wat Chedi Luang, which is also called "The temple of the Great Stupa".  Wat Chedi Luang's Chedi is the main attraction at this site.  It was built about 1400 and it was once where Thailand's most sacred relics, the Emerald Buddha, was held.

We learned that in 1545 an earthquake broke off the top half of the chedi.  Some of the building was restored in the 1990's, but they left the top as the earthquake left it.  The naga, staircase and the elephants are all restored.

There are many structures around Wat Chedi Luang, and to be completely honest, other then the iconic chedi, we had no clue what the other buildings were.  There was another buddhist temple with a big sign that did not allow women to enter the building.  Kevin got a big kick out of those signs, and would mumble under his breath about how ridiculous it was.

Here are some more unknown structures (to us) on the temple grounds.  One held a huge lying Buddha, another was hand carved all out of wood and the other was a large pagoda.  The girls always loved seeing the pagodas, and this was tipped in gold.

Wat Kuankama:
Wat Kuankama is located right by Chedi Luang and is a super cool teak-style temple.  The woodwork on the temple was pretty cool. What caught our attention, was the large gold pagoda.  We could see the pagoda all the way from the Chedi Luang.

Kun Kha Ma (The Horse Temple):
The next two temples we stopped at only because of their names: The Horse Temple and the Dragon Temple.  Since my girls absolutely love horses they all voted to see this one.  They also thought a dragon temple would be super neat.  I think they had imagined something completely different in their minds, because when we were at the temples they kept looking around disappointed.  The horse Temple is actually called Wat Kun Kha Ma.  Other then a few golden horses on the gate, there wasn't any other horses around.

Wat Rajamontean (Dragon Temple):
The Dragon Temple is better known as Wat Rajamontean. There were two crossed eye dragons at the gate of the temple, but that was all there was dragon-wise.  I think the girls and I had it in our minds that there would be dragons all around and in the temple.

Wat Lok Moli:
The last temple we saw was Wat Lok Moli.  We could see a super neat ancient looking Chedi across the river on the outskirts of Old Chiang Mai.  There was a bridge that went over the river, so we kept walking past the Dragon Temple and over the bridge.  Little Monster had fallen asleep in the car, so Kevin stayed with him and the driver while the girls and I saw the Horse and Dragon Temple and then continued on to this one.

The viharn looked much newer then the chedi.  It was easy to see that the actual viharn had been restored or built new, and the chedi was more original.  We found out that the viharn was in fact new and built in 2003, whereas the chedi was built in the 14th century. We were lucky to come at a time when lanterns were strung all around the square in front of the chedi.  It was beautiful with all the new colored lanterns and the old ancient structure in contrast.