Loy Krathong once again

It's hard to believe that this is our last Loy Krathong holiday (the Thai festival of lights) in Thailand. It's one of our favorites because it is so beautiful - everyone makes little floating boats (called krathongs) out of banana leaves and flowers, sticks candle and incense on them, lights them, and then puts them on the water. Also, in some places, paper lanterns are lit and released into the sky. Today (Saturday) is the actual Loy Krathong holiday, but yesterday Max celebrated it at his school. I have some pictures of that here. The weather here in Bangkok now is beautiful - in the eighties during the day and down to the seventies at night. The air is also dry - very low humidity. This is the best time to visit Thailand - the "cool" season.

We are all doing well and have done a lot since I last wrote in August. As you can imagine, with three kids I don't get as much opportunity to write our blog as I would like. Since August, we have had two lovely holidays in Hua Hin (a Thai beach resort on the Gulf of Thailand that is a 3 hour drive from Bangkok) and Jim has traveled to Hanoi and Manila. He's currently in Islamabad for a few days. Jim loved Hanoi and said I must get there before we leave Thailand so I'm hoping to go in April or May. Currently, we're planning to return to the U.S. in July 2008. As for upcoming trips, we'll be in the DC area from December 16th to January 1st. Our friends Tim, Karen and their daughters Rebecca and Meg who all live in Melbourne, Australia are coming to visit us in January, so we're very excited about that. And Jim's brother, Jesse, is our first return visitor - he arrives in February and he and Jim are going to go see Angkor Wat in Cambodia (another place I hope to visit before we leave). For those of our friends/family who want to come to Thailand to see us - this is your last chance!

Max is having a fabulous time in Year 1 (U.S. equivalent of kindergarten) and is learning to read and write as well as addition. On Thursday, he spoke to several of the Year 1 classes about Thanksgiving. He's also doing gymnastics, soccer and swimming. Levi and Bram are 4 1/2 months now and are getting so big. They are laughing, smiling, babbling, imitating, lifting themselves up on their bellies, and getting close to rolling over. However, they are still not consistently sleeping through the night, which has been hard on us, though usually they can get through with only one waking. Max is really enjoying his brothers and his adjustment period appears to be over - he's now in the full swing of siblinghood. Levi and Bram adore Max and are in rapture whenever he sings to them.

So that's all for now! Enjoy the photos. I probably won't post again until after our DC trip. For those of you who will be there then, we look forward to seeing you soon!

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