Christmas in Vietnam!

Me as Santa!

sooooo many kids

Hanging out gifts

The beard was very itchy

Me and the staff

Me and Andrew

1 straw for each drink, yowza

Crazy Europeans in Vietnam

sooooo much traffic Christmas Eve

Celebrating Christmas

Christmas dinner!

Celebrating Christmas in Vietnam is quite different from back home.  On the 23rd I got to dress up and play Santa for a lot of the kids at the language center where I work, which was a lot of fun but very exhausting.  I was able to teach the kids a few things about Christmas and hand out candy and presents which they loved.  I had to wear a pillow to fill out the costume lol.  On Christmas Eve, my friend Andrew and I watched Scrooged which is a holiday tradition in my family and one I was glad to have been able to keep doing even though I am away.  Then we went out to our local bar where a lot of people were dressed up and Christmas music was playing and everyone was having a good time.  Today is Christmas and this morning I woke up and skyped my family so it was Christmas Eve for them.  I got to talk to everyone and wish them a merry christmas and hear about their night and what 1 gift they got to open.  Then I skyped with Nary and she opened the gifts she got for me so I could experience some holiday cheer.  She got me a sweater, a polo, a VT ACC champs shirt, a few books, and a homemade redskins blanket and it was all GREAT!  She opened my gift for her which is actually a trip to Blacksburg in February so I can show her where I went to college and my favorite places as well as tickets to the VT/Duke basketball game (because Duke is her favorite team).  Then I watched Caddyshack with Andrew which is a holiday tradition for him and his family.  Then I had Christmas dinner at Texas Bar BQ, which is run by an actual Texan and the memphis sandwich was very good.  Overall, being away from the family was hard, but Christmas in Vietnam has been fun.