This and that.

When we left the last airplane, we were greeted by a group of Thai airport workers, ready to scrub it down. (We're always the last to leave the plane.) YaYa and I turned to each other, eyes wide with surprise. We forgot that everyone would be Thai. We forgot we were arriving somewhere familiar.

That day was hard, about as hard as I expected. We woke at 3:00 in the morning in Goa and spent the whole day traveling, finally arriving in Bangkok at midnight. It was the kind of itinerary that I look at and shudder. We made it with a lot of goodwill, love , cheeriness, and our senses of humor (including a wee bit of sarcasm). This is the blend that every traveling family needs, an aromatherapy of the will.

I'm thankful to be back in Pai, back in our house, which we've been cleaning and unpacking in.

I'm daunted by preparing for a Christmas without our community.

I'm happy to not be traveling anymore in this pregnancy (other than the three hour trip to Chiang Mai and back, not sure how many times, as I prepare to have my baby there).

I'm happy that the sky is so blue here. Cold sometimes, with cold feet and a cold nose, as the temperature drops to 10 degrees. (Though last night and tonight have been warmer.) Ten degrees is not that cold unless you have no heat and no water heater in the kitchen when you're washing dishes. Thankfully it warms up amazingly in the daytime. I like cool weather.

And I'm so very excited that my parents are coming in the fourth week of January. We have so many good things to look forward to in the months ahead.