Dec. 23, Bangkok, Thailand

Everyone arrived for Christmas - though John (Liz's brother) and his girlfriend Mary had a stressful flight. Everything seemed fine leaving LA and fortunately they hadn't yet popped their sleeping pills as the airplane hit a metal cart and damaged the engine backing out. John said they couldn't even feel it. So they ended up unloading everyone and urging the 500 passengers to the Hilton to wait as they fixed the plane. Instead, John and Mary and a few hundred others stormed the Air China counter demanding to be re-routed. They were scheduled to fly to Taipei and then onto BKK arriving at 1 AM on Dec. 22. Instead, they ended up leaving LA about 12 hours later - on pins and needles waiting the whole 12 hours as only 14 people made it onto a later flight (their initial plane was still not repaired) and arrived in BKK around 1 PM on Dec. 22. Their bags didn't make it - and hopefully will be at our hotel when we get back today.

Dec. 22nd was Liz's parents 39th anniversary. Liz's Dad - Richard - treated all 6 of us to a massage and then Liz and John treated for an Anniversary dinner at a outside restaurant with live music. Today Mary and John lounged at the very nice Marriott Spa and Resort pool, while Ann, Richard, Liz and Jeff explored the weekend market - complete with puppies, clothes, food, and handicrafts. Liz and Jeff bought another large wooden item to haul back to the US - a 3-piece buddha wall hanging. This afternoon all 6 of us went to Wat Pho temple to see the large reclining buddha and get a massage at their massage school.

Tomorrow we plan to go to a Catholic mass at 10 AM followed by another trip to the weekend market. It's great having family here for the holidays and unfortunately we know the time will fly by too fast. I'm not sure if we'll update the blog again until afterward when Liz, Jeff, and Richard head north to Chiang Mai.

Much love, Liz and Jeff

PS - We almost forgot - Liz and Jeff bought their wedding rings at Venus Jewelry (Liz's Dad's connection) on Dec. 21st. Tuesday we'll go to see Jeff's ring to make sure it's how he wants it before they set in the blue star sapphire and Liz's ring will be ready in January when we get back from Laos.