Tony and I celebrated Christmas Eve here in Krabi, Thailand. It’s stunning – towering karst formations, powdery sand, long-tailed boats, mouth-watering food and more. We’re scheduled to go scuba diving on Saturday, and we hope to try our hand at rock climbing while we’re here.

After checking into our hotel this afternoon, we were told, “We make some Christmas barbecue!” They don’t celebrate the holiday here, but they know it’s an important day for many of their guests. Our hotel set up elegant tables around the pool and grilled seafood kebabs, tiger prawns, steak, pork and chicken, as well as corn on the cob and potatoes. A little salad, a little soup, a couple glasses of sparkling wine, a lot of BBQ, and then we ladeled some Thai dessert into a bowl. Fried bananas in a coconut milk “broth.” Mmmm.

The photo’s a bit blurry, but the buffet was sweet!

It doesn’t feel very Christmas-y, though. In fact, when the owner of a scuba diving shop told me she was opening late tomorrow, I had to ask why. As we walked from our hotel to the beach, we sang along to the holiday tunes jingling from souvenir shops, massage spas and restaurants (except the Lady Boy Show theatre, which was blaring “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor).

When I Skyped with my family back in the U.S., my nephew, Nico, sang “Jingle Bells.” I could hear the chaos in the background. My heart ached to be with them … just not enough to fly for two days back to the States, where we would likely would have gotten trapped in some airport till the snowstorm passed and wasted half our vacation trying to overcome jetlag.

So I hope Santa knows where we are!

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