Caroling!

The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear.

Buddy the Elf

Soooo Jenny and I were invited to go Christmas caroling with the Thai church that we've been going to. In all fairness, we were warned it would be all night. We just didn't believe it!

This might be the most fun thing that I've done in Thailand so far. Plenty of things have been fun and enjoyable, but this was just amazing! It was difficult being away from family for the holidays, especially Thanksgiving, but Christmas more than made up for it.

Let me start by saying this was the most organized caroling I've ever seen. And it really started with the whole church, not just the youth group. Jenny and I went to the Thai Christmas Eve service because we weren't sure what time caroling started and we didn't want to miss it. Immediately after the service (which was beautiful and had a high school jazz band playing afterwards!), the whole church walked over to the governor's mansion, which is just a block away to sing. The people we were walking with kept calling it the Thai Arnold Shwartzenegger's house. hehe. So we caroled there and everyone in the house came out and some people said some nice things in Thai that we didn't understand and then they gave us lots of food!

At the Governor's Mansion

Then we came back and got split into two groups for caroling, about 20 in each group. We went over what songs to sing and got booklets and got into different cars & trucks. Each group had a list of 10 or 11 people to go visit. All of these families had signed up to have carolers come, and believe it or not, there are so many people that sign up, that they have to narrow it down so we can finish by morning!

So we would drive up to a house, everyone would get out and we would sing one or two carols outside the gate. (Everyone has a gate around their house in Chiang Mai). Then, someone would say a little bit from the group about why we were there and we would sing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" first in English, then in Thai. Then the lights would come on and we would be invited into the house!

The pictures below are from the second house we went to, which was more of a mansion, really. When the lights turned on here, it was something else!

They even had a dolphin statue next to their pool. I made Jenny take a picture of it for me.

Inside the house, there was LOTS of food. LOTS. TONS. TOO MUCH! After about the third house, we couldn't keep eating so much, so people would give us plastic bags to take our goodies with us!

This house had really amazing chicken soup for us. A welcome surprise at 4:30 in the morning!

We kept an eye on the clock. I still can't believe we went ALL night!

Of course, the best part was just hanging out and getting to make new friends!

More food and singing. Once inside, we didn't just eat. We also sang more, talked, laughed, read a passage of Scripture and prayed with the family.

Of course, not everybody let us in. This was a foreign family's house that we stopped at early in the morning. They're the only ones who weren't ready for us, so we just sang outside. Also, they made me yell at the house in English. I didn't know what to day, so I said something about Merry Christmas and we've come to bless their house. I ended with "Thank you for letting us come sing to you." Everyone laughed at me for that one. As if they could have stopped us from singing!

Proof that we finished at 8 AM