Ok, so its Christmas ... wierd that im not at home, but exciting at the same time really ... woke a little late and headed to Alicia's hotel for breakfast ... mmm the lady there makes a killer omlette (i know not very vietnamese ... but hey .. its Christmas) then we needed to do some serious food shopping, as Alicia and her housemates are hosting an orphans Christmas with about 30 guests and there is no food in the house, all are suppose to bring a dish but who knows what may happen!! We borrow the boss and her daughter (both vietnamese) cause they dont want us to get ripped off at the markets (great idea!!) the market people stilled tried mind you, as we 2 foreigners were telling them what we needed, but good old boss wasnt having any of it ... so we left with all the things needed to feed the festive folks arriving in less than an hour!! Liesh and me then proceeded to mount her bike(dink style) with a massive box of wine and countless bags of food hanging off whever we counld tie them.... true vietnamese style we thought!

arriving home the kitchen was already full of locals cooking their dishes to share ... and with only 2 burners it was a long cue for the cooking ... so i dished up a fruit platter and waited for the kitchen to be free ... was a mix of food that day ... from vietnamese dumplings and spring rolls, boat style pasta salad, fruit, veg, mulled wine, mums potato salad and even pumkin pie! no one went hungry .. so the christmas lunch was a success!!

we held a secret santa ... where all guest brought a gift ... we drew a number that was our order to pick a present ... but the rules werent so simple ... the next in line (say #12) had the choice of picking a gift from the table or stealing a gift from the previous picker(#1-11) and a gift could only be stolen 3 times!! i had my mits on a beautiful black and white painting and some randowm musical instruments which i stole fom someone, but it was quickly stolen again!! i ended up with a jewlery set of drawers! quite nice... was all good fun ... with some getting a little emotional by the end of the night, it is that family time of year i guess!!!

i also was very lucky to recieve some gifts ... a beautiful Sars mask to protect me from the pollution on the streets of Hanoi (thanks alicia i fashion statement in itself), a funky backpack for my trekking adventures(so bright if i get lost in the mountains i will be easliy spotted from above or afar!), and a beautiful braclet from Kristi

was a glorious day even though i was away from the ones i love.

Merry Christmas to all