Merry Christmas

We have had a beautiful Christmas Day (Troy may have even mentioned that it's been one of the best). Drey and Enzo are at such fun ages for Christmas. We tried to keep everything as traditional to home as possible. Skype calls allowed us to see and spend time with our loved ones, which made our morning all the better and allowed us to see a bit of the celebrations back home. What Christmas day represents for us is a love for family, friends, and of course our Savior Jesus Christ.  Even though we are celebrating in a foreign, non-christian country, on the other side of the world, we accomplished a feeling of love today and that felt good.

It's a miracle! Santa found us in Vietnam.

Drey wasted no time and started by opening the largest gifts first...the bigger the better right?

Enzo loved Gymbo. Thanks to Drey's Gymboree classes for teaching him to love clowns :)

Thank you Nana. xoxoxo

One very happy boy

Getting down to work....task at hand: to see how many tractors, trucks, and tools he can play with at once.

 Not even living in Vietnam will stop me from making this bread....us Wellings are serious about our traditional Christmas morning Monkey Bread.

And then...AND THEN we really indulged and went to brunch at the Sheraton Hotel with our friends Betsye and Johnny Park. Words can't describe how amazing and delicious this brunch was (hence Troy's best Christmas ever comment). For a small fortune and maybe a few extra months of working in Vietnam, we were able to enjoy a ridiculous amount of great food. We arrived right on time at 11:30am and shut the buffet down at 3:00pm. It was a glorious experience.

A very small portion of the desserts. Imagine chocolate fondue, ice cream /gelato, cookies, cakes, custards...

Salmon, sushi, scallops, fresh or grilled whatever your hearts desire...

turkey, ham, prime rib, yorkshire pudding....(YORKSHIRE PUDDING, a first and WOW my absolute favorite)

The entertainment, Santa (handing out wrapped KitKat bars) and his helpers singing Christmas carols. We loved it!

How to entertain a 1, 2, and 3 year old for 3 hours?  stickers and an I-Pad.

Betsye giving Drey moral support with Santa Claus

Enzo couldn't handle any more excitement....the food comma set in and he was the first man down.

Merry Christmas.

On the Eve of Christmas....

we partied like it was the coming new year...seriously! If you combine New Year's Eve celebrations in Times Square and on the Vegas Strip you may have something similar to Christmas Eve in Ho Chi Minh City. I told Troy that for Christmas Eve I would like to have an early dinner and then scooter around town to see the lights, thinking this would be a low key night and a way to feel more festive. Little did I know what we were in for. Hours before leaving for our activity we were warned about the crowds and traffic, so we ditched the scooter and took a taxi. Our night was spent walking around in a sea of jubilant Vietnamese people celebrating the novelty of Santa Claus, lights, and snow in a can.

Tree made of gift boxes outside Caravelle Hotel

Angels lining the streets.

Our friends from San Francisco, Jeff and Diana Zisselman, are here doing business in Vietnam along with Troy and decided to join us on our adventurous Christmas Eve. Jeff grew up in NYC and was shocked with the crowds in HCM. His biggest surprise was that it was a friendly, peaceful crowd....very little police around, only to direct traffic. 

Snow in a can. I have never seen this before but it has a foamy wet texture. Kids were spraying snow on each other and innocent bystanders (me!).

The heart of downtown Saigon. The glowing ball in the back is  wishing a Happy New Year 2013.

Tree in front of Vincom2.

Yellow flowers strung across the street. Each street was decorated with a different flower and color.

The historical cathedral downtown.

Drey missed the entire party...he was out at 6:30 and didn't budge amongst all the noise and crowds.

I do have to say that Vietnam really knows how to decorate their city. Christmas trees and lights were everywhere. It was nice to have some kind of acknowledgement of Christmas to help from missing home. 

Branch Christmas Party

Tonight was our Branch Christmas party. We watched Pres. Thomas S. Monson's talk from the Christmas devotional and a short clip on the birth of the Savior. The Branch choir sang two beautiful Christmas hymns. It was short and very sweet. I couldn't take too many pictures since the program was held in the chapel, but below are some clips of the dinner that followed:

Stacks of fresh spring rolls with fish sauce.

The meat...I don't know and I don't ask (I don't eat)  what kind of meat.

Manger scene displayed outside of the chapel. Foil is a very popular Christmas decoration over here :) 

Same Same but Different.....

December 17, 2012

Salt Lake City forecast according to KSL:

A strong cold front is waiting in the wings and many spots should get some heavy snow as early as this afternoon. For the Salt Lake City area today, expect a cloudy and windy day, with showers at times. AREAS HIGHER UP IN ELEVATION WILL SEE THE SNOW EARLIER IN THE DAY, also areas north of the SLC area. By this evening, we'll expect even colder air to arrive. At that point, most areas should see snow with accumulation. FRIGID 

Ho Chi Minh City forecast according to my living room window:

Clear blue skies with 90 degree temperature.  Accumulation of nothing. HOT 

Same Christmas holiday....totally different feel!


Troy has been in Thailand all weekend. This picture sums up how we've been managing while he's gone....

What this picture is not showing are two little boys SCREAMING their guts out crying because the Christmas tree just fell down. One crying out of fear (the culprit) and the other crying because it's "his" Christmas tree....

Ditto....

I could basically start this post the same as my last post...nothing adventurous going on in Vietnam. This is a good sign for us. Troy is super busy with meetings, Drey is super busy fighting me on being potty trained, Enzo is super busy tearing apart my kitchen, and I am super busy thinking about Christmas at home in Utah :(

My favorite pictures from this week:

If only every moment were this sweet between these two....don't be fooled, I'm sure Drey is about to push Enzo over somehow.

Sleep comes easy after a long day of church. Who needs the safety and comfort of a car seat when you have handlebars? 

Our version of snuggling up to a warm cozy fire. In truth, Drey is sans clothing due to the potty training technique I'm attempting and he got cold. He is warming up next to the oven which is baking my chocolate cookies.

The weekend wrap-up

Nothing adventurous in Nam to report, just some brief weekend hi-lites:

We attended a holiday BIZARRE at the White Palace on Saturday afternoon. The consulates of each represented country in Vietnam came together and planned a huge bizarre with food, a raffle drawing, baked goods, clothing, jewelry, Christmas ornaments, and Santa Claus. All the benefits went towards a children's charity.

Trying to have Drey & Enzo's picture taken with Santa Claus....not so jolly of a time. Enzo was FREAKING out keeping a death grip on Troy and Drey was finding some sort of safe place hiding behind Troy's legs....

If you could only hear Enzo's scream....

The compromise....mom and dad will sit in the picture with you :)

 It's a sad life being deprived of carpet :) 

How can I deny them the joy of carpet even as disgusting and dirty as this is?

Even popular in Vietnam....

Canada had to be my favorite booth. They had the BEST felt Christmas ornaments and quilts.

Our Sunday was particularly nice . We had 8 baptisms this morning! To watch 8 people be baptized who are so new to the gospel, but believe so strongly, is a pretty powerful experience. And I'm not sure why I was so surprised to hear the Christmas hymns in Sacrament meeting. The warm weather is really throwing me off during this Christmas season. It's crazy how much I associate the season changes in Utah with the holidays. The First Noel sang in Vietnamese is beautiful.

Our newest YW, Hang. Her older sister and parents were also baptized today. We now have a group of 5 Young Women. Hang had a special spirit about her from the first day she came to our class. Betsye is the YW President and I am her 2nd counselor.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree....

And onto the next holiday....This past weekend we set up our Christmas tree. In all honesty I wasn't really planning on doing Christmas decorations while over here in Vietnam. But one day I took Troy grocery shopping with me to Metro, and believe it or not he talked me into it! Troy (aka grinch) wanted to get a Christmas tree. The price tag of $15 did help a little bit. So we purchased a tree and a few ornaments to help get the Christmas spirit in our home this season. We have since learned that Christmas trees have only been around in Vietnam for the past three years.  It's pretty fun to see another developing holiday in Vietnam (Halloween also).

A few little Christmas shops...

I can hardly contain my excitement. This place was a jackpot for cheesy Christmas decorations! 

"Christmas Claus" as Drey likes to call him.

Hey mom, remember the holiday posters you used to hang in our large front room window? Thanks for the idea :)   

Pre-lit trees haven't quite made it over here. 

Drey was SO excited to get a Christmas tree and decorate it.  When he was finished he kept saying "mom, I really love my Christmas tree"

Ugh...that's a problem...

And not to forget this little munchkin. Enzo was napping when we started the decorating process, but once he heard Drey,  it was nap time over and all hands on deck for decorating....and undecorating. 

Our two little helpers. It's a cute little Charlie Brown tree eh?