#rndtheworldn44 - Days 30-38 - Family Time in Yangon

It took so long to get to Myanmar, and yet this was the main reason for the trip:  to see our grandson William and our son Matt and daughter-in-law Weina.  We had great adventures in New Zealand and Australia, but these are the most precious memories of them all:  time spent with our family.

When we arrived, David wasted no time getting into the books with William --

-- and Kathy wasted no time getting silly with him!

Eight o'clock in the evening is William's regular bedtime, and Weina usually puts him to bed, so the late evening hours are for the adults.  Here, Matt and David get semi-serious with a game of chess:

Just before we arrived in Myanmar, Weina texted us to ask if David could play Santa Claus for Weina's Montessori school kids.  How could David NOT say yes?  Weina supplied the costume, which was certainly unique, and David jumped right in to share some Christmas spirit with the kids:

Saturday, December 16, William had a T-Ball game, so we all sauntered over with William to watch him show off his developing baseball skills.  Aim for the temple, William!

Speaking of temples, on December 20, the day we returned from Bagan and Inle Lake, we took a tour of one of the other major temples of Myanmar - Shwe Dagon Pagoda in Yangon.  Matt arranged to have a guide lead us on the tour.  She was very informative, and she was kind enough to snap a family photo of us with the main stupa of the pagoda in the background:

William, being a normal 6-year old, wasn't content with simply observing the sights.  He wanted to get directly involved himself - and so he did:

A day or two later, Matt announced that the bananas in his garden were ripe for picking, so he and William demonstrated the correct way to harvest bananas - to our everlasting pleasure, since we had the privilege of tasting those luscious fruits.

We had told Weina and Matt that we wanted to have dinner at their favorite Szichuan Hot Pot restaurant while we were visiting Yangon, and they obliged us by inviting us to share a Hot Pot dinner with them and their friends (and their family).  It was a wonderful gastronomic experience, and a great opportunity to share a good time with others visiting Yangon.

Christmas Day arrived, and one of William's presents was a dinosaur Lego kit, which he pounced on first to build his own T-Rex.  Here, T-Rex threatens to consume William and Matt with giggles:

Matt smoked a turkey for the holiday, and it came out so good that, just looking at it makes our mouth water!

He and his friends seem to share a love of smoking meats for social get-togethers.  On another night in the American Club compound, Matt and friends shared a good time enjoying a smoked duck that was offered to all of us as part of a huge buffet dinner:

Of course, no Christmas holiday is complete without Christmas cookies.  Here, Kathy, William and Weina are whipping up the little confections --

-- and William shows off the results:

The swimming pool in the compound was having trouble with a mysterious water leakage, and it seemed that, every time we wanted to go swimming, the pool was closed for investigation of the leak.  So we made do with gigantic water fights!  Here, Kathy and Matt face off with water guns while William prepares to spray them both with a hose:

The house was gaily decorated for the holidays.  Here, an Ecuadorian painting seems to be perfectly at home with the Christmas village and stockings.  This photo was taken Christmas Eve, and you can see the milk and cookies for Santa, and carrots for the reindeer, all set out and waiting for their arrival.  William insisted on NINE carrots - one for each of the other reindeer, and one for Rudolph.  On Christmas morning, EACH of the nine carrots had a bite out of it, which William considered proof that Rudolph DID lead the reindeer in pulling Santa's sleigh this year.

Occasionally, the adults got some time of their own.  One afternoon, Matt took us to his driving range, and we all took our whiffs at baskets of 100 balls each.  Here, David is pretending to hit a successful shot:

All good things must come to an end, and so the same was true for this visit.  On December 28, we had to leave our kids to start our journey home.  We wanted more time, and we've decided that, next year, we'll have a longer visit.  For now, we had to content ourselves with the two weeks we had with Weina, her husband and her son.  Matt drove us to the airport and waved us off, and we made our way from Yangon to Bangkok to catch a connecting flight to Paris for one more adventure before returning to Houston after the New Year.