The Holidays

I am so excited for Christmas this year! I only teach today and tomorrow and then I am off for about 2 weeks.
This Saturday morning is going to be "Christmas morning" for us because we leave for our trip that day. I think this has been the most low key, simple Christmas for us, but I'm the most excited about it. Maybe because we get to go on a trip and it brings back all the memories from my youth of traveling at Christmastime.
I have been stressing over all the hotels for our trip for the past several weeks, but now that everything is planned, I'm just excited. It's amazing to me that such a simple thing in the U.S. (booking a hotel) is so complicated here. I booked several different hotels in Hong Kong and they told me they were available, but then I'd get an email several days later saying they were full. It got closer and closer to the date and everything seemed to be full. I really tried to plan in advance, but then they would come back and tell me they were full. So, I had to call in the help of my T.A. Ivy and she found us a hotel for Saturday night. We are just staying one night in Hong Kong so that we can watch the BYU bowl game on Saturday. Everyone at work thinks I'm crazy, but that is my Christmas present to Jason. And, of course, it's kind of a present to myself as well since I love the games just as much as he does. I'm also looking forward to being able to eat at California Pizza Kitchen and maybe go to a movie. Movies and eating out just seem like Christmas to me.
Here is the itinerary for the rest of our trip:
Sunday night we fly out of Shenzhen to Bangkok. We arrive very late, so we will stay the night in an airport hotel. Monday morning we will travel to Koh Samet, an island, where we will stay on the beach for 3 nights. Then we travel to Kanchanaburi where they have the Bridge on the River Kwai. We will stay there 2 nights and get to ride elephants, see the beautiful jungle, see waterfalls and caves, and visit the tiger temple. Then we head back to Bangkok for the last 4 days of our trip where we will see the Grand Palace and everything else that we can fit in. I'm really excited, mostly just to get to spend time with my family. We have been so busy lately that it will be so nice to just be together 24/7. My kids are so excited too. I love telling them about everything we are going to do and watching their faces light up. When I told Haley about the days on the beach, she jumped up and down screaming. Too cute. I'm glad they are as excited as me.