A Very Viet Christmas

Hi from the most recently mentioned internet cafe.

We had a merry Christmas here today. It turned out that Santa DID read my email about us being in Vietnam. He must be quite the incredible fellow. Even in his busiest time of year he was able to read and respond to my email about our unexpected change of location (Vietnam versus Minnesota) on Christmas. If only the US government were so effective!

Not only did we receive a visit from the real Santa, but yesterday, the door man asked Barbie what time we go to sleep at night. She told him 10pm, because that is when she normally goes to bed, however the kids go to bed at around 8. At 9:30 last night (Christmas Eve), we had a knock at our hotel room door. I opened the door to see our doorman (a very happy and friendly fellow) dressed in a Santa suit and bearing gifts. He was disappointed to see the kids sleeping, but we took our picture with him to show them. The hotel director had provided a gift for each of our 3 kids, and our agency representative had sent along with this santa a CD of Christmas music for us and a nice card as well. It was a very sweet surprise.

Thomas awoke at 3 am to see that the oreos we left for Santa were eaten and presents were under the tree. He stayed awake for an hour trying to get back to sleep! That made for a little bit of a long day for him.

After opening gifts and eating breakfast, we went to Lenin park. This is avery nice park with some good playground equipment (of course for the 5 of us it cost $.25 to get in!) We met another adoptive family there (the one with a 6-year old boy and a recently adopted 2.5 year old girl) and the parents visited and the kids played. It was nice.

We came back to the woman hotel for lunch in our room and to hang out for the afternoon. I called some of the other families who are with our agency who were having an all-day round of negotiations with a travel agent of their own. I called to offer moral support.

At 5pm we had a get-together at our hotel's restaurant with us and the 5 other adoptive families from our agency who are currently in Hanoi. There were 12 adults, 4 older kids and 6 recently-added children. It was a great time. We brought down our christmas tree, played the new christmas CD on the laptop, and enjoyed a very nice buffet. The buffet included:

chicken mushroom soup
roasted chicken
spaghetti
sea bass stir-fry
steamed vegetables
lamb chops
french fries
baguettes with butter and strawberry jam
banna flower salad (very yummy)
fruit
juice
coffee

I thought it was yummy, but Barbie wasn't quite as impressed. One of the guys brought along a couple of beautiful cakes which were very yummy. Mr. Hien came and brought a bottle of wine for us to toast each other and celebrate the holiday. He really is quite a nice guy. It was a nice evening of spending time with a group of folks who are all kind of in the same boat in a variety of different ways. We were glad to have the company of these folks to celebrate.

We are a bit sad that we aren't able to enjoy Minnesota's first white Christmas in a while (and we hear it is VERY white). As we were visiting with our friends this morning, we were realizing how much we miss home and the clean air (it is very hazy and/or smoggy constantly here). People are telling us to enjoy the weather, but even though it is 70-75 degrees each day, it's not really like San Diego. We really have only seen the sun 2-3 times since we got to Hanoi, and while the temperature is comfortable, we haven't had what I would really call any beautiful days. Not complaining, mind you, just letting you know what it's like and what we miss. Right now I would long for one of those quiet minnesota winter nights where the snow falls straight down and you can go for a walk and hear nothing. We haven't heard nothing in ages.

A young lad just told me to hurry up and finish because they are closing...so I will. Again, we wish the merriest Christmas to all of you and encourage you to celebrate the coming of Christ to this world.

Wishing you love, joy, and peace from the other side of the world.

The Atkins Family