It is a warm and humid Christmas Day here in Thailand. After some extensive cooking for last night’s Christmas Eve party with Tawn’s university friends (I’ll write about that tomorrow – homemade Lasagna Bolognese entirely from scratch!), I’m back in the kitchen today preparing maple-rosemary candied pecans for my mother-in-law and an apple pie for dessert tonight with American friends.
A week or so ago, Val wrote an entry wondering what everyone’s Christmas tree looks like. While we don’t celebrate it as a religious holiday, it is hard not to get caught up in the spirit – even here in Buddhist Bangkok. Perhaps especially here in Bangkok, where there are more holiday decorations and Christmas music than at a Minneapolis mall. Here is a look at our two trees:
The first tree is a potted one that looks pine-like, brought in for the season and simply decorated. It has spent the last six months resting up by the pool. Seriously, the condo maids felt that it wasn’t getting enough sun on the walkway outside our front door so they spirited it away to the pool deck, tending after it for us.
The second tree is an artificial one, pulled out from storage and given a more thorough decorating, graced with dozens of ornaments that hark back to my childhood, many of them handmade by my paternal grandparents. As I type this, some 166 holiday songs are shuffling on my iPod, my current favorite of which is the duet of the Frank Loesser song, Baby, It’s Cold Outside by Glee stars Chris Colfer and Darren Criss. Video here. Granted, it isn’t cold outside, but with the air conditioning on full blast, one can imagine.
After waking up about 7:30 I prepared a simple Christmas breakfast of baked eggs: stale bread cubes soaked in an egg-milk mixture, tossed with green onions, ham, and mozzarella cheese. After making a well in the bread mixture, I break an egg, sprinkle with salt, and bake for fifteen minutes.
This results in a warm and satisfyingly simple breakfast, accompanied by a few dashes of Tabasco sauce and a hot latte.
For all of our Christian friends and family members (as well as those who aren’t Christian but who enjoy celebrating Christmas as a secular holiday), we wish you the very warmest greetings and hope you and your loved ones have a happy Christmas and a healthy and peaceful year ahead!
christao408 
Mmmm, that baked egg dish looks delicious. Pretty much if it has an egg, I’m gonna be a fan!
@Roadlesstaken – Eggs, they do a body good.
Merry Christmas to you and Tawn! With Aloha! Alvin and Doug
Merry Xmas!Your pictures look like they’re from a magazine – very nice.
It snowed here. It’s cold outside.
Yummy breakfast for sure. I will going to my sister’s for brunch. My part will be scones – some with chocolate chips. Merry Christmas!
merry christmas to you too! i usually have a warm christmas, but this is the first year i stayed in baltimore. i was hoping for the white christmas, but it looks like that will get delivered a day late. ah well… in hawaii, some people decorate their coconut trees 🙂
Oh, that’s a cute and simple Christmas tree (the first photo). Merry Christmas to you guys! Nice Christmas brunch idea too, with a baked egg on top.
Very nice trees! My ornaments contain a few store bought things, but are mostly sentimental treasures. I didn’t put my tree up this year, however. My son lost the key to my storage shed, and I haven’t replaced the lock yet. I’m glad you are having wonderful celebrations!
I feel a bit awkward lately saying merry christmas to people…So many atheists here in SF
Great trees! Although I love the whimsy of the first one, the second tree with the sentimental ornaments is my favorite! Sounds like you are having a joyous and merry Christmas! Love the baked eggs idea! I bought my husband a rice steamer and he has already made rice pudding! (no photos because I don’t have a memory card)…
Merry Christmas! That looks so yummy! We have sausage gravy and biscuits every year. But i might do that for New years. thanks for sharing. PS love the real tree.
The real tree looks really nice. The breakfask looks warm and yum! Merry Christmas!
@Fatcat723 – Scones are a nice addition.@kunhuo42 – Coconut trees with decorations… Do they pain the coconuts to look like ornaments? =D@stepaside_loser – Oh, that’s very nice of you to say. Good lighting helps.@Worldlyme – Thank you guys. To you, too.@Ikwa – Sausage gravy and biscuits… yum! I need to make some of that.@murisopsis – What rice pudding recipe does he use and which rice maker did you buy him?@foggysunnymorning – Thank you. Merry Christmas to you, too.@New_Egyptian – Your tree is irretrievably locked inside a storage shed? That’s a terrible fate for it! =D@CurryPuffy – It looks lkind of like the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree, but not quite so scrawny. I hope you guys are enjoying HKG.@amygwen – Well, stay warm!@Wangium – That’s a good example of one reason I’m not sure SF would be an attractive place to live again. I understand that not everyone is Christian or celebrates Christmas, but I think SF has a very large portion of people who consider it their duty to be nasty about mistaken receipt of holiday wishes. If someone wishes me a happy (insert holiday that I don’t celebrate here), the polite response would seem to be, “Thank you, and you as well.”
We had a very quiet…unusual Christmas Day…just Pat, Tammy and myself…we stayed home from Dionna because Tammy was not feeling well…definitely flu-like symptoms and we didn’t want to share her germs with everyone else. I had made a HUGE pot of beef stew when it became evident that we needed to have something to eat HERE instead of going to Dionnas. We will celebrate our Christmas next weekend…weather and flu germs permitting. Let me be the first to wish you and Tawn a Happy New Year!!!! Ruth Ann
Lovely trees and that breakfast looks very appetising. Hope you and Tawn had a great Christmas Day and enjoy the rest of the holiday season. 🙂
@Redlegsix – Sorry your Christmas plans got delayed a week, but better to limit the spread of the flu. The pot of beef stew sounds tasty, though!@Chatamanda – You as well, Amanda.
Merry Christmas to you and Tawn again! I like the first tree…reminds me of Charlie Brown. 🙂
Breakfast looks fantastic!
@brooklyn2028 – Thank you. Yes, it is very much a Charlie Brown tree, isn’t it?@yang1815 – Just something simple. We’ll do something nicer for you when you are here.
breakfast looks damn good. i kinda crave it right now for late supper. my failed breakfast experiment this morning was a definite far cry from yet another one of your awesome creations. you do so much cooking and blog them that i think your blog should be appropriately called chezchrist instead of christao.
@christao408 – No need!!! That looks delish.
I can’t help but notice that even your newspaper is nicely folded and there isn’t a single speck of dirt on the floors. It’s interesting that the condo maids moved your tree to the pool deck. I thought they would just leave it alone. But I guess it must have looked kinda scrawny. I hope you and Tawn had a great Xmas. P.S. the egg dish, what’s the proportion of egg and milk? And how much of the egg/milk mixture do you put on the bread? And I’m guessing 350 F? Should the bread be similar in texture to a French toast afterwards?
@rudyhou – Oh, I want to see pictures of your breakfast experiment!@ElusiveWords – Would you be able to see a speck of dirt on the floor from so far away? =DAs for the egg dish, I just estimated. About 1 egg and a 1/2 cup milk for about 1 cup of bread. More bread if you want it drier and less if you want it more eggy.
fortunately, no pics. let’s just say it was way too sticky and goowy than it was supposed to turn out. i used the wrong kind of flour. NOT my fault.