We opted to splurge a bit for our "Christmas Suite", and have thus made ourselves quite comfortable in Bangkok's posh Royal Hotel.

Yesterday, we took a river taxi up the muddy-brown Klong Canal to a place called Siam Square: the shopping epicenter of Southeast Asia. There we went on a madcap Christmas shopping spree, spending over 3000 baht (about $75) on decorations, candy, and stocking stuffers. (The decorations, oddly enough, we finally located in the meat section of a supermarket!)

Last night, we spent hours covering our room in tinsel, ornaments, and strings of flashing Christmas lights. Our room has a couch, and we took one of the cylindrical arm pillows from it for our "tree." Wrapped from end to end in green tinsel, and layered with lights and ornaments, it is a sight to behold. Below it were laid our well-stuffed stockings (well, pillowcases, actually), and atop it stood a shining star. We slept on Christmas Eve by the soft glow of hundreds of colored lights.

This morning, we turned the air-conditioner up as high as it could go. It might have been 90º outside, but in our Christmas Suite we bundled ourselves up in pajamas and blankets as we opened our presents together. Our room comes complete with a big-screen TV, and we spent the day in bed watching 12 hours of Christmas movies on one of the English-language stations we get. For Christmas dinner, we splurged again, and ordered up an enormous amount of spectacular food from room service. At around 9pm, we made our way out to the international phonebooth a few blocks away, and called to wish our parents a very merry Christmas (12 time zones behind us, their day was only just starting).

It may have been a bit of an unusual Christmas, but then it has been a bit of an unusual year. And although we obviously both miss home on this particular day more than we ever have before, it has still been a very, very merry Christmas for the two of us.

As, we hope, it has been for all of you. Happy holidays, everyone!