House Guests

Last Thursday evening, we had the pleasure of having some friends over for dinner and more cake baking.  Noi asked L to make a cake for her son’s 2nd birthday, so we made a social event for the occasion.  Before the girls got to work, we enjoyed an American meal.  Our company asked us to prepare one of our favorite American meals.  So L made homemade macaroni and cheese, and we ordered out pizza.  With it being so hot outside, we try not to use the oven too much, so it was easier to order out.  It was quite a meal.  L brought the macaroni and cheese with us from the States because you can’t get it here, and who doesn’t love pizza.  None of our friends had had macaroni and cheese before, and they loved it!  Even Noi’s son, Tio Tio, liked it.  However, he couldn’t quite figure out what it was at first.  During dinner, we were able to get to know each other a little better and share our different cultures with one another.  Sitting together at a meal in your friend’s home is not something the locals typically do.  It is much more common for them to eat out together in a neutral place.  It was fun to listen as each person shared something about themselves with the group.  We learned so much about each of them. They were also able to hear our story too.

After dinner, two of our quests had to leave, so J and Tio Tio played together as L and Noi went to baking.  Graciously, J washed all the dishes from the meal.  Noi was so confused as to why he would wash the dishes and not me.  It was fun to explain that we share the responsibility of cooking and cleaning.  This is something that would never happen in their culture. 

We made a chocolate cake with cream cheese icing.  Noi had two parties to go to for her son, so we cut the cake in half to make it into two cakes.  Noi is turning into quite the cake baker after making all these cakes.  She seems to enjoy mixing all the ingredients and watching it turn into a finished cake.  While we were waiting on the cake to finish, we were able to have a great conversation about my beliefs and what a marriage looks like through our beliefs.  She was very interested and excited that I would share my life with her. 

J and Tio Tio had a lot of fun building with Jenga blocks.  They are quite the pair.  J likes to practice his language learning with Tio Tio while Tio Tio has fun saying our English names. 

Happy Birthday, Tio Tio!