Repatriation Ceremony and much more...

What a week!

I know, I am starting to say that every week. However, this one was incredibly fun. We went to a Repatriation Ceremony, our final Shipment of goods arrived, we attended a cocktail party, went to the pottery village, went to a baby shower and went to a cookie exchange. It was a bit much, even for us, but it was awesome. 

Ms. H's pork stuffed squid with garlic pumpkin greens and brown rice

Winter has arrived, this was what we saw Friday morning. Yikes.

The drive-by flower market across from our building

On Friday we attended a Repatriation Ceremony. It was very moving. There is a group here called JPAC; the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command. Our team is one of four detachments in the world searching for the 83,000 missing servicemen from past US Conflicts. They go on several missions during the year. At this ceremony, we witnessed three of our fallen boarded on a plane for home. It was powerful. My heart goes out to their families who have been waiting for them for many decades.

Before the ceremony....

Part of the recovery team

Lt. Col. Keane with his counterpart, in the background is our Ambassador 

The team moving in to begin loading the three fallen soldier's remains

Going home...many tears were shed....

Hug a serviceman or servicewoman today--it's amazing what they do for our country!

It was a somber morning, but beautiful. 

We were excited to go home to receive our final shipment of goods!

Christmas is here!! Wahoo! 1600lbs arrived on friday.

They unloaded everything in an hour!

Naturally, we decided to put up the tree first.

Before....

After!

Hurrah! I realized that our Christmas tree is full of Hubs childhood ornaments. I love them, but our tree is a bit sports heavy. I emailed my dad to send mine to me ASAP. 

I think our tree looks great though.

The Hubs put together our kitchen island while I put up the tree, both efforts were quite successful!

After an afternoon of organizing, we decided to try a Thai restaurant before heading to our friend's housewarming party.

3D menu!

Stir fried calamari

Red curry with chicken

Green curry with prawns

Cocktail party with recipes!

A stocked fridge is a happy fridge

The host with the most(delicious homemade sangria!)

I am a bit envious of his housekeepers sushi skillz

Mojitos anyone?

It was a fun-filled day. We slept especially well that evening, especially since we got a memory foam pillow top in our shipment!

Then we woke up to THIS. I thought the previous day was bad. Notice how you cannot see ANY lakes. The Hubs went golfing in THIS. I went to the pottery village....

It was bit overwhelming....

Classical Vietnamese pottery: Angry birds:)

Does anyone out there need a giant vase?

Vietnamese pyrex

Waterfalls

Beauty amongst the fog

More classic Vietnamese pottery:)

Wow. There was so much, I think I only photographed 10% of what I saw. I am proud of myself for only buying two bags of things....then again, it was a CLO trip and I know I will be back in three months....

Sunday the CLOffice co-hosted a cookie exchange with the lovely Ms. J. 

We will be eating cookies for weeks. I am so blessed to be surrounded by so many talented bakers! And also blessed to be surrounded by tailors to make me clothes that are stretchy.

I made Grandma Elma's peanut butter balls in the bottom right corner

My two trays of goodies: I totally scored!

after: the table was completely destroyed. 

I took the rest home with me to bring to the Mission on Monday. 

This week was a lot of fun, I'd like to say that our house is completely organized, but it's not. We will get there....things are going to slow down soon....well, probably not. 

:)