A Vietnam Christmas

For Christmas-New Years this year I visiting my good dear friend David Marshall Stout in Vietnam. Dave had to work on Christmas so I spent the day/night wandering around Hanoi, sweating, getting a 75 minute massage for $8, drinking beers with some kids I met in the airport, being lost and mostly trying to avoid becoming roadkill by one of a bazillion motorbikes.

It was a strange feeling - being alone in a big, new (old, technically) city on Christmas.  I spent most of December lamenting the fact that I was missing Christmas, but when the day actually came it truly didn't feel like any other day.

(Reader Beware: there will be many MANY photos of the aformentioned 9 days.)


A packed airport on Christmas Day.

Christmas Eve

Despite Franklin's fiasco of waiting for the turkey for two hours, Christmas Eve was a success, even though my $22 pasta salad didn't get eaten (I made it, ingredients are just $$$$). We had party poppers and a white elephant exchange which resulted in a rather inappropriate photo shoot with a face mask.


Mashed potato dixie queen

white elephant

El Grooveshark

"Uhhhh...? What exactly do I do with this....it's the size of a diaper...."