We ended up delaying our family Christmas celebrations, since there was a wedding right across the street on Christmas Day. The bride was Davi’s cousin, and we’ve known the family since moving to Oyadao. You really can’t understand what having a wedding nearby is like, unless you live here. Weddings are done outside with a loudspeaker. All the ceremony stuff is blasted toward us, so loud that we can’t listen to Christmas music in our own house. The evening meal is a huge party that goes past midnight, with loud dance music and dancers on stage. This was all right across the street from our house, and it was LOUD!

Clara was asked to be a part of the morning wedding tradition of walking from the groom’s house to the bride’s house. (It’s just acted out, since the groom lived 45 minutes away!) Clara had to be ready before 5am to have her make-up done. (Somehow they roped me into having my make-up down too!) After the “walk” – they serve a breakfast of Khmer rice porridge.

I took the girls to the evening party, and we stayed for a little over an hour, leaving before the guest started dancing. Each table needs to be filled with 10 people before food is serve to the individual table. People are constantly coming in for about 2 hours. Thankfully we were seated away from the speakers and the other guests were older people. The music was so loud you really couldn’t talk with anyone. But it was a fun time to get dressed up! The ladies get really dressed up for these meals.