Oh what a Christmas! I miss home wayyyy more than last year, so I was a little nervous for what Christmas would hold. But, it was absolutely fantastic. The community of people with whom I have surrounded myself in the last several months made all the difference.
A week of celebrating Christmas started with our weekly potluck, hosted by the Husted's. Ten of us gathered for a beautiful start to the holiday, complete with delicious food, great conversation and some pretty strange white elephant gifts.
It snowed on Wednesday, and even though it was just a little (and it melted pretty much right away), it added to the Christmas feeling. When it began to snow even more Friday night, it finally felt the way Christmas should. It's funny how important the presence of snow is, for me, to really feel Christmas. Thank you, Iowa :)
Thursday night was an EB teacher's dinner at a swank place called Il Party Room. A fantastic buffet dinner, being surrounded by some of my favorite Koreans, and some creatively planned gifts for each teacher made for a delightful night. Friday night was the Christmas dinner for all three Kyunghwa schools, held in our school's gymnasium. Following dinner, all of my closest girl friends gathered at my place for a little Christmas party. We enjoyed wine, secret Santa gifts and conversation. A fantastic evening, indeed.
The next morning, I met some of the students with whom I am the closest for coffee. Both of them are third graders and are graduating (one of them, WonYoung, moved to Malaysia yesterday to go to college and SuGa has been training for a job at a bank for about a month) so it was nice to hang out them one last time. After coffee, I met Diane, Desiree and Grace at E-Mart to make some Christmas Eve dinner purchases. We happened to walk past a man playing Santa Claus and decided we needed our picture taken with him. I asked the closest man to me (in broken Korean, more Konglish really, if you can even call it that) to take our picture (Uhhh... Po-to, ju-say-yo? (translation: Photo, please?) to which the man replied, in beautiful English, "Sure, no problem. Do I press this button?" I felt like such a dunce.
On we went to Dionne and Scott's for a beautiful Christmas Eve feast. We had crazy amounts of seafood, clam chowder, lobster, smoked salmon, Caesar salad, bottle and bottles of wine and cupcakes. Wowza. Then, we read How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the first time for me - a travesty, I know.) and a ghost story involving a mysterious trunk. What a crazy, delightful, fantastic turn of Christmas events.
The next morning, we woke up, opened gifts at Desiree's and went back to the Husted's for Christmas breakfast. Oh wow. I feel lucky to have made friends with so many people who not only know how to cook like crazies but are so generous with sharing their culinary gifts. For Christmas breakfast, we had smoked salmon omelets, sourdough waffles and fruit. It was so relaxing to sit in their living room with the sun streaming through their huge windows, eating, laughing and thoroughly enjoying ourselves. As if that wasn't awesome enough, we watched A Christmas Story. My holiday was made.
For dinner that night, Desiree, Diane, Grace and I ventured to our favorite Chinese restaurant for our favorite Chinese fare. Seriously, I don't know what the woman puts in that food, but it is pure magic. Every. Single. Time.
And so, that is how my second Korean Christmas became one for the books. Last week, along with the so-close-I-can-hardly-contain-my-excitement arrivals of Ruth (in a week and a half!!) and my parents (in seven weeks!!) have revitalized me.
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