Memories Made and Remincising

Christmas is not a time or a season but a state of mind. To cherish peace and good will, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.

And as Christmas comes to a close for me, I try to concentrate on the good things and all I have to be thankful for. I have met so many amazing people over the last 4 months and have had some wonderful experiences. Every day has not been a dream but I am alive and healthy, something I am especially thankful for considering my most recent health adventure. I have great friends to spend my time with, and an amazing family and friends back home to miss. Not to mention my glorious Savior, the reason for the holiday. I am abundantly blessed. It also brings to mind all the wonderful Christmas memories I have with my family, be it sitting in front of the fireplace or praying we can find just one open McDonald's for some Christmas breakfast, I can truly say I have a blessed life and the most amazing people in my life.

This year there was no Christmas tree, very little Christmas music, though that meant I didn't have a chance to get sick of it, like I usually am 2 days after Thanksgiving, and certainly none of the regular traditions, I still had a nice weekend celebrating the day.
After a week of easy Christmas lessons I headed to Yeongyang for a potluck Christmas on Saturday complete with ping-pong, a game of HORSE (basketball), secret Santa gifts, an abundance of delicious (non-Korean :] ) food, and a fabulous finish at my first noraebang (karaoke). I got there Friday night so I wouldn't have to worry about traveling on Saturday and had a nice evening with David, Vince, Marlene, and Lucy, who graciously offered her apartment for festivities and sleeping for 13. :] It's a good thing she has a big apartment. Saturday morning we woke up to a bit of snow, though it didn't stay for long it was a nice touch. After cooking the rest of the food for the afternoon, we headed out to play a bit of ping-pong until everyone else arrived. Which we followed up with a game of HORSE. In the cold. On top of a mountain. :o Once we were all sufficiently frozen we headed back to Lucy's and started the final preparations for dinner and waited for everyone to arrive. Cue mingling, drinking games, music, and general holiday festivities. Once everyone got there we had a delicious meal including mashed and roasted potatoes, chicken, all kinds of vegetables, and all other sorts of goodies. :D Then Dom and Dave treated us to a bit of live acoustic Christmas music and then we headed circled 'round for secret Santa. I got Andong soju, they're famous for it, in two beautiful ceramic figurines. All of the gifts were really nice and it was a lot of fun to see what everyone got. There were mittens, chocolate, wine and soju, bear coin banks and more.

To end the night we headed to a noraebang down the road from Lucy's. Korea really loves karaoke. So much so that they have establishments entirely dedicated to it. Like karaoke bars, but more. In a noraebang there are usually 5-10 rooms, of varying sizes, for different sized groups. You go with your group and you get a room and there are couches, and screens and microphones and they bring you food or drinks, you can order stuff, nothing serious, but snack type things, and then you sing your heart out. So we figured what better way to end Christmas Eve than to do just that. And sing we did. For 2 hours, until our throats were raw and the bottles were empty. We commemorated Christmas with Feliz Navidad at midnight and then headed back to home base and crashed for the night.

Sunday morning brought hangovers for many and gathering of belongings for our treks back to our homes. We said our goodbyes and ended a great weekend with friends. It was nice to be able to share Christmas with such great people and make all the wonderful memories. I know I'll never have another Christmas like it.

And yet, although I had a wonderful time celebrating Christmas with friends, nothing can compare to Christmas breakfast, all the kids in one house, and family gathered round.
I'll be home for Christmas if only in my dreams...

Merry Christmas everyone. Miss and love you all. ♥