Christmas in Korea

Christmas...I waited a few days before doing a post about this. How does one describe spending a holiday (your favorite) away from all things familiar? I spent Christmas in a country that does little to celebrate the holiday. In fact Christmas Eve is a couple's day where little pairs of lovers stroll the streets holding hands leaning in close to whisper and to smile. Barf...

My Dad acts like a kid the day after Thanksgiving, which is when Christmas season officially starts. We load up in his truck and head to Lowe's and buy an outdoor Christmas decoration. My Dad doesn't need a reason to go to Lowe's. It's his happy place, but this day there is a special child like glean in his eye. What should we get, a reindeer? Carolers? Snoopy sleeping in his Christmasy decorated doghouse? All have been purchased in the past.

There is a sense of happiness in the house that is only accompanied by Christmas. My parents are on vacation which means they aren't stressed and can sleep late, cook breakfast, drink coffee sitting down, etc. Calendars are full of church activities, Christmas parties, shopping, gift wrapping, and grocery shopping. But we're a bit happier with this sort of busyness because it's Christmas. We only do this once a year.

Christmas morning is marked by my sister and I getting up early to open presents from "Santa", breathe in the heavenly sent of breakfast casserole and coffee, try to sneak sausage balls from the Christmas tin that they are hidden in, only to be caught by my Mother who throws things at us. When other families gather for Christmas I'm not sure what they do, but mine...for my family Christmas we make wrapping paper torpedoes and other weapons of mass destruction to launch at one another after the gifts have been opened. Adults leave the room and my 35 yr. old brother starts the battle. Cousins dive behind one another to take cover from the rain of wrapping paper bullets. We truly are a loving and selfish family. Our stomachs groan at us and we wonder how much more we can eat, saying, "no, I shouldn't", all the while grabbing another slice of red velvet cake. We put on all of our new Christmas clothing, watch whatever DVD we received from Santa, and all promptly fall asleep on the couch. Wrapping paper wars are tiresome after all.

So this year was different. You know, not much different. I met a friend for coffee on Christmas Eve. Her bus ran late and I sat in the coffee shop for an hour and a half. Alone. With couples everywhere. Staring at me. "Poor foreign girl. All alone on Christmas Eve." I willed them to stay and wait so that when my friend did arrive they would see that no, I wasn't a sad pathetic creature. I did have friends. But alas, when she arrived, few were left.

We had coffee, went shopping at the equivalent of the Korean Wal-Mart (what were we thinking!?), ate Burger King, headed to a Christmas party where about 20 foreigners gathered together and tried to push the thoughts of how they could be spending Christmas with families and friends that weren't virtual strangers. We smiled and laughed, had food that was strange to us, we even had a white elephant gift exchange (I received a can of beer and a bottle of wine). But in the back of everyone's mind we all wanted to slink off to a corner and have a wee cry. But we didn't. We chose this life. 

So yes, this year I might have slept on the floor, wrapped up in a sheet on Christmas Eve and woken up to fresh snow covering everything. I might have missed my family and wished that I could have opened presents with them and thrown my sister into the path of an oncoming wrapping paper torpedo, but I did get to spend Christmas with other people who felt the exact same way I did. I got to laugh with new friends, eat good food, play in the snow, and watch the Griswold's Christmas Vacation. If anything, I got to play in the snow. Never have I done that on Christmas. 

Christmas morning snow

Merry Christmas