Another Christmas in Daegu

It's strange to think that we have been in Korea for the entire year of 2014 and that this is now our second Christmas in Daegu. It becomes really taxing being in Korea around the holidays. Home sickness gets really hard because Koreans celebrate Christmas in a really different way than in Western countries. As I said last year, Christmas in Korea is a couples holiday. Some of the Christian people might go to church, but the restaurants and stores are all open and really busy on Christmas. It's the total opposite of what it is like at home, which makes it hard to be here for the holidays.

Gianni and I tried to make it as Christmas-y as possible though. We spent a bit less on each other than we did last year, since we want to make sure we have a nice time in China. But we still got presents for each other to put under the tree (small and plastic though it may be) and in each others' stockings (though they are small and not the ones Aunt Nancy made us). On Christmas Eve, Gianni worked really hard on dinner. He made some tasty chili and potato latkes (we got a little bit of Hanukkah in our Christmas). It was nice to have a good Christmas Eve dinner, according to my traditions, even if it wasn't ham and all the Christmas dishes I'm used to. Instead of opening Christmas PJ pants on Christmas Eve (my family's tradition), Gianni and I gave each other 2 pairs of Korean socks to open instead. I got two pairs with mustaches on them that are pretty amazing (I love mustache socks). I gave him a pair with a guy with a head of poop giving the thumbs up and another pair that have a thumbs down symbol and say "안좋아요," or "not good," on them. Thoroughly happy with all our sock presents I think. We watched Wolf of Wallstreet finally that night. What a LONG movie, and completely un-Christmas-y. It was still good though.

On Christmas morning, Gianni and I woke up a bit early to make sure we got to talk to our parents. We opened our presents first. I mostly gave Gianni Korean knock-off legos. He got a pirate set that he saw at a store and really wanted. I made him put it down because I had already gotten it for him. I also got him some amazing Simpsons legos. I got as many of the characters as I could find at the store. Each character comes with some other little object that you have to put together, like a desk or a mailbox or something. Gianni is already finished putting everything together. I'm very proud of my gift-giving ability. He also got some touch-screen gloves that fit nicely. Gianni gave me some nice things too--candies and cookies mostly. He gave me one Japanese candy kit that I'm really excited to try. Apparently, in Japan they have a lot of these kits where you can mix or make some sort of candy yourself. I really like the idea, and I've seen people do them before. They are really cool. I also got some nice notebooks, a Tutoro ring and pin, and Christmas pencils. After opening gifts, we started making Christmas morning breakfast. It was no where near the elaborate one my mom makes with wife-saver and a cinnamon bun Christmas tree, but it was the best I could do. Gianni made eggs and bacon while I made french toast for the first time ever. I think I did a decent job. We cooked while talking to our parents on skype. They were all at my house for Christmas Eve dinner at the time. I don't know what I would do without skype. It was also great to see the Bonica family: my lovely cousins, aunt, and uncle. After a nice long chat, we signed off to eat our breakfast and let them get back to their little party. We spent the day watching TV together before our lovely Christmas dinner with our friends.

We are so blessed to have the best friends in the world in Korea. Honestly, over this past year, they have truly become our second family. They make being away from our families over the holidays an actually bearable experience. Sian was wonderful and made a reservation for 20 people at Ariana Hotel's buffet restaurant for Christmas dinner. It was ten-fold better than last year's crazy trip to Busan. Ariana, like most restaurants in Korea on Christmas, was super busy when we arrived at 6pm. It got less busy as the night went on, and we didn't end up leaving the restaurant until like 10pm. Ariana is a buffet that makes its own beer too. It's a kind of expensive place, but you get free beer and wine included, so we definitely made the price worth it. We all ate a lot of food, drank a lot of beer and wine, and danced to the music when the band started playing later in the night. All the Korean kids out with their families were dancing adorably by the stage too. We even did a Yankee Swap with about 15 people. Gianni ended up with way better gifts this year than he did last year. He got an ax pen and a funny chicken button, and I got a kit for staying warm in the winter, which included a mug and hot coco, hot packs, and a dragon microwave hand warmer. It was a really fun evening spent with awesome friends as well as some cool new people. The food was delicious as was the wine. It was a really great Christmas, even though we didn't get to be home for it.