That Christmas Thing

December 24th and 25th, 2013. Cheonan, South Korea.

Yours truly and a Christmas tree!

My final teaching day of the semester was December 23rd, and the next two days were spent in celebration, cooking, and hiking. "And soccer!" says Kaley.

Flowers and a candle.

First up: the food. For Christmas Eve dinner, we cooked up some chicken soup, sweet potatoes with marshmallows (and walnuts on half for my weirdo girlfriend), salmon, potatoes, pomegranates, and a strange mix of bok choy and black-eyed peas (not the music). It was all delicious and scrumptious, etc. My favorite was the sweet potato and marshmallow medley, because that was the most homey thing on the menu.

A lovely chicken, no?

The dinner layout.

In the middle of cooking, we decided to take a break and head outside. In my head, this meant going for a walk. For Kaley, this meant throwing her soccer ball off the 11th floor of her apartment building, then elevatoring down to get it. In between the throwing and the elevatoring, a group of elementary school boys got a hold of the soccer ball, so we wound up playing with them for a while. No pictures, because, well, they were little kids and that's weird.

On Christmas day, we ate leftovers, hiked a nearby mountain, and watched Inception. The hike was nothing big, just enough to make us feel like we were actually working off some of the previous night's dinner. It was a slippery ordeal, as there was still a lot of snow everywhere from the week before. I noticed several Koreans look at my shoes in disgust as they passed, noticing that I wasn't wearing crampons, or any hardcore hiking gear in general. It was a beautiful day, slightly overcast, and what wasn't covered in snow was covered in pine needles.

Crossed over a bridge on the walk home and had to grab a few photos like this:

We arrived back at Kaley's apartment and - no that wasn't a typing error - watched Inception. Not a very Christmasy movie, but a movie that I enjoy and she had never seen.

It was a weird Christmas. Six thousandish miles away and a 14-hour time difference from home will do that, but I woke up nice and early the day after Christmas to video chat with my family and see how my awesome nephew enjoyed his first Christmas (he got a moving dinosaur!). Although the year wasn't without its hiccups, my family is happy and healthy, my nephew is sitting up and smiling, and I can't help but feel fortunate and blessed. I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas and are keeping your own fortunes and blessings in mind as this new year gets going. All the best...