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| Visiting the crazy crowded German Christmas Market |
Back at home, after a Christmas beer and obligatory Christmas movie (we'e been watching one of our favorites every night: Home Alone, The Family Stone, Four Christmases, Elf, Christmas Vacation and Love Actually) we crashed with alarms set to get up at a decent time the next morning to prepare for a socially awkward Christmas party we were hosting, ho ho ho.
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| A special Christmas lunch from my English tutee, Nanako |
I love Christmas and was lucky enough to have parents who did a superb job of sharing the Yuletide spirit. I grew up with advent calendars with small presents for each day leading up to the holiday. My sister and I played parts in Christmas manger scenes in church and one time my tiny brown pony, "Sugarbabe", was chosen to be the holy donkey in a living pageant in a church near the farm. It was thrilling and magical to ride in the dark dressed as Mary and then sit still, face hidden by robes, as churchgoers came to see. Mom says that as a kid, I used to want to sleep under the beauty that was our decorated Christmas tree (chosen by our family and then cut by Dad with a saw, of course) and that I used to cry when we had to take it down after Christmas.
I was a kid who truly believed in Santa. One year, I only told Santa the one gift I really wanted (a stuffed animal pony, obviously) and then was devastated when I didn't find it under the tree. Now I feel awful when I think about what my parents must have felt and then how they tried to explain how it helps Santa if we're a little more vocal about what we want. Even now, when I hear adults joke about the ruse of Mr. Claus and his reindeer I cringe and think, do we have to talk about it? Can't we all just keep pretending and keep some sort of magic alive?
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| Blowing out the candles on the Christmas cake |
This year Santa delivered goodies via several FedEx packages which were placed under our small tree in our similarly small Japanese apartment. After a delicious Christmas breakfast of spam and eggs, we blasted Christmas music and tore into them. Sean always has to take the customs list off of the boxes or otherwise I can't help myself from peeking about what's inside. Favorite gifts included warm clothes and slippers from Mom and Dad and matching handcrafted his and hers Mt. Fuji mugs from Sean. After cleaning up a bit, we made meatballs, deviled eggs, mulled wine and cupcakes and trooped downstairs to decorate our dorm's "Social Room" to get ready for the party.
A few weeks back, some of the Rotary fellows had approached us about hosting a Christmas party for students on campus who had no other friends or family around with whom to celebrate. I thought it was a great idea and after making an online event complete with a detailed explanation of how to play the "White Elephant Game" about ten people arrived on Friday for the potluck lunch and game. Though the table wasn't filled with my favorite usual delicacies on Christmas Eve, lunch was quite delicious and included Malaysian fish cakes, Thai green curry, rum balls, a vegetable tray with anchovy dip, spinach dip and a Japanese Christmas cake. Playing the present-stealing game was a big hit and I had to keep emphasizing that the game is more fun if you "aren't nice" and steal what you really want.
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| Super awkward face of mine during the white elephant game - guess I didn't want that gift? |
After saying goodbye to everyone, Sean and I took a Christmas walk, watched a holiday movie and went to bed early. According to him, I was snoring by nine and didn't wake up until twelve hours later - another fantastic Christmas present in and of itself.
Thus, Christmas break and winter term vacation are off to a good start. I like making new traditions and having different experiences but it makes it a lot harder when the ones back home are so darn good. That being said, I'll still probably still cry when Sean has to take the tree down because some things never change.
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