Merry Christmas from South Korea!
If you asked me last Christmas where I thought we would be this Christmas, I would have never dreamed to respond that we would be living in Asia during an 11 month (and counting) global pandemic. It was never in my realm of possibilities. But, here we are recreating our family traditions with a Korean Covid twist.
We are back in a lockdown over here, so no more half decent travel blogs for a few weeks. I'll try to avoid sharing figgy pudding recipes and movie recommendations. Just kidding, I don’t know what figgy pudding is and I can’t resist movie recommendations. Instead, I thought I would share a little of what Christmas week looked like for us this year.
I’ve been playing Christmas music since Thanksgiving Day, and all three of us girls in the house love it. We got a tabletop tree from Ikea complete with very modern and plastic ornaments that all match. Nothing nostalgic or homemade this year. It’s got a Charlie Brown meets Crate and Barrel appeal. Exactly, what I was going for, obviously. Rosie and Olive take the ornaments off nightly and give me anxiety about missing hooks. I end up scouring the carpet once they’ve gone to bed and counting them to make sure none were swallowed.
We’ve had two mornings of snow flurries that cover the ground just enough to get Rosie excited to put her boots on and go outside to play. She likes to lick the snow directly off the ground and takes her boots and socks off half way through the walk.
Tim and I baked dozens of cookies, Christmas candies, Chex mix and other snacks to indulge on. Just like back home. Except we have started doling them out to our neighbors to get them out of the house. We saved the Peanut Brittle just for us.
We’ve been checking all the Christmas movies off our list, and saved our favorite, White Christmas, for Christmas Eve. Rosie requests Christmas caroling nightly. Tim and I are slowly morphing into the Griswold parents singing loudly all the time. At least for now the girls love it. And so do we.
In true Stay at Home Mom fashion, we have been doing Christmas crafts daily. Among Rosie’s favorites are a pair of “Santa Seekers”, or binoculars to keep an eye out for the Jolly Man, and a foam train that makes its rounds through the house daily.
Our Korean caretaker brought us fresh fried chicken and chocolate crossiants on Christmas Eve, both homemade by his wife. Rosie dug into the fried chicken before it even made it's way to the table. I followed suit with the croissants. Both delicious.
Santa brought Rosie a bike and Olive a Bitty Baby this year. However, the toy MVP, was this plastic reindeer lollipop holder that a stranger gave Rosie. She carries it around daily. It's pretty genius - no more sticky lollipops stuck to my couch cushions. Tim stops by our PO Box weekly and brings handfuls of Christmas cards home from all of you! We save them for the end of the night to snuggle up and open. We love seeing all your family photos and reading your updates! Maybe one day we will craft a Christmas letter. Until then, Merry Christmas and hope you have a Happy New Year! Thank YOU for following along on our move to Korea this year! I have really enjoyed getting the opportunity to share a little of our lives with you.
Love,
Val
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