The excitement and gift opening started on the morning of the 24th just after I finished writing my last blog entry. Emma called through on Skype because mom was over at her place, and knowing that it was the day before Christmas already in Korea, they wanted Milton and I to open our gifts. Milton wasn't awake yet, so in true Christmas morning fashion, I woke him up so we could open presents!!! The photos aren't great - we were too busy taking inventory of our loot to take pictures - but the living room floor was covered in surprises sent from home. You can hardly see our tree because it's lost in all the goodies!
We also managed to get in what we could for a Christmas morning family photo complete with bed head, glasses and mismatched pajamas. Elissa is missing, but Scott, Emma, mom and one of the cats are there and you can even see Milton in the small web cam box in the bottom left corner.
(By the way Em and Liss - those are my 25$ glasses I was telling you about - you'll have to send your prescriptions so I can get you some too - steal of a deal compared to Canada and the guy makes them while you wait!)After Christmas-eve morning at our place, Milton and I headed to Gwangyang to spend Christmas even and Christmas day with some friends. We spent Christmas eve in a noraebang - how Korean of us! What better way is there to spend the evening than singing and dancing in your own private karaoke room with flashing lights and tambourines when you can't be with family???
Christmas day was as normal as we could make it - we opened gifts and ate and ate and ate all day while we watched Home Alone 3 and played games. Milton and I had lugged our oven on the bus with us and everyone contributed to our fantastic Christmas dinner. Milton and I made tourtiere and caesar salad, there was duck and smoked turkey, home-made Ukrainian perogies, and apple pie and ice cream for dessert. Milton was also happy to find Bailey's Irish cream for his Xmas morning coffee.
Everyone did their best to fill in for families with the traditional Xmas stocking stuffers and gifts. Milton is really happy with this year's toothbrush that has a suction cup bottom!
Our favourite gift was the matching underwear we received. The big trend in Korea is to match your partner and everywhere you go you see this. Either matching underwear, matching Mickey mouse sweatshirts, matching polo sweaters --- no joke, couples call each other and plan their outfits before dates because they ALWAYS match!
I don't think I've ever laughed so much at Christmas! Kerry and his friend Kendall who was visiting, are two retired Yuk Yuk's comedians and they had us laughing the whole time which was a good distraction from thinking about how much we all missed being with our families. I don't have a single photo of Kendall where he isn't pretending to be asleep - here he is "asleep" while opening Christmas gifts.
Kerry was happy with the Korean sticker we gave him - he put it on his guitar.
And Jen and Ed look cozy and cute under the Xmas blanket we gave them.Milton and I returned to Mokpo on boxing day and have been taking it easy ever since. We are enjoying our time off and we decided we'd have a quiet new years eve tomorrow after all the Christmas excitement.
Hope you all had a great Christmas day too and that you have a fantastic time ringing in the new year tomorrow night!
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