I know it's not quite Christmas where some of you are, but that's okay, it's Christmas here. And what would Christmas be without friends, family and bacon and eggs for breakfast? It has been a very nice couple of days for us. On Friday we went to Neal's for his first annual Christmas party, which was a really happenin' shindig.
There was booze, and lots of people, and somehow Neal was able to turn his TV into a fireplace, complete with firy screensaver and ceiling-high chimney! How he accomplished such a feat I will never know (though I've heard rumblings that it involved cardboard and a vacuum...?!) I had my guitar there, Chad had his, and Emmanuel had his piano - you know what that means! Billie Jean is reborn! Actually we decided to go with the name Rudolph and the Red Bean Paste instead. We played lots of Christmas songs, and some requests, but nothing that Silvi or Karen suggested. HA!Saturday night found us at Jason and Abbigail's 12th floor apartment for some martinis and Christmas cheer. We went early so that we could help set up some food, and Dawn and Abby used her new oven to bake peanut butter cookies! They were a hit. However, the real star of the evening was the cheese! Luckily for us our hosts had recently been to Costco, and so had cheese, and bagel bites and all kinds of wonderfully not-Korean food!
Sunday we decided it was Christmas, so we opened our presents. Now I know what some of you are thinking, but we had our reasons:
1. It was Christmas eve day... that's pretty much Christmas anyway, isn't it?
2. We had a really boring day and
needed SOMETHING to do.3. We have a lot to do today, so wouldn't have had time to open our presents and enjoy them.
So anyway, thanks to everyone who sent us presents, they were greatly appreciated. I especially have to say thanks to Neal and Crystal, who gave Dawn a small blowtorch and a pair of men's underwear. They also gave me an apron and women's underwear. Now this is a little joke that we started when Dawn and I gave Neal women's underwear for his birthday. Neal's underwear is better though, since it says "Pink Ladies' Delight", which matches the pink satin decor his employers picked out for him. Anyway, thanks everybody!
That brings us to today. This morning we got up early and baked the cinnamon buns that Dawn started at 1am this morning. Then we took them to Neal's for Christmas breakfast. There were 8 of us in all, and on the menu was eggs (done however you wanted them, thanks to Crystal!), bacon, toast (burned in the middle, thanks to Neal!) and Dawn's buns. There was much gift opening and fellowship, and was a very nice Christmas morning. Maura even got a call from her family! Tonight we will be heading to Richard and Shannon's for dinner, so that should warrant another post tomorrow.
One story I'd like to relate while I have your attention. On our way home from Neal's today we got into a cab, told him where wanted to go, and proceeded to have the normal conversation you have with cabbies in this country: where are you from, why are you here, school or hagwon, etc, etc, ad nauseum. However, this was not to be a normal cab ride. About 2/3 of the way home, he dialed a number on his phone, and it proceeded to ring on speaker phone. Dawn knew something was up, and said, "I don't like where this is going!" He talks with a Korean for a few seconds, while Dawn and I try to make out what he is saying. All of a sudden, the voice shouts out, "Hello! My English name is Joshua". It is at this point that I'd like to point out that this is a female we are talking to. She proceeds to explain that her father is our cab driver today, and wants to know which hagwon Dawn is teaching at. So we explain, and then she laughs and tells us she is shy and doesn't know what to say. So we say "nice to meet you" and "bye" and she does the same, and talks to her father for a few more seconds. Then she switches back to English and tells us that she would like us to leave our names and phone number with her dad and she would like to call us. Now we are weary of people taking your phone number here, as a lot of times they are either nuts or Jehova's Witnesses, or (in most cases) both. But we agree and do so. And we left two candy canes with the driver, one for him and one for Joshua. So we'll see what happens with that. We were home in time to bake the rapidly growing buns (formed at 1am), and just in time for Jen B. to call us and say Merry Christmas! We love you Jen!
Merry Christmas everybody!
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