It's an interesting Christmas time.

Christmas was, interesting. That’s really the only way to describe it. Although Corin and I made the best of it, the feeling of family and overwhelming love in the season was just lacking. We had a white Christmas. We had the tree. We had loving presents sent to us weeks in advance. We had hot cocoa and Christmas aprons. We just lacked something. I still can’t put my finger on it but it has a lot more to do with family and friends and the feeling of being warm inside than presents and trees and Christmas carols. But in the end, we had each other, and as this experience has proved time and time again, that’s all we really need to make an incredible memory. We started out Christmas Eve by going to our favorite place for dinner, B&T Curry. 

Christmas Eve at B&T

It helps that it’s right down the street from our house, since our car finally decided to give up the ghost earlier that day. The problem was essentially the starter (which I’m now being told is actually the alternator), but there were a boat load of other issues that finally led to its demise. Anyway, we decided to call our Akkeshi friend Corey to meet us for dinner, as we were the only three foreigners left in the general area. Corey was happy to drive the 45 minutes for some tasty curry and naan, and although I accidently got palaak mutton instead of palaak chicken, the meal was delicious. Corin and I headed home and decided to watch the newest version of A Christmas Carol. It’s a CGI version and downright creepy but probably as close to the actual story as you can get (I reread Dicken’s version the week prior). After the movie, we discussed what sort of traditions we’d like to start for our own mini family. I mentioned opening a present on Christmas eve, and Corin was fully on board. We each selected a gift and were happy to find new undershirts (thanks Mom!) and a micro block set of the Kinkaku-ji Temple in Kyoto (thanks Laurel and Colin!).  We ended our first Christmas Eve totally away from home by reading, “The Night Before Christmas.” It’s one tradition I definitely want to continue! Since “Santa wouldn’t come until we were fast asleep,” we turned out the light soon after. I haven’t believed in Santa since, well, ever and I’m sure Corin has been in the know for a while, but it seemed to be the only thing left to do on Christmas Eve.

Keen to our inner five year old selves’ demands, we were wide-awake extra early the next morning. We just couldn’t help ourselves and were up drinking cocoa and opening presents by 7:30. We got many great, thoughtful, beautiful gifts and spent most of the morning playing with and admiring our new toys highly intelligent gadgets and things. We had decided the day before to make pizza for our Christmas lunch/dinner. An Angie-safe pizza was something I hadn’t had since we’d arrived (really missing our BeauJos dates!), so I began readying the gluten free dough around noon. It needed an hour to rise and as I was planning to make BBQ chicken, I needed to whip up some homemade BBQ sauce and pre-sauté some onions.

yum!

By the time everything was baked, topped and baked again, it was nearing 3 o’clock, perfect timing for our late lunch/early dinner. We filled our bellies with the good stuff, Corin saving part of his pizza for later while I devoured mine in almost record time. We spent the rest of the day Skyping our parents and remarking how odd it felt to have to head back to the office in the morning. And that we did, treating the 26^th as any other workday and making the 25^th feel like any other Sunday. Spending Christmas so far from family and that indescribable Christmas spirit wasn’t particularly hard, it was just something I don’t wish to do again. Although I’ll refrain from saying that we’re 100% coming home in July, I will state that I definitely hope to spend next Christmas less than an ocean away from the (rest of the) ones I love.