Merry Christmas indeed!

Although Christmas was completely different for us this year, it turned out to be a very fun and memorable one! It was our first Christmas away from family for both Christine and I, and definitely our first Christmas in a different country and culture.
We spent our Christmas Eve getting up later in the morning and lazing around the house getting ready to go to the Christmas Eve service and dinner at the church. We set out at 3:00pm to go and help prepare some of the food. Christine ended up showing some ladies how to make some killer mashed potatoes, while I took off with Bill to pick up the chickens. We unfortunately ended up with chicken instead of turkey for dinner because of the drastic price difference. Turkey is hard to come by here in Korea. Pastor Bill and I rolled into the church at 5:05pm just in time to start the service about 15 minutes late. We had a nice candlelight service together and spent some time singing carols and talking about "Emmanuel" (God with us) and the reason for the season.
After the service we proceeded to the basement for some appetizer. Then our main course of chicken, mashed potatoes, corn, and salad was served. Dinner was followed by some carrot and coffee cakes for dessert. It was a nice meal and it reminded us a little bit of home.
After dinner we decided that we would go to a concert at a foreigner pub that we had been invited to. Christine and I had met an English speaking Korean woman at the gym who had invited us to watch her band perform at the Royal Anchor pub. Apparently her band is the only all girl band in the city. So we found our way there for the concert.
There were two bands performing that night, our friend Raena's girl band, and another Korean band to follow. They both played some English songs, which was fun for us. Rain's band played an Evanescence song "Going under", and a classic rock song "I love rock-n-roll!". Each of the bands played some Christmas carols as well. It was a good time. We had front row seats in the pub, right on the corner of the stage actually. The people there were fun and we mingled a bit. We met some other foreigners there too.
After a couple hours there, we decided to go for a breather and get some munchies. So we hit up a bakery for some snacks, then we headed to a Noraebang (a karioke room). These are hugely popular in Korea. Many people go to noraebangs with their friends or co-workers, even businessmen go with their associates. So there were 6 of us that ended up going: Christine and I, Katie, Courtney, Chuck, and Maroo. We had a good time in there. They have a large selection of English music from Backstreet boys to Def Leppard to Elvis Presley. So we sang a few good tunes and had some fun!
By the time we were finished it was around 3am. So we all said "Merry Christmas" and went home. Christine and I made some hot chocolate at home, put on some "Amy Grant Christmas" music, and opened our gifts for each other. By the time we retired to bed, it was close to 4:30am. It was a long day, but a very fun Christmas Eve!
On Christmas day, we woke up at 10am. We had some presents left to open in the morning. We had given each other some stocking stuffers to open on Christmas day, as well as a package from Christine's family that had been waiting under the tree for a couple weeks. Christine also had a small gift from one of the girls she teaches. So we sat down by our Christmas tree and opened our gifts. It felt for a minute like we were back in Canada. The package was a great surprise, and we enjoyed the gifts inside. I was a good feeling to have some gifts to open on Christmas day. After we opened the gifts and played around with them, I made some pancakes for breakfast. I had bought a big bag of pancake mix from Costco on our last Daegu trip. So we had a few pancakes quickly before we hopped on the scooter and ripped to Sunday service. We made it to the service just in time for it to begin. We were surprised with a gift from the Korean congregation when we arrived. They gave us a framed set of traditional Korean masks in a frame, some socks, gloves, a scarf, and some chocolates. It was a real treat!
Following the service, we went to the basement for lunch before we headed out to an old folks home about an hour away. We didn't know what to expect, but we knew we would be singing to and visiting with some elderly men and women there. Because of the language barrier, it was difficult to say more than "hello" and "nice to meet you" in Korean. But it was a blessing to bless those that were lonely on Christmas day. Some of the folks were really happy to meet some foreigners and shake some hands and give some hugs. It was a fun time!
By the time we returned home on a rollercoaster of a bus ride, we were pretty tired. We decided to head home for a nap. Christine and I decided to rent a movie and take it home for the afternoon. While we were out we stopped by the Pizza Etang for a couple of pepperoni pizza's to go. We watched "Finding Neverland", I mean, I watched it as Christine dozed off. Later that evening we managed to get ahold of Christine's family on the phone to talk with them. It was good to catch the rest of the family at the same time. We ended up talking for a couple hours, which led us to another late night (3:30am). So we hit the sac after that.
Overall, it was a really fun Christmas! Much better than we had thought it would be! We really miss our friends and family, but we have been blessed to meet some great people here create new Christmas memories!