Holidays

It's a bit strange to live in a foreign land during the holidays. You can almost feel like they don't exist and well, they really don't in South Korea.

Thanksgiving of course is Thursday and well, no one in Korea is celebrating with turkey and all the fixins. But among all of us expat's, there is a buzz and a quest to find all of our traditional Thanksgiving Day foods.

Todd and the kids are off school Thursday and Friday. Since the school follows a Western schedule, they honor our Thanksgiving Break. We're all pretty excited. Most of our friends aren't off so we will be celebrating Saturday. It's going to be interesting and exciting to gather 25 plus people in our apartment. Our day is going to begin with a football game at Seohyeon Park. Because no one has a proper kitchen, we all must cook at different locations and then bring it together at our place. It's going to be awesome--a Thanksgiving I'm sure we'll never forget.

Christmas . . . I can't believe it's just around the corner. Christmas is not celebrated by most Koreans. There are a few stores that are carrying beautiful ornaments and decorations but for the most part, you could feel like Christmas isn't coming. I asked some friends what they do for Christmas--curious how they would celebrate. They said they give "a" gift to the children in the family and go out for dinner. That's it. I like it. Christians of course celebrate Christ and attend a Christmas service but for the most part, it's another day.

I must admit that I'm sad that all of our ornaments are packed away in a storage unit. We are on the search for a Christmas tree--that won't cost a fortune! I'm sure this will be a Christmas we won't forget. It will be special and a bit sad . . . mostly special though because we will be together, creating something new and memories that we will never forget.

Thankful.