A Grown up Christmas

We have just finished our first ever Christmas shop. It's pretty cool to say that your first ever Christmas as a host was in fact in Korea. It's not so cool that we shall have to cook everything in a kitchen the size of my shoe and I'm a size 3, along with an oven that will just about fit a single chicken (yes Chicken, Turkey here is expensive, like soul exchanging expensive)...



Our Borrower size kitchen: Usual for Korean Apartments



The oven: This is sizeable for Korea, most are toaster size.



The oven is in fact on loan from a friend who shall be joining us for Christmas dinner so mustn't grumble as I can't actually explain how wonderous it is to have an oven in our household!



So we have just been to the local HomePlus (AKA Tesco in the UK and Lotus in Thailand, I'm yet to see any other branches) or 'Homeplus-uh' to Koreans, and stocked up on Christmas goods. We were shopping to feed 6, a first for me and I had no idea how much to buy. I hope we got enough, Our fridge looks pretty good.



Our Christmas Goods: Chicken, Veggies, Wine, Champagne, Tonic for gin.



It doesn't feel like Christmas here in Korea, although more lights have just appeared downtown which I shall snap tomorrow. There is a severe lack of 'Festive air'. For the first time since being here I miss British society. I miss late night shopping in the cold and rain with the lights twinkling outside, carol singers and the man that plays trumpet on Bold Street, I miss getting home to Wales and wrapping up on the sofa in a furry blanket with the fire on surrounded by the outrageous grotto that is our house in December. I miss Christmas adverts, they dont have them here, the worktops being filled with ridiculous amounts of food and drink and even the pub on Christmas eve, when theres a sense of excitment and companionship in the air.

My first Christmas away from home shall be hard I think, I'm still far too spoiled at home. My mum makes Christmas just as special as the days when I believed in Santa and I shall miss my family even more than I already do day to day.

Mum and Tony last Christmas: All the presents you can see are my Mothers, she is very loved that woman!

However, we shall make it as special as possible here, surrounded by good friends and hopefully delicious food and soon we shall be home! I shall of course keep you updated on the days events...

But, for now, its time for a minature Christmas pudding courtesy of my delightful Christmas parcel from Genna.