"GET IN THE MOOD" PARTY

Christmas is less than two weeks away! But it doesn't really feel like the Christmas season here - though it's not too infrequent that we spot poster cut-outs of Santa Clause displayed in the windows of businesses. However, since these decorations stay up year round, it hardly brings us into the Christmas spirit when we see them now. I went shopping in the Korean market last week, and there were a few shops which had brought in some Christmas trees and decorations. Most of it's pretty tacky, but it's nice to see Santa faces and green and red colors splashed across everything. I got to thinking that what we needed was something to put us in the Christmas mood. We needed the atmosphere of Christmas. At home you can't get away from everything Christmas (i.e., holiday music on the radio or coming from stores, houses lit up with lights, people gearing up for parties, crowds at the malls, people making traveling plans and talking about how they will spend the holidays). So we decided to have a "get in the spirit of Christmas" party Saturday night at my place. Brian had inherited a lot of things from the previous teachers here including some holiday decorations. I spent Saturday afternoon attempting to decorate my house with leftover Christmas decorations, and we found strings of lights in the Korean market that I strung up in my living room. Darla, Rena and Jaime made all kinds of Christmas desserts, and we filled my apartment with the foreigners and some of our Chinese friends. It was really cozy, actually. The only thing we were missing was a fireplace! We listened to Christmas music while we chatted and snacked on the huge assortment of dessert items. Then we watched White Christmas. It's surprising to me how few of us had actually seen this classic Christmas movie before, though I'm not sure it was very much of a crowd pleaser in the end. At any rate, the night provided a temporary Christmas environment which was really welcomed and very well received.