It is now Boxing day, Christmas has passed, I will admit mostly in a blur. But it was a great day.
Christmas Eve, I met up with my friends Helen and Nathan. She is a Brit, he is American (although I to not to judge..ha ha) and they work at the same school. We met for drinks at Benchwarmers and made our way to Tombstone where, lets just say, the drinking continued until the wee hours of the morning. Tombstone is another great bar here in Ulsan, one of the owners is a Canadian named Jeff who only wears shorts...even though the temperature is close to zero right now. Helen and I played pool against a couple of Brits - she cleared the table on her first round...then turns to me and whispers "I used to play for money" - no shit! It was pretty funny - the guys were impressed to say the least.
A group of Carolers came in to the pub - bursting through the door like in a movie and belting out Christmas songs for the next hour or so. It was fabulous!
After that, it was pretty much drinking as if it was going to be our last night on earth. You know you have had too much when someone suggests shots of zambooka and it sounds like a great idea (why didn't I think of that?).

Needless to say, I awoke with a massive headache and a not so massive memory of the night's events.
Dad called me at 8:00am my time - and I opened my gifts with him on the phone. It was great - a real father/daughter moment. After a long chat, I fell back to sleep immediately, until my phone rang again. This time it was Mom and my sister Christa. I had promised to call them , but was almost an hour late from the time I told them I would call. Thankfully they called - I was deep asleep (and still drunk...oh thankyou zambooka).
Again, I opened up more gifts on the phone. Got to talk to my sister's new boyfriend, Loren - who sounds pretty nice on the phone and even said Hello to my kitty Ginger.
After a quick shower I dragged my sorry butt to my friend Nicole and Hope's house for a Christmas Day breakfast. Eggs and Bacon ..mmm. I brought the Tim Horton's coffee (to everyone's delight). I know it is a little cliche but it felt like a 'commercial moment'...taste of home.
After breakfast, everyone was beginning to feel the heavy effects of their hangovers - we all agreed to take it easy and meet up for dinner at 6:00pm.

Dinner was fabulous - there was ore food then I have seen in a long time. All of it made just like Mom does..ha ha. We had Turkey, stuffing, potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, vegetables, chicken, ham, salads, and much more.We watched Ruldolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, The Grinch and Charlie Brown's Christmas on DVD - made everyone reminisce about childhood Christmas' at home.
Most people couldn't move after the dinner ended, sort of a Turkey comatose settled over everyone.
A few went for a walk to shake off the tiredness and prepare for a night of drinking.
We decided to go back to Nicole's and Hope's apartment and make homemade Bailey's. Fabulous idea!
I was still feeling like ass, so I slept on their floor while the Bailey's was prepared. We finished about midnight - I was ready to call it a day - as were most of the girls.
I caught a taxi home and slept for the next 12 hours. I guess I really needed it.

Today is boxing day - and I plan to do nothing! Bonnie and her sister were going to Daegu and invited me, however, I feel the need to rest my battered body and maybe rent a movie or two.
Christmas away from home wasn't as hard as I thought it might be. I think the key is to just go with the flow and not dwell on the things that you are missing, but think about all the fun it is to be with great friends on the holidays.
Thanks to the magic of internet, and cheap international phone cards I felt apart of my family's Christmas at home, and even managed to get a couple of calls from old friends back home.

I love you all. Merry Christmas
Love Colleen