Mr. & Mrs. Vandebilt + kids

This past weekend was the first time Jacob or I had been away from our families for a major holiday and it couldn’t have gone better. This was hands down the best weekend I’ve had in Korea. It was perfect.

The festivities started Christmas Eve at Janelie and Marietjie’s apartment. We had nachos provided by Carla and Liezl. Jacob and I put together some JibJab movies (you can see them online here) and Jacob made some eggnog. We really just spent the evening with our new family having a lot of laughs.

Christmas day started much the same way it normally does for us, except this time I was the cook. I made a big breakfast for the whole family – bacon, eggs, hashbrowns, banana bread and toast – after our bellies were full some took off to church while the rest of us had a nap. We had 11 other friends join us for Christmas day (that makes 23 in all) at J&M’s. We had a braai and some potato salad and lots more laughs.

My favourite day though still has to be Boxing Day. All of the other friends left Nammok late Christmas night and we were back to the 12 of us again, family. We spent the day lazing around on the balcony enjoying the beautiful hot sun, wine and wasting away in our PJs. I cooked dinner here at our place: roast chicken (5 of them), mashed potatoes, carrots, corn, stuffing. We even played a game of UNO. It really was a perfect day. As Juricka said, all that was missing was a great big table to sit around.

I had always suspected that Christmas was going to be one of the hardest things about being away from home. A day when I’d most miss my family. It turns out though that it was my favourite weekend in Korea. Not because I didn’t miss being at home, but we skyped a few times and that made it a lot better, but because it made us all realize how lucky we are here. We’ve really built a family and a home away from home.

There were a lot of pictures taken from the weekend – you can enjoy them here