Highlights of my Day... Friday, December 25

1. Christmas isn’t Christmas without all the fixings – mom’s Polish cabbage rolls, the tasting of the cabbage rolls late on Christmas Eve, the candlelit Christmas Eve service, Dad reading the Bible on Christmas morning, the house overly decorated from top to bottom, loads of cookies flooding the kitchen table, and Jesus’ birthday cake.

2. There were no Polish cabbage rolls for me this Christmas but I thought I’d start my own Christmas tradition by cooking up quite a storm for breakfast for Snickers and I.

3. Last night Snickers and I headed over to a local church to watch a Christmas performance. It was nice but very strange. It was strange in the fact that they sang “Hollywood carols”, like “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer”, during the production, and they started the show off with a guest appearance from Santa. Ya… strange, but there was also the fact that apparently everyone in the audience was also involved in the show, meaning that when they asked for all those involved to get on stage for a group shot, EVERYONE got on stage. Snickers and I were the only ones not in the show but they asked us to get in for the picture.

4. As for decorations, somehow in my move from Sambu to Ggum Guum my Christmas tree got lost and so I had no tree this year. My tree decorations only made it so far as the floor and that’s exactly where they sat on Christmas, in a sad looking Ziploc bag.

5. Most of today was spent doing absolutely nothing but relaxing on the floor and watching Christmas movies. On TV, they were showing the Home Alone trilogy and so we watched that.

6. I had anticipated creating yet another storm in the kitchen for dinner but Snickers gave me a break and instead took me out for dinner. We dined at Abis and had pasta, definitely not a traditional Polish Christmas dinner but it was delish. Yesterday we bought a Baskin Robins ice cream cake to replace the traditional white cross cake my mom makes for Jesus’ birthday. We indulged in it after dinner. And the loads of cookies that usually flood the kitchen table at the Polish Paradise (my parents’ house), were replaced with chocolate chip shortbread cookies Snickers and I made the other day. We indulged in them too.

7. There were no exchanging of gifts between Snickers and I. In fact, there were no Christmas presents this year.

8. Text message Christmas wishes flooded my phone today, as did messages from students inquiring about their marks – nice. For the most part, I’d have to say that 80% of those who complain about their marks and ask me to “do them a favor” (aka. lie and change their mark – which I REFUSE to do), deserve nothing short of a good kick to their head, seriously. I gave them 16 weeks to make themselves a mark they’d like and so I have no sympathy for students who wait till AFTER the 16 week semester to fight for their mark. If only they had tried as hard in the semester as they did after the exam, then maybe they would have got a mark that was satisfactory.

9. Got an email from my promoter and it totally brought some much needed cheer into my Christmas.

Hi Amy,

Good to hear you made it back safe and gained back a little of the weight!

Thank you too, Amy, for everything. I'm proud I was in your corner for the fight. It was a great experience for me too, and my first successful matchmake!

I stayed in Fukuoka a few more days (drank the milk you left yesterday -- now in Kobe), and kept running into people who had been at the fights. Everyone commented on how good the fight was, how it was stopped too fast (even the JBC commissioner), and how much fighting spirit you showed (you made a big impression!).

All Best Holiday & New Year's Wishes.

10. I’m so done with this year. I’m so over Christmas. I’ve been in such a blah mood lately because of the wedding, hence why I haven’t kept up with my homepage. I’m so eager to become the new “Mrs. Kim” and am counting the days down. However, I don’t know how to pinpoint what exactly it is I’m feeling because it’s a wide range of emotions. It’s ranging from bitterness and disappointment because I’m getting married soon minus all the hype of the Jack and Jills and bridal party parties that will never take place, to excitement because I’m getting married to a man I absolutely adore and think the world of, to sadness because no one will be walking me down the isle. There won’t even be an isle for me to walk down. It’ll just be a small room with a door to enter in. I don’t even have a wedding dress and am confused as to whether or not I should be even buying one. No one’s going to see it except for Snickers and I. I could show up in a brown bag and Snickers will still be all smiley and wide-eyed. He calls me beautiful even when I wake up with crazier-than-crazy fried blond hair and my bangs stuck to my forehead. I never was one of those little girls who dreamt about their wedding day but I’d like my wedding day to be different than just another day in my life. In fact, I’d like my wedding day to be more than just another day in the life of those also in my life.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
What makes Christmas Christmas?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
Bah humbug.
-- Scrooge