Happy Holidays!

Somehow it’s already Christmas. Which means it’s time for our annual holiday digital card!

We’re spending the holidays in Korea this year. We didn’t exactly plan it this way, but that’s just how it worked out.  At first, I was depressed at the thought of not being home with family (and stuffing my face with my mom’s cooking), but the great thing about the holidays is that there’s always room for new traditions.

So, instead, we celebrated a little early with a last-minute joint bday trip to Australia. It’s summer there and all the beaches are just glorious. Apparently, Christmas in Australia also means mango season! It’s so interesting to me that Aussies associate Christmas with mangos!

Once we returned to Korea, we were both kind of glad we weren’t turning right back around and getting on a long haul flight to the States. For one, I caught a cold somewhere in between Australia, all the millions of mainland Chinese airports we stopped at, and Korea, and am basically just over being on a plane or anywhere near an airport. And second, we had to take Max to the vet a couple days ago due to a mysterious lump we found on his leg. Thankfully, Christmas, while celebrated to some degree in Korea, doesn’t warrant the closing of vet hospitals and/or insanely expensive ER visits, so we were able to get a vet to see Max right away. Right now, all the tests/Xrays have come back in his favor, but we will be on pins and needles until his follow-up visit in two weeks.

While we didn’t get to be home with family this year, I guess in the end, it all worked out. It’s been an exciting, but also exhausting, year, and despite the health issues, we are having a nice, low-key holiday. It’s exactly what we needed.

We turned on our Korean space heater and have been cuddling and treasuring our time with the boys (and spoiling them extra rotten) every night. I have been making hot chocolate almost every day and we have been having a Harry Potter marathon with huge bowls of homemade popcorn. A new coffee shop that makes THE BEST dessert waffles ever just opened up across from our apartment and we have been totally addicted. Maybe waffles, hot chocolate, and Harry Potter will become a new Christmas tradition?

Merry Christmas/Christmas Eve to those who celebrate it!