Christmas Festivities

On Christmas Eve, we had a big celebration. I had some people from work over, and some non-work friends as well. I cooked a big dinner, and we generally made merry. It was nice, because it snowed all through the night before, so it was lovely outside. Most of the snow was gone by the time my guests arrived, but it was still some nice atmosphere. 

I made a sugar cookie Christmas tree for dessert. I also made some chocolate chip cookies. 

One of my work friends has a birthday coming up, so I made a red velvet birthday cake for him. I didn't have any candles though, which was rather sad :(

The main course was a lasagna. I love lasagna. It's one of my favorite foods. But in Korea, not only is it ridiculously expensive to make lasagna, it's very time consuming. All said and done, I probably spent a good seven hours making this thing. But it tasted pretty good, and Christmas is a good time to pull out the culinary stops, right??

I also made some BBQ meatballs, and some parmesan roasted asparagus. 

Finally, I baked some Italian bread with whole garlic cloves to round out the meal. 

This was the dessert table, complete with a little bowl of after-dinner mints. 

The next morning,  I got up and went to church. My friends had some boxes from home waiting for me!! It was most exciting!

Box number 1 was from my parents and extended family. 

Box number two was from my brother and sister in law. 

After church, I went to hang out with a family from my church. They made a lovely brunch with all sorts of wonderful food, like cinnamon rolls, bacon, cantelope and waffles that are practically impossible for me to get. After we ate, we did some gift exchanging. It was great fun, because they have two young children. It felt just like being part of a family again, which was a very nice feeling. 

After that, we sat around and played with new toys, and Jessie made an amazing pot roast dinner. We watched the Nativity, and stayed up late into the night just hanging out and talking. All in all, it was a wonderful Christmas. I was so thankful to spend the holiday with friends and church family from all over the world. Merry Christmas!