Christmas Abroad

This Christmas,

1. I am thankful for my families who brought me up and the families I am marrying into.

2. I am thankful for having really good friends who keep me sane.

3. I am thankful for good health.

4. I am thankful for having a job and could provide for the family.

5. I am thankful for having a roof over my head and not wonder out in the cold.

We celebrated Christmas with Christmas Eve Dinner at relatives house. It was semi-formal affair.  The beautiful China and silvers are all out for the table setting, and you kind of have the feeling of having fancy private dinner out except everything is homemade.

The Christmas Eve Mass this year was very special.  We went to a monastery for the mass, it was small cozy chapel and only about 30 people attended.  Unlike the normal service, this is smaller congregation and the nuns know us by our first name.  Beside they have pretty good dessert for midnight snack after the mass.  Everything went so well!

The Christmas day this year was very beautiful.  It is different with what we have back home with open house and relatives and potluck buffet.  Here, it is just a family affair.  Again, I can't help feeling the formality and the traditional value they kept every Christmas.  I love the use of specially dishes, silverware and beautiful table setting for the dinner.  It was for special occasion after all.  We have Beef tenderloin, mash potatoes, Cajun Chicken soup and my favorite feast, dessert!  We have Grasshopper pie and Hershey Pie.  

We unwrapped our gifts and loves everyone of them, it is not the value or what the gifts we received. I know that the gifts were selected with much love and consideration.  No matter what value of the gifts or even thoughts or prayers someone you love give to you,  I love it a thousand time more than no longer have them again in the world to enjoy it with me.

We don't have snow on Christmas day.  But it actually snowed on new year.  Just a flimsy layer of snow that melt away after a day or two.  The scenic view is wonderful, calming and relaxing.

The leafless branches look bare but right, glad there's no heavy snow that may cause us to lose more branches on our Maple trees. 

Nothing can ever replace the old fashion greetings,  we received quite a few and I have them hang up as Christmas Decor, I'll do better next year.

Our Christmas tree this year look pretty bare, I know there's no presents under the tree too.  This is our first year having two cats who just adore the tree.  Fragile ornament is a no-no.  Gifts has to be tucked away somewhere to avoid cats bite, you couldn't believe this, but our cat like to chew on papers.  But overall the tree looked stunning!

Creme Brule for the New Year, taste absolutely amazing!

Snow globe is heavy enough the cats won't topple over.  I think we are over-reacted.  The cats has been well behave, maybe next year, we will go all out on the decor.