Tis the Season

When Thanksgiving rolled around, I was determined not to let the holiday turn into just another day in the ’Bode. Bri and I planned to visit Tyler’s site and cook dinner, complete with “Thanksgiving chicken,” green beans and mashed - actually more like mushed up - potatoes. Okay, so there was no pumpkin pie, or outrageous family drama, but it definitely gave me those warm fuzzy feelings. Now, I don’t know about your family … but mine generally starts prepping for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving. I’m talking about non-stop Christmas music and the beginning of a long, glorious decorating process. I won’t even get into details about the Christmas tree fiascos in recent years, but lets just say, if the tree doesn’t fall down, it‘s like breaking a family tradition. This year was no exception. Other than the fact that my dad decided to boycott Christmas altogether, I realized I had no Christmas music on my iPod and it’s been averaging about 90 degrees around here. Right, and did I mention Cambodians don’t even celebrate Christmas? Ironically, my host family was planning to spend the next FEW months (yes, I said months) in the States visiting family in Jacksonville, Florida. It was perfect timing. You know the old saying: when the cat’s away … the mice will play. Holiday party at my house, anyone?

We planned on egg nog, no-bake cookies, cheesy holiday movies and an obscene amount of Christmas music (supplied by my brother, who pulled through with our family’s secret recipe for egg nog and an express postal package containing 4 MP3 CD’s worth of Christmas music. That’s a total of 236 songs, in case you were wondering). My friends Deidre, Katie and Kelsey joined me for Christmas eve to catch up on gossip, prep the food and start our movie marathon. Of course, there were also presents from my family to open that had been torturing me for a week.

I don’t think I actually realized that I was really, truly away from home until I started ripping the wrapping paper off my gifts. In my 22 years, I have always spent Christmas with my family. Even when I studied abroad, mom and dad came to visit me. As I read my parents’ card, I could feel myself loosing it. It just didn’t feel right to be so far from my family in a place that truly doesn’t understand Christmas. I looked at my friends through blurry eyes and mumbled, “Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea?” They all laughed, but I could tell Deidre was pretty close to loosing it herself. We all began trading stories about our families and what we would be doing for Christmas if we were home. Between the stories, the music and the sentimental nature of my gifts, we were all a little “misty” by the time I had finished opening presents.

We decided the only remedy would be to start on the no-bakes and egg nog … and a bag of peanut M&Ms I had received in one of my gifts. We brought my computer into the kitchen and started blasting all my favorite Christmas songs. Within minutes, we were laughing, singing and busy melting chocolate and separating eggs. Once the no-bakes and egg nog were chilling in the fridge, we all put our pajamas on and piled onto the floor in my living room to watch Elf. For those of you who haven’t seen Elf, it’s about a human who thinks he’s a Christmas elf and runs amok in Manhattan experiencing the human world. Absolutely hilarious. It reminds me of what I imagine a Cambodian would do if he were thrown unsuspectingly into the Western world. Talk about culture shock.

Christmas morning was a blur of phone calls from family and friends, chocolate chip pancakes, hot chocolate, biscotti and no bakes. In a word: perfect. We treated ourselves to massages at the new “massage parlor” near my house and started a Project Runway marathon in the afternoon. We completed the night with cheeseburgers and red wine, and fell asleep to Love Actually.

By Friday afternoon, the rest of my houseguests had arrived. There were a total of 10 people there. We had spinach-cheese dip, a fruit plate, macaroni and cheese and brucetta to go with the cookies and drinks. Everyone was in such a good mood by the end of our meal, that even the boys got into watching Project Runway with us. Of course, that didn’t stop us from capping off the night with a showing of Bad Santa.

Saturday we had planned to cook our big Christmas feast and have a gift exchange. We spent the morning shopping and then primping for the afternoon’s festivities. By noon, we were ready to go -- everything seemed to be perfect … until we decided to start cooking. The gas tank that fuels my stove was empty. Perfect. Determined not to let this get in the way of our holiday fun, we went to a swanky (by Cambodian standards, of course) restaurant near my house and picked up right where we left off. When we got back to the house we had our Yankee gift exchange, shamelessly swapping and stealing presents with each other based on a lottery system. We went out for burgers again that nigh, then headed to the guesthouse for our last night together before everyone would return home.

It certainly wasn’t traditional, but it was a good Christmas. Holidays here are what you make of them, and we made the most of ours. To you and yours … Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!