It’s a Wonderful Christmas

So what is the real recipe for the Christmas experience? Us Midwesterns have been conditioned to expect cold, windy days, snow on Christmas eve, a plethora of Christmas treats within reach at all time, at least one family gathering, and most importantly, the recognition that it is celebrating Jesus’ birth. In Taiwan, I’m now convinced the recipe is simply one party glitter/glam and one part western curiosity. Only one “Baby Jesus” was found in a random rooftop, which upon closer inspection was the size of a 3 or 4 year old.
The day was here before we all knew it, and there certainly wasn’t any snow or cold or even Christmas treats. Where were my buckeyes? My peppermint bark? Even…. Dare I say… my eggnog? And oh the lack of Christmas flavored coffee creamers…. It still hurts to remember a sold four months later(which I'm sorry 1,000 times for... I blame the lack of planner). I missed Church too. I haven’t found one yet, and I didn’t have the joyous celebration with “Angles we have Heard On High”, a song that gives annually me chills. Honestly, I told myself to just roll with it, so I did. I didn’t expect anything, so I wouldn’t be disappointed.
With that said, Chirstmas turned out to be wonderful. The Taiching 10 came together as a family, minus the crazy Uncle that asks you to routinely try Aloe juice or something of that sort. In fact, it was full of laughter, gifts, and a lot of great food.
Christmas isn’t a national holiday, so we all had the choice of working. Due to my newness of the branch, I decided to. Heck, I even subbed a class. Shyra and I were throwing the Christmas Eve party and brunch, and everyone was planning on leaving with enough time for me to catch a cab to work. I hunted down Elf with a passion, which we watched on Christmas Eve complete with Champaign off our 14-story balcony, real cheese supplied by Anna, a rather large sleepover, and a few angry calls from the security guards.
On Christmas morning I have to admit that I still woke up with that childish rush. Gifts! They were all supplied by “secret santas” and covering our stairwell just begging to be opened. Anticipation is actually a huge part of Christmas, which makes the “holiday” truly what it is. After all, isn’t the anticipation of events actually better than the events themselves? Now, this is very different from the Religious celebration aspect of the day, which is infact what the entire purpose is.
We started cooking- and by me, I mean Shyra- and everyone trickled in with their dishes. People brought sweet potatoes, fruit, veggies, meat, beer, and dessert. Yum! After we all ate ourselves silly, it was time for secret santa. It was our only gift of the day, but that was more than fine for each of us. We all took turns in the “hot seat” opening the gift then guessing who it was from. I annoyingly asked each person what their favorite Christmas song was to further the mood. For only knowing each other for roughly a month, the gifts were extremely well throughout and unique. Many people found teaching supplies, but also small gifts that they would have never purchased for themselves… the best kind of gift. Nazeer, a close friend of mine, was my secret santa. And he actually out-smarted me. Which, considering I had figured out/helped shop for over half our group’s gifts, was a very large accomplishment. I was surprised with things that reminded us of inside jokes, a tea cup, and a beautiful scarf among other things. Susanne wins for the “most excited” award though, as I’m sure everyone agrees, and her joy was pretty contagious.
After the gifts were swapped, the chicken's head was chopped off, and part favors were enjoyed, we all headed off to our respective locations. I barely got to work on time, struggled through two classes, and then struggled home in just enough time to call various family and friends. So Ladies and gentlemen... there you have it- a Taiwan Christmas!