Christmas in Kaohsiung (in which I heap praises on Skype)

Cookies. Skype. Cookies. Church. Cookies. Friends. Cookies. Skype.

That, in a nut shell, describes my Christmas today. I slept in--bizarre for Christmas--and then set about leisurely making Nanaimo bars, while intermittently hanging out with my roommates (who were, incidentally, watching Armageddon, which was the best thing we could find on TV) and Skyping for several hours with my family.

Around 4pm, I went to church, where I sang Christmas carols (the real classics) for the first time this season, and met three college students who had volunteered to come here over Christmas for a Winter break mission trip. At the end of the service, we had a candle-lit portion, which was wonderful since that's been an element of my Christmas tradition since time immemorial.

First attempt: they're not pretty, but they taste good. :)

Then I came home, finished my cookies (who'd have thought that melting and spreading chocolate would be the most difficult part of the Nanaimo bar recipe???) and went to a little Christmas gathering with the other ETAs, and which turned out to be a more international Fulbright gathering, since Esther's fiance Marlie, an ETA in Korea, is in town, as is Lydia's friend Noah, who's a research scholar in Xi'an, China.There, I ate far too many sweets and laughed with some good friends.

Our spread, including Steven's sweet potato pie, mid slice

Now I'm home, just having finished Skyping with my friend Anna as she is en route home to Spain, and awaiting midnight, when I can do "Christmas morning" with my family via Skype.

It's been an unconventional, yet fun day. And, thanks to Skype, I do at least get a "fly on the wall" perspective of the Christmassy goings-on at home. And that's something.

Also, in the vein of "unconventional Christmas," I give you perhaps the single least conventional Christmas song of all time. Good luck getting it out of your head for the rest of the year--but you won't regret it. :) Merry Christmas!