Christmas Eve:
It was Christmas Eve and I was furious. Pulled over on the side of the road in the middle of Phuket Town, after having worked until 4:00pm, it was hard not to just yell, not that yelling was going to fix the bad connection between Jackie's and my phones.
It was going on 5:30. I had been out of work for an hour and half and I was still scrambling around, running all the last minute errands that Jackie could have taken care of while I was at work. But instead I was having to deal with poor reception, traffic and the snowballing frustration of just not being home yet.
I was doing my best not to just lash out or break down, but I could tell that my best really was faltering.
We hadn't really connected once since I had gotten back from KL earlier this week and I had almost written the entire holiday off after having spent the majority of my time in KL gleefully shopping for presents. We had no plans, nothing to get excited about, nothing to look forward and the fact that Jackie had been out late at a co-worker's fairwell party just compounded my frustration with the entire situation.
The weather had changed and the wind was blowing hard over the ocean. Friendship beach, was a sliver of sand at high tide and we were worried about the wind snatching the Chinese lanterns up and throwing them, with or Christmas wishes, into the trees on the shoreline.
Not wanting to completely give up on our new "tradition" we popped the champagne cork and set up the mortar style fireworks.
Taking turns we would craddle a match, blocking the wind, and several matches later there would be a hiss as the fuse caught. We'd dash to safety and "pop" the mortar would be airborne and then burst over our heads. Taking turns we shot off the better part of a dozen mortars before retiring to the house to finish our champagne and start in on the Julia Child's chocolate mouse we had made up the night before.
It was Christmas Eve and I was furious. Pulled over on the side of the road in the middle of Phuket Town, after having worked until 4:00pm, it was hard not to just yell, not that yelling was going to fix the bad connection between Jackie's and my phones.
It was going on 5:30. I had been out of work for an hour and half and I was still scrambling around, running all the last minute errands that Jackie could have taken care of while I was at work. But instead I was having to deal with poor reception, traffic and the snowballing frustration of just not being home yet.
I was doing my best not to just lash out or break down, but I could tell that my best really was faltering.
We hadn't really connected once since I had gotten back from KL earlier this week and I had almost written the entire holiday off after having spent the majority of my time in KL gleefully shopping for presents. We had no plans, nothing to get excited about, nothing to look forward and the fact that Jackie had been out late at a co-worker's fairwell party just compounded my frustration with the entire situation.
Then, just when I thought that I had finished shopping for everything we needed at the Super Cheap and was headed home, I got a call and had to turn around and go to Tesco for chocolate and Italian sausages.
No Italian sausages. The best I could do was individually wrapped smoked sausages, but I was over it -- I just wanted to be home.
It was dark as I shifted into second gear and made way down the pot-holed hill to our house.
I could see Christmas lights twinkling through the gap of the full-length curtains of my bedroom -- it was suddenly Christmas. I was coming back to a home and not a house.
The Grinch spirit that had commandeered me on my motorbike over the last couple hours was waltzed away, leaving only the spirit of Christmas Present.
"Come in and know me better man," he beckoned.
A little snowman cut-out, snatched from school I don't doubt, hung on the side door of the house. The bags of food, drink, and fireworks I had been irritatingly gathering were now prizes won and gifts to pass out.
Hanging from my bedroom door was an upside down Santa hat -- my stocking stuffed to the point that the flowers and a mask were poking out of the top.
The house was beautiful and Jackie, having spent the better part of the day decorating and preparing for our Christmas celebrations was in the shower, but clearly in seasonal cheer.
I unpacked my loot: eggs, donuts, sausages, chocolate, cabernet sauvignon, champagne, brandy, some big fireworks and two Chinese lanterns.
Next to the fresh produce and ingredients for dinner to was become quite a display.
I would have immediately gone to my room to see the decorations and Christmas lights that Jackie had set up, but the door was locked. A surprise waiting for me inside?
No, it turned out the door, which we didn't have a key for, had accidentally been locked, forcing Jackie and I to exercise our breaking-and-entering skills, which were up to the task.
My room, with the red sheets and the dim white Christmas lights mirrored my childhood memories of Christmas Eve in Indiana.
I started on the eggnog, while Jackie minced some garlic and began working on the marinara sauce, which turned out to be one of the best red sauces I've ever had (most likely it had a lot to do with the all the smoke sausage fat added to it).
Full and sleepy I crawled into bed to give Santa a little time to do some more of his magic.
Christmas Day:
With the aircon blasting I woke up under the covers to that warm feeling, which seems to most often come when you wake up warm on a cold winters day. We sifted through our stockings [I had actually not made Jackie a stocking (my favorite part of Christmas) this year, because I had become so disheartened with the whole affair. However the night before, inspired by her beautiful stocking, I had scooted back out of the house to pick up something for the sauce and ended up buying almost every delicious chocolate treat I could find for her makeshift stocking.]
We poured ourselves little breakfast eggnog and then started with the gift exchange. There were plenty of gifts for both of us to unwrap (Thanks Mom and Dad!).
Green seemed to be the theme of the day for my presents as I got an awesome green polo and a green banded watch, which I wear daily.
With newspaper wrapping shredded around us (sorry Phuket Gazette) and gifts neatly stacked to the side, we started playing A Christmas Story on my laptop. Hidden by the comforter from the aircon's cold, all my childhood memories came rushing back. Even now I'm smiling thinking about how well crafted the moment that I got my first BB gun was -- straight out of the movie.
The sad thing about Christmas is that once the presents are unwrapped and stacked to the side the anticipation for the day is lost. There was no snow to play in, nothing "Christmasy" left. Even at home there would of course be hours of games and delicious food to come, but the big moments would have already passed.
Jackie and I cured this little Christmas dilemma with a new tradition, a grafting of Thai celebration onto our own Christian holiday -- fireworks and Chinese lanterns. After a day of lounging about on the ocean, we returned home, ordered a pizza and headed to the beach for fireworks and champagne.
No Italian sausages. The best I could do was individually wrapped smoked sausages, but I was over it -- I just wanted to be home.
It was dark as I shifted into second gear and made way down the pot-holed hill to our house.
I could see Christmas lights twinkling through the gap of the full-length curtains of my bedroom -- it was suddenly Christmas. I was coming back to a home and not a house.
The Grinch spirit that had commandeered me on my motorbike over the last couple hours was waltzed away, leaving only the spirit of Christmas Present.
"Come in and know me better man," he beckoned.
A little snowman cut-out, snatched from school I don't doubt, hung on the side door of the house. The bags of food, drink, and fireworks I had been irritatingly gathering were now prizes won and gifts to pass out.
Hanging from my bedroom door was an upside down Santa hat -- my stocking stuffed to the point that the flowers and a mask were poking out of the top.
The house was beautiful and Jackie, having spent the better part of the day decorating and preparing for our Christmas celebrations was in the shower, but clearly in seasonal cheer.
I unpacked my loot: eggs, donuts, sausages, chocolate, cabernet sauvignon, champagne, brandy, some big fireworks and two Chinese lanterns.
Next to the fresh produce and ingredients for dinner to was become quite a display.
No, it turned out the door, which we didn't have a key for, had accidentally been locked, forcing Jackie and I to exercise our breaking-and-entering skills, which were up to the task.
My room, with the red sheets and the dim white Christmas lights mirrored my childhood memories of Christmas Eve in Indiana.
I started on the eggnog, while Jackie minced some garlic and began working on the marinara sauce, which turned out to be one of the best red sauces I've ever had (most likely it had a lot to do with the all the smoke sausage fat added to it).
Full and sleepy I crawled into bed to give Santa a little time to do some more of his magic.
Christmas Day:
With the aircon blasting I woke up under the covers to that warm feeling, which seems to most often come when you wake up warm on a cold winters day. We sifted through our stockings [I had actually not made Jackie a stocking (my favorite part of Christmas) this year, because I had become so disheartened with the whole affair. However the night before, inspired by her beautiful stocking, I had scooted back out of the house to pick up something for the sauce and ended up buying almost every delicious chocolate treat I could find for her makeshift stocking.]
We poured ourselves little breakfast eggnog and then started with the gift exchange. There were plenty of gifts for both of us to unwrap (Thanks Mom and Dad!).
Jackie holds up her make-shit stocking (A Mad Rock climbing shoe bag)
Green seemed to be the theme of the day for my presents as I got an awesome green polo and a green banded watch, which I wear daily.
With newspaper wrapping shredded around us (sorry Phuket Gazette) and gifts neatly stacked to the side, we started playing A Christmas Story on my laptop. Hidden by the comforter from the aircon's cold, all my childhood memories came rushing back. Even now I'm smiling thinking about how well crafted the moment that I got my first BB gun was -- straight out of the movie.
The sad thing about Christmas is that once the presents are unwrapped and stacked to the side the anticipation for the day is lost. There was no snow to play in, nothing "Christmasy" left. Even at home there would of course be hours of games and delicious food to come, but the big moments would have already passed.
Jackie and I cured this little Christmas dilemma with a new tradition, a grafting of Thai celebration onto our own Christian holiday -- fireworks and Chinese lanterns. After a day of lounging about on the ocean, we returned home, ordered a pizza and headed to the beach for fireworks and champagne.
The weather had changed and the wind was blowing hard over the ocean. Friendship beach, was a sliver of sand at high tide and we were worried about the wind snatching the Chinese lanterns up and throwing them, with or Christmas wishes, into the trees on the shoreline.
Not wanting to completely give up on our new "tradition" we popped the champagne cork and set up the mortar style fireworks.
Taking turns we would craddle a match, blocking the wind, and several matches later there would be a hiss as the fuse caught. We'd dash to safety and "pop" the mortar would be airborne and then burst over our heads. Taking turns we shot off the better part of a dozen mortars before retiring to the house to finish our champagne and start in on the Julia Child's chocolate mouse we had made up the night before.
Merry Christmas Isaac and Jackie!
ReplyDeleteTom