A Christmas Together Alone
It's been a little hard to get into the holiday spirit over here. Last year, things in Seoul were still so new that I was excited to experience a new experience and have a totally different Christmas. Turns out, it was pretty lame. This city does not really celebrate Christmas at all. I would compare Christmas in Korea to Arbor Day in the States - everybody gets a day off work but nobody gives a shit about the trees.
To help myself out, I downloaded an album from my own personal Christmas past, "A Christmas Together" by John Denver and the Muppets. This album, on vinyl, filled the Hopkins' family home each and every Christmas when I was a young boy. It took about ten seconds into the first track (a silly rendition of "The 12 Days of Christmas") for the music to bring a huge smile to my face. I am guessing that this will be in pretty heavy rotation around my flat for the next few days.
Along with a smile, the music has also brought a rush of old memories of gifts, stockings, visits from Santa, the Christmas celebrated in two separate rooms when my sister was sick, opening a box on Christmas morn that was filled to the brim with my very own Millenium Falcon, one of the worst nights of my life when I returned home drunk only to fall into the middle of the Christmas tree, meat/cheese/cracker/fruit Christmas Eve dinners, visiting Grandma's house and having her tell me when I woke up that I had just missed the sound of Santa on the roof (I was absolutely convinced he would not be able to find us if we weren't at home - my dad even wrote a note and left on the table to make sure he knew we were in Iowa,) the smell of a house when it is filled with a mixture of Christmas tree, a burning fire in the fireplace and joy, watching Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph on tv, filling the church with the lone sound of my trumpet playing a perfect opening line of "Joy to the World," the first Christmas in our new house when we forgot to open the chimney flue and the whole house filled with smoke as the fire detectors went off, socks from my aunt and uncle, chocolate Santas, playing Santa in a first grade play and spending numerous minutes on stage trying to untie my bag so I could place presents by the sleeping children as the crowd grumbled with laughter (got that one on tape,) the Christmas where the magic of Santa was spoiled when the neighbor came home from school crying because (due to some miscommunication in information) Santa Clause was dead, honey-baked ham, Christmas Eves at the Williams' house, snowy country Christmases at my aunt and uncle's farm, the Plaza lights, Candy Cane Lane, Christmas Caroling from door-to-door in grade school, seeing "A Christmas Carol" at the KC Rep and too many more for this space.
I will miss being around friends and family this weekend, but I am glad that I have these memories to keep me warm and jolly. I do have friends to spend the time with as well, who are in the same boat as me and I am sure we will make do.
I hope the yule log is keeping y'all warm.
Big ups to my boys John Denver and Kermit the Frog. That Lloyd Christmas is full of shit, John Denver is awesome. Download this now...
Happy Holidays and Much love from Seoul
To help myself out, I downloaded an album from my own personal Christmas past, "A Christmas Together" by John Denver and the Muppets. This album, on vinyl, filled the Hopkins' family home each and every Christmas when I was a young boy. It took about ten seconds into the first track (a silly rendition of "The 12 Days of Christmas") for the music to bring a huge smile to my face. I am guessing that this will be in pretty heavy rotation around my flat for the next few days.
Along with a smile, the music has also brought a rush of old memories of gifts, stockings, visits from Santa, the Christmas celebrated in two separate rooms when my sister was sick, opening a box on Christmas morn that was filled to the brim with my very own Millenium Falcon, one of the worst nights of my life when I returned home drunk only to fall into the middle of the Christmas tree, meat/cheese/cracker/fruit Christmas Eve dinners, visiting Grandma's house and having her tell me when I woke up that I had just missed the sound of Santa on the roof (I was absolutely convinced he would not be able to find us if we weren't at home - my dad even wrote a note and left on the table to make sure he knew we were in Iowa,) the smell of a house when it is filled with a mixture of Christmas tree, a burning fire in the fireplace and joy, watching Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph on tv, filling the church with the lone sound of my trumpet playing a perfect opening line of "Joy to the World," the first Christmas in our new house when we forgot to open the chimney flue and the whole house filled with smoke as the fire detectors went off, socks from my aunt and uncle, chocolate Santas, playing Santa in a first grade play and spending numerous minutes on stage trying to untie my bag so I could place presents by the sleeping children as the crowd grumbled with laughter (got that one on tape,) the Christmas where the magic of Santa was spoiled when the neighbor came home from school crying because (due to some miscommunication in information) Santa Clause was dead, honey-baked ham, Christmas Eves at the Williams' house, snowy country Christmases at my aunt and uncle's farm, the Plaza lights, Candy Cane Lane, Christmas Caroling from door-to-door in grade school, seeing "A Christmas Carol" at the KC Rep and too many more for this space.
I will miss being around friends and family this weekend, but I am glad that I have these memories to keep me warm and jolly. I do have friends to spend the time with as well, who are in the same boat as me and I am sure we will make do.
I hope the yule log is keeping y'all warm.
Big ups to my boys John Denver and Kermit the Frog. That Lloyd Christmas is full of shit, John Denver is awesome. Download this now...
Happy Holidays and Much love from Seoul
posted by Kyle at 11:58 PM
2 Comments:
who gets off work for Arbor day? I think you just sneak away.
dude i had a little bit of a christmasy day today. well, i slept through most of the day actually. but then i sat down with my sister and parents to watch the original miracle on 34th street. we'd taped it from TV in 1987 so all the ladies in the commercials were healthy-looking and had big bangs and very un-sarcastic personalities. I didn't intend to watch much of it, but eventually everyone else fell asleep or left and it was just me drinking straight scotch and tearing up when santa speaks dutch to the little foreign girl in the mall. great stuff.
so yeah, there's my christmas memory for you. have a good one and we'll be thinking of you here in KC.
LW
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