Christmastime at Home

These decorations are my mom's doing,
aren't they grand?

I apologize for the sporadic updates these days. As it's holiday season, I have been spending quite a bit of time with my family as well as working on other projects. I will restore my regular update schedule after the New Year.

Like Thanksgiving, this year marks my first Christmas with family since 2011. My actual Christmas day was pretty quiet with just me and my parents. We stayed in casual clothes, opened the couple of gifts we gave each other in the morning, then enjoyed Nigerian food for our main meal. Later that evening, my dad and I took a drive around our neighborhood, looked at the Christmas lights, and had a great discussion. 

I suppose our real Christmas was the day after. We had a few family friends over and ate a great meal—more Nigerian food! A great thing about being home right now is eating all the awesome food my mom makes although it threatens my waistline!

Jingle bells! Jingle bells!

聖誕節快樂！

(That is, Merry Christmas!)

The Christmas tree and snowman at the school where
I work.

Me at the end of Christmas.
I hate surgical masks, but I was coughing
and would have felt uncomfortable on
public transport without it.

I have not posted since Thanksgiving, so I think it's quite evident that I have been busy, busy, busy!  I'm so busy that I would periodically forget that Christmas was coming, but the lights and Christmas trees here are a constant reminder, although I didn't make an effort to see the big displays like I did last year (I think Taiwanese people enjoy Christmas as much as Americans!) But I enjoy being busy; after all, idle minds breed idle thoughts. In fact, my schedule is so full that I had to work on Christmas. But honestly, I wouldn't have had it any other way as I've grown to love my children.

Unfortunately for me, I had to go through my commute and work day with a cold and terrible sore throat, but it was worth it.

So this is Christmas...

聖誕節快樂！

(That is, Merry Christmas!)

This picture makes me
look short!

It is officially my first Christmas away from home in Taiwan, hundreds of miles away from my family. Tomorrow marks four months since I moved.

Christmas is my favorite holiday, and it's odd to be in a different country during this holiday season. Since Christmas is not an official holiday here, I've been doing school work non-stop, even in the early Christmas hours! I've got papers to write and academic journals to read until January. At first, I thought it was depressing, going to classes and doing school work during the holidays. But now, I see it as a transition. My life's changed, so I must get used to the changes! I'm someone who isn't exactly fond of extreme change, but after moving far away and having to acclimate myself to a myriad of new things, I'm learning to embrace it.

Maybe I'm trying to say that I've grown up.  Therefore, this is my first Christmas as an adult.