Holiday Spirit!

It is so odd to be away from home during the holiday season.  I can't believe that we are only 19 days until Christmas!  Usually Thanksgiving is a sign to my brain that Christmas is coming up and I need to get my butt into gear, but with the little Thanksgiving we had in Seoul (and the lack of days off surrounding it!) that didn't really happen this year.  I've done all my shopping and packed up a bunch of boxes to send to the US tomorrow (literally 7 boxes of various sizes and two large padded envelopes), but it still doesn't really feel Christmas-y.  One of my favorite parts of the Christmas season is sitting in a room only lit by Christmas tree lights (and I'm a purist, so only white lits on my tree, thank you very much) with some seasonal music playing in the background.  It just makes me feel warm and fuzzy.

In Seoul, I kind of have to improvise in order to ge in that holiday spirit.  Today I watched Love Actually (again), and went out to buy a Christmas tree.  Daiso sells little teeny trees and all the decorations.  For 6,000won (just over $5) I set up a cute little Christmas corner:

 And for a close up on the tiny litte tree:

Sadly I couldn't find any battery powered little strands of lights, so its still not quite there.  But its a start.  I've also been listening to some Christmas music as I clean and set up.  Let me just say that Katy Perry's version of White Christmas is SO TERRIBLE that I wish I could pay iTunes to take it BACK.  Ugh.  But I also got Josh Groban's Noel, which is (not surprisingly) wonderful.  I love the song Thankful that he sings, so I thought I'd share the lyrics.

 Thankful

 Somedays we forget

To look around us

Somedays we can't see

The joy that surrounds us

So caught up inside ourselves

We take when we should give.

So for tonight we pray for

What we know can be.

And on this day we hope for

What we still can't see.

It's up to us to be the change

And even though we all can still do more

There's so much to be thankful for.

Look beyond ourselves

There's so much sorrow

It's way too late to say

I'll cry tomorrow

Each of us must find our truth

It's so long overdue

So for tonight we pray for

What we know can be

And every day we hope for

What we still can't see

It's up to us to be the change

And even though we all can still do more

There's so much to be thankful for.

Even with our differences

There is a place we're all connected

Each of us can find each other's light

So for tonight we pray for

What we know can be

And on this day we hope for

What we still can't see

It's up to us to be the change

And even though this world needs so much more,

There's so much to be thankful for.