Christmas AM

So, because we got home so late, a certain someone was up into the wee hours getting ready for Santa's visit. Got some early morning shots of the treasures Santa left for the kids.

Christmas Eve

We went ice skating on Christmas Eve. It was Dahin's idea and we all thought it would be a great family outing. An ice skating rink has been created for holiday fun at Kwanghwamun in downtown Seoul. We reserved tickets online and it only cost about $1 (1,000 won) per person to skate--including skate rental. The reservation was just for an hour, though, so after one hour you had to leave the rink to make room for more people--and there were lots, and lots, of people. We had invited our nieces Haenee and Jeongeun to go with us, but they arrived late via subway so Ronan, Dahin, and I went ahead while Oliver and Jack waited for the girls to arrive.

Jack, Oliver, and the girls decided they didn't want to skate since time was short (and the three cousins were a bit skiddish about skating), so they stayed outside the rink and snapped photos. Wish we could have all skated together, but think everyone had a good time regardless.

The skate session began with Dahin and Ronan hanging on me. Because I am not so steady in my skates, either, I told Dahin she had to just use the wall and try to skate on her own. The ice was a bit bumpy, so skating was not as easy for her as she remembered it, but she did really well after the first few minutes. Ronan held tight to my hand the whole time and fell about every two seconds. You can tell from the photos below that, despite the falls, he had a really good time. He got tired toward the end of the hour, so Jack took him out of the rink so that Dahin and I could skate the last few rounds together.

Oliver looks like a little Eskimo in his fur-trimmed coat. Jack and the gang took a lot of great photos of each other and the festivities.

After ice skating, we headed to a Chinese restaurant across the street from the rink. It was so good! The tea hit the spot after skating. We had a great view of the Christmas celebrations on Kwanghwamun from the second floor window. The Christmas music blasting through the air really helped create a Christmas feel.

Leaving the restaurant, we were reminded to be 'head careful.' Hmmm, could be taken so many ways....I know, but sometimes you just have to grant me that fun 'make fun of Konglish time' that I so dearly crave at times. Always makes me smile!

We headed to Myeongdong for an after-dinner ice cream cone at our favorite ice cream dive.

Haenee took this great photo of us in Myeongeong. This neighborhood, like Kwanghwamun, was incredibly packed with people. We got stuck in traffic on the way home so arrived home too late to bake the cookies for Santa, although I had pre-made the dough. The kids were good sports though and wrote their letters to Santa and went to bed (although they had threatened to stay up and wait for Santa).

Getting Ready for Christmas

Trips to Namsan Tower for views of the city at night and a chance to see Christmas decorations is one way the kids are getting ready for Christmas.

We had dinner with my graduate student assistant, Heejin, and she brought the kids some Santa hats and stockings, which they promptly wore.

Itaewon is showing some American-Korean-Chinese spirit just in time for the holidays.

A view of our finished tree. Now, have to get those finishing touches ready since Santa is coming tomorrow night! The boys got a visit from Santa at school today and he gave them new toothbrushes and toothpaste as gifts.

Christmas movies also help to spread the cheer. 'Polar Express' is one of the only Christmas movies for kids we could find. Christmas here is a dating holiday and not very kid-focused. I think for next year I am going to buy some dvds--Rudolf, Christmas Story, Wonderful Life, etc.

Snow helps add to the festivities. The kids made a snow fort with the little bit that fell this weekend. They are totally ready for snow play and can handle way more snow that we've had so far. Forecast is calling for a white Christmas!

Winter Solstice

Shots of a frozen pond and winter night sky in Yongsan Family Park, Seoul

Winter Knitting Projects

The hat above has a 15-year history in the making. In 1995, my first winter in Indiana, my friend Zoe devised a way to keep us busy during the blizzardy weather. She is a master knitter (as you can see on her blog http://seasideknitting.blogspot.com/) and had a whole bunch of Norwegian patterns. The beginner knitter in me took on an overly ambitious project (the norm for me) and something way beyond my skill level. But, she's obviously a good teacher because I had made half the hat before abandoning knitting once classes became too demanding. I have carried this hat around in moves from Indiana to California and California to Seoul in hopes of finishing the dang thing. Well, I decided to actually try and figure out the two-color pattern and found that, despite the fact I could not read the exact directions since they are in Norwegian, I could at least look at the graph of the pattern and follow it. And, I did it. Biggest problem is that it is kind of small and the kids say it squeezes their head. The reason it is small is that I started reducing the stitches way too early and did too many bit by bit reducing rows after the other. I'll wear it one snowy day. At least I finished! And, can't wait to try some of those patterns on a hat for Dahin who has request the snowflake pattern.

The hat for Ronan, above, was made according to his color and design preferences. He specifically requested the little ball on top, and it looks really cute with it. It's just a simple pattern--caste on 80, do a rib knit on the bottom (actually, the original just calls for a stockinette stitch, but I did not like the idea of the bottom curling up, which it will with just stockinette stitch) for about 8 rows and then do stockinette stitch until the hat reaches the right size (kept having Ronan put it on while still on the needles). Once it reaches the right length, you just cut a long tail and pull the string through all the stitches and pull it tight like a drawstring, then weave the ends in a few times. The pulling like a draw-string thing was a bit more of a challenge than they made it sound, but eventually it worked. I used 3 mm needles on this hat since the yarn was a bit chunky. I knit rather loosely, so this hat is slightly big, but Ronan likes it.

The hat I'm wearing above is based on a pattern called "Autumn Hat." It is meant to sit back on the head and be a little floppy. I like it a lot, so decided to make a variation of it in red for Dahin's teacher with a matching scarf (below on super model Ronan--the only one of my kids calm enough to sit through various fittings and final product photos). The hat only took a few hours to make, but the scarf took forever. Note to self no. 1: do not wait until the week of Christmas to begin making presents so you don't have to stay up all night and still not make the length of scarf you wanted to (took me three days and one all-night session to make). Note to self no. 2: If making a last minute scarf, stick with garter stitch and BIG needles; do not--I repeat--do not do a rib pattern on 5 mm needles. Yes I did. Oh well. The end result was ok, but, like I said, the scarf was no where near as long as I had wanted to make it. It was like hacking away at a stone that never appeared chipped. Also, the hat did not have the floppy look it was supposed to have and, I think, I accidentally left out some rows as these rows would have added some height to the hat. That's what I get for watching tv while knitting. But, it's still cute. Sent the set off to Dahin's teacher this morning after a sleepless night (yes, mommy was grumpy this morning).

The Boys Get a Tree

We were winter sock, boot shopping with the boys one Saturday morning in Namdaemun market and, lo and behold, the sound of "Jingle Bells" caused the boys to stampede in the direction of the music. There, two big temp structures were set up selling plastic trees--tiny, small, medium, and big--lights, decorations, wrapping paper. You name it, they had it. After having heard, before coming to Korea, that it was very difficult to find Christmas decorations in Korea, I really hesitated when it came time to give our tree away. But, we did. Man, we found an even better tree. Our $70 3-feet tall tree from Target--you know, the one the kids claimed had 'shrunk' from the previous year--is nothing to this fake lovely at about $40 US equiv. The lights cost an extra 6,000 won (about $5). The boys insisted on 'rainbow lights.' Now, at least, we have a tree that's taller than the kids and equal to my height. This was the mid-range tree. I had thought about getting the great big one, but it seemed better to get one that wasn't too big so the kids could decorate it themselves. The boys were so excited, they kept jumping up and down and laughing. I was glad we got it. When Dahin got home from school, she was pretty excited about it, as well, although too cool (being 9 and all) to really show it.

We didn't decorate immediately when I got it set up at home. I just put the lights on and told the kids we'd wait to put the decorations on. That did not stop Oliver--aka Andre Kim--from going at it with string and crafts he had made at school. Below is the prissy little monster we all know and love, putting his own special touches on the tree.