We spent the holidays back in DC with our families who either currently live there or drove up/flew in to spend time with us. It was the first time since our wedding (!) that we have all been in the same place at the same time. Last year we stayed in Korea over the holidays, and at the time, it wasn’t a huge deal for us. We still ate our “feast of seven fishes” dinner on Christmas Eve. I still decorated a (very tiny) tree and hung up lights. I baked trays and trays of cookies and we watched It’s a Wonderful Life. It didn’t quite feel like Christmas, but then again, it was somewhat expected that our first Christmas in Korea would be different. In essence, isn’t that why we chose to live abroad? For new experiences?
What we didn’t factor into the equation was how much we would miss our families, and how being away from family over the holidays intensified those feelings at least tenfold. Obviously we have kept in touch, and there have been a few visits and meet-ups in the past two years, but what became abundantly clear the moment we stepped off the plane from Korea (technically, Beijing) was that no amount of video calls, social media, and emails could substitute for actually, physically, being with family over the holidays.
Below are a few photos taken over the holidays, accompanied by (mostly) short, descriptive snippets. I didn’t take a ton of pictures (relatively speaking), and what photos I took were mostly centered around what we seem to always do as a family whenever we are together: eating and being goofy.
