A Christmas to Remember Forever
This Christmas was one to remember forever! It is one I want to tell my children and grandchildren about. I need to write it down so that I never forget the crazy details of this special time.
Christmas Beginnings
Christmas this year started just before Martha left. She really wanted to decorate the apartment before leaving, so on her final week in Hong Kong she brought home a Christmas tree. Then we went out together to the $10 Plaza (like a $1 store) and came home with garland, decorations, a poinsettia and a wreath!
A couple days later Nadya and I took Martha to the airport for her flight home to Colombia. Our VERY tearful good-bye made us all realize that we really have developed a type of family in Hong Kong, and a VERY important member of the family was leaving. After that we realized we should be opening our apartment to create this family atmosphere for other interns as well… and what better time to do that then the holidays.
This year was the first time Nadya celebrated “Catholic Christmas” because in Ukraine the holidays fall according to the Orthodox calendar, so Christmas in Ukraine is on January 6. Also, in Ukraine, Christmas is not nearly as important as New Years or Easter. So, as a result, I took up planning a Christmas party. We arranged to have a Potluck Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve (in the Lithuanian tradition), and then a breakfast, a gift exchange, and a party on Christmas Day.
A Christmas Must Have
On Saturday December 23, at 10:00pm the real fun began, when I decided to stop by City Super, the upscale supermarket, to find candy canes. City Super did not have candy canes, but it had something much more special, A TURKEY! I found out if I ordered the bird at that very moment it would be ready for the Christmas potluck the next day… well… I just could not imagine Christmas without a turkey so I placed the order. I would have to pick up the bird the following day at 5:30pm.
On December 24 after a late start, the day was devoted to getting ready for Christmas. First, Nadya (in between working) and I wrote about 30 Christmas cards. By the end my hand was hurting a lot. After, Nadya, Asel (Nadya’s friend from Kyrgyzstan) , and I cleaned the apartment, and then had a frantic shopping trip to pick up party necessities, gifts to exchange, and “stocking stuffers” for all the friends who would come. From there Nadya and Asel went out to the airport to pick up two other friends coming from Ukraine, and I rushed home to meet Egle.
Egle came at 4:15 to prepare her fabulous Lithuanian dishes! She had already spent 5 hours that morning baking tradition Lithuanian “Cold Noses”… which are a Christmas sweet that are similar to a donut with grape jam inside. She also prepared “White Salad”, and another dish that was similar to deviled eggs, but with mushrooms mixed in to the yolk, and the mayonnaise sitting on top. At 5:00, Mareck arrived and began preparing his epic Sauerkraut soup (a Czech dish), which if I forget to mention it again later this soup is SO good! Meanwhile I was frantically creating 40 stockings with the supplies we had bought.
Running through Hong Kong… Turkey in tow
At 5:35 the soup was sauerkraut was simmering, the Lithuanian dishes were prepared, the stockings were stuffed, the light bulbs were changed, and I realized there was VERY little time to pick up the turkey before friends were scheduled to arrive at 6:00pm. So, in a mad fury I left the apartment and ran through the unbelievably packed streets of Causeway Bay. Now Causeway Bay is a primary shopping area in Hong Kong… and is also one of the most densely populated places on EARTH. There are 60 000 people/km2 in this area, compared to 75 people/km2 in Calgary. Trust me, on the Sunday right before Christmas this is NOT a place you want to try running through. Anyways, by 5:50 I had a very large and HEAVY cooked turkey, wrapped and bagged, in my hands. I set back out into the frenzy that is Causeway Bay, this time with precious cargo, and was literally running with a turkey in my hands to get back in time to meet guests (and I made it)!
Multi Cultural Christmas Feast
My co-worker Hoi Yee and two of her friends were the first to arrive. We set them to work painting the bathroom mirror with a Christmas scene while Egle and I got the food on the table and Mareck diligently perfected the Sauerkraut soup. Between 7:00 and 8:00 most of the guests arrived. Mareck served white wine and his fabulous soup. With each guest new dishes arrived, including:
Egle – Lithuanian Cold Noses, White Salad, “Deviled Eggs”, and some sort of bread balls with poppy seeds
Mareck – Sauerkraut soup, white wine, and crackers with honey and garlic
Hoi Yee – Hong Kong Wife Cakes and other similar pastries
Kat – Hong Kong Fish Balls
Ming – Hong Kong Fried Rice
Maggie – Hong Kong stir-fried chicken with green, yellow and red peppers
Bomi – Nigerian rice with dried rice
Mira – “Serbian” Tomato salad
Annamaria – Hungarian Meatballs
Gordon and Andy – Hong Kong – Chinese New Year walnuts and almond cookies
Nadya – Ukrainian chocolates
Jurgita – Lithuanian chocolates
Me - Turkey
At about 8:00 I had my first experience carving a turkey. My dad has always made this look like a relatively simple job, but I soon discovered that carving a turkey is much more difficult than he makes it look. My bird ended up like a little hacked, rather than nicely sliced… and the pieces of meat on the plate also did not look very nice, but they tasted good.
The Magic of Christmas
Throughout the night, friends and friends of friends came and went and stayed to chat. We learned traditional Lithuanian Christmas fortune telling games from Jurgita… we found how to predict out the length of our lives, whether or not we would get married this year, and whether we would stay were we are, or leave.
The party ended around 3:00 am, and Maggie and Egle stayed and helped with the clean up. As I was washing the dishes I thought, “wouldn’t this be the perfect time for a Stuart McLean Christmas story.” Well, it must have been fate because all of a sudden I realized that at 3:20am in Hong Kong it is 12:20pm in Calgary… meaning it was exactly time to hear this year’s Christmas tale, live on CBC Radio.
We got the radio playing over the internet by 3:30, just exactly in time to hear McLean’s magical words “Ever since that fateful Christmas when Dave first cooked the turkey…. I think you remember the story I am talking about… the Christmas Turkey has been Dave’s job…” So, at 3:30am I sat on our Hong Kong sofa, with one girl from Lithuanian, and another from Hong Kong and attentively listened to this year’s story all about how Dave decided it was not enough to cook the turkey… this year he wanted to raise the turkey. This is TRULY one of the most magical Christmas moments I have experienced.
After the story we all settled into bed. It had been a long and exciting day… and Christmas day was just around the corner.
Christmas Morning
This year’s Christmas morning was much different from others; there were no gifts, no Auntie Susie’s lifesaver, no mandarin oranges and most importantly no family. However, the morning was special all the same, Egle, Maggie, Nadya, Asel, Luda and Alysa (Nadya’s friends from Ukraine) lingered around the apartment, discussing every topic under the sun, and nibbling on leftover Lithuanian Cold Noses, Hong Kong Wife Cakes and Turkey (nice combination). Later in the afternoon we were joined by Jurgita.
Dragon’s Back and a second helping of Christmas Magic
Around 3:00pm Egle, Jurgita and I decided we needed to get some exercise, so we decided to go hiking. We set out to the “Dragon’s Back Trail”, which happens to start with a major walk through one of Hong Kong’s largest cemeteries, which is a little eerie on Christmas. The three of us had a beautiful walk through the woods, including a side scramble up a dribbling waterfall! Jurgita took loads of beautiful pics, which are coming soon!
The best part of the trip was the timing. We happened to reach the highest point of the trail, the summit of Shek O Mountain, at sunset! From this beautiful vantage point, where we were surrounded by water on three sides, we yelled a powerful “Merry Christmas” to all of Hong Kong! Also, there, on Christmas Day, on top of the mountain, I saw the first stars I have seen since arriving in Hong Kong almost 6 months ago!
Our decent was a little hair-raising, as it was now completely dark. We discovered that Jurgita was the brave one of the bunch, as she led Egle and I down the path, and the two of us shivered at the back. Anyways, we made it down safely.
The Icing on the cake
We had just enough time to catch a bus and the MTR back to the MC flat. We had an hour to clean up, and put the flat in order for the party, as party guests began arriving at 9:00pm. It was another evening full of friends, food, great conversations and even Tarot readings by our lovely Taiwanese intern Ruby. I brought in some Canadian traditions such as a gift swap, and eggnog and rum, both of which were a first for all the people there. It was a fabulous night, which ended early Boxing Day morning at 4:00am.
After all the festivities, I finally had a peaceful moment to call home. With the power of new technology, I was able to talk to, and see, Nan, Grandad, Mom, Dad, Alex, Caitlin, Marcus, Auntie Susie (who is the CRAZIEST person on a webcam, in a great way) and Uncle Dave. Everyone had just finished gift opening, and was still mulling over new gifts, including a very popular electric guitar that Marcus received, and a beautiful necklace that Mom was wearing. It was SO perfect to see you all at the moment, and to see the freshly fallen snow out of the window of the cabin!
After a loving phone call with Erwin it was finally time for bed. He will be leaving Calgary in 36 hours (from now) to fly to Hong Kong, which means New Year’s is sure to be even better than this fabulous Christmas!!!
THANK YOU TO ALL THE FRIENDS AND FAMILY NEAR AND FAR FOR SUCH A FABULOUS MEMORY!! I AM SO SORRY I WAS NOT ABLE TO REACH YOU ALL, BUT I TRULY, TRULY HOPE THAT YOUR HOLIDAYS WERE EQUALLY SPECIAL NO MATTER WHERE YOU ARE!!!
BEST LOVE, AND WISHES TO EVERYONE! AND MAY YOU HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
Christmas Beginnings
Christmas this year started just before Martha left. She really wanted to decorate the apartment before leaving, so on her final week in Hong Kong she brought home a Christmas tree. Then we went out together to the $10 Plaza (like a $1 store) and came home with garland, decorations, a poinsettia and a wreath!
A couple days later Nadya and I took Martha to the airport for her flight home to Colombia. Our VERY tearful good-bye made us all realize that we really have developed a type of family in Hong Kong, and a VERY important member of the family was leaving. After that we realized we should be opening our apartment to create this family atmosphere for other interns as well… and what better time to do that then the holidays.
This year was the first time Nadya celebrated “Catholic Christmas” because in Ukraine the holidays fall according to the Orthodox calendar, so Christmas in Ukraine is on January 6. Also, in Ukraine, Christmas is not nearly as important as New Years or Easter. So, as a result, I took up planning a Christmas party. We arranged to have a Potluck Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve (in the Lithuanian tradition), and then a breakfast, a gift exchange, and a party on Christmas Day.
A Christmas Must Have
On Saturday December 23, at 10:00pm the real fun began, when I decided to stop by City Super, the upscale supermarket, to find candy canes. City Super did not have candy canes, but it had something much more special, A TURKEY! I found out if I ordered the bird at that very moment it would be ready for the Christmas potluck the next day… well… I just could not imagine Christmas without a turkey so I placed the order. I would have to pick up the bird the following day at 5:30pm.
On December 24 after a late start, the day was devoted to getting ready for Christmas. First, Nadya (in between working) and I wrote about 30 Christmas cards. By the end my hand was hurting a lot. After, Nadya, Asel (Nadya’s friend from Kyrgyzstan) , and I cleaned the apartment, and then had a frantic shopping trip to pick up party necessities, gifts to exchange, and “stocking stuffers” for all the friends who would come. From there Nadya and Asel went out to the airport to pick up two other friends coming from Ukraine, and I rushed home to meet Egle.
Egle came at 4:15 to prepare her fabulous Lithuanian dishes! She had already spent 5 hours that morning baking tradition Lithuanian “Cold Noses”… which are a Christmas sweet that are similar to a donut with grape jam inside. She also prepared “White Salad”, and another dish that was similar to deviled eggs, but with mushrooms mixed in to the yolk, and the mayonnaise sitting on top. At 5:00, Mareck arrived and began preparing his epic Sauerkraut soup (a Czech dish), which if I forget to mention it again later this soup is SO good! Meanwhile I was frantically creating 40 stockings with the supplies we had bought.
Running through Hong Kong… Turkey in tow
At 5:35 the soup was sauerkraut was simmering, the Lithuanian dishes were prepared, the stockings were stuffed, the light bulbs were changed, and I realized there was VERY little time to pick up the turkey before friends were scheduled to arrive at 6:00pm. So, in a mad fury I left the apartment and ran through the unbelievably packed streets of Causeway Bay. Now Causeway Bay is a primary shopping area in Hong Kong… and is also one of the most densely populated places on EARTH. There are 60 000 people/km2 in this area, compared to 75 people/km2 in Calgary. Trust me, on the Sunday right before Christmas this is NOT a place you want to try running through. Anyways, by 5:50 I had a very large and HEAVY cooked turkey, wrapped and bagged, in my hands. I set back out into the frenzy that is Causeway Bay, this time with precious cargo, and was literally running with a turkey in my hands to get back in time to meet guests (and I made it)!
Multi Cultural Christmas Feast
My co-worker Hoi Yee and two of her friends were the first to arrive. We set them to work painting the bathroom mirror with a Christmas scene while Egle and I got the food on the table and Mareck diligently perfected the Sauerkraut soup. Between 7:00 and 8:00 most of the guests arrived. Mareck served white wine and his fabulous soup. With each guest new dishes arrived, including:
Egle – Lithuanian Cold Noses, White Salad, “Deviled Eggs”, and some sort of bread balls with poppy seeds
Mareck – Sauerkraut soup, white wine, and crackers with honey and garlic
Hoi Yee – Hong Kong Wife Cakes and other similar pastries
Kat – Hong Kong Fish Balls
Ming – Hong Kong Fried Rice
Maggie – Hong Kong stir-fried chicken with green, yellow and red peppers
Bomi – Nigerian rice with dried rice
Mira – “Serbian” Tomato salad
Annamaria – Hungarian Meatballs
Gordon and Andy – Hong Kong – Chinese New Year walnuts and almond cookies
Nadya – Ukrainian chocolates
Jurgita – Lithuanian chocolates
Me - Turkey
At about 8:00 I had my first experience carving a turkey. My dad has always made this look like a relatively simple job, but I soon discovered that carving a turkey is much more difficult than he makes it look. My bird ended up like a little hacked, rather than nicely sliced… and the pieces of meat on the plate also did not look very nice, but they tasted good.
The Magic of Christmas
Throughout the night, friends and friends of friends came and went and stayed to chat. We learned traditional Lithuanian Christmas fortune telling games from Jurgita… we found how to predict out the length of our lives, whether or not we would get married this year, and whether we would stay were we are, or leave.
The party ended around 3:00 am, and Maggie and Egle stayed and helped with the clean up. As I was washing the dishes I thought, “wouldn’t this be the perfect time for a Stuart McLean Christmas story.” Well, it must have been fate because all of a sudden I realized that at 3:20am in Hong Kong it is 12:20pm in Calgary… meaning it was exactly time to hear this year’s Christmas tale, live on CBC Radio.
We got the radio playing over the internet by 3:30, just exactly in time to hear McLean’s magical words “Ever since that fateful Christmas when Dave first cooked the turkey…. I think you remember the story I am talking about… the Christmas Turkey has been Dave’s job…” So, at 3:30am I sat on our Hong Kong sofa, with one girl from Lithuanian, and another from Hong Kong and attentively listened to this year’s story all about how Dave decided it was not enough to cook the turkey… this year he wanted to raise the turkey. This is TRULY one of the most magical Christmas moments I have experienced.
After the story we all settled into bed. It had been a long and exciting day… and Christmas day was just around the corner.
Christmas Morning
This year’s Christmas morning was much different from others; there were no gifts, no Auntie Susie’s lifesaver, no mandarin oranges and most importantly no family. However, the morning was special all the same, Egle, Maggie, Nadya, Asel, Luda and Alysa (Nadya’s friends from Ukraine) lingered around the apartment, discussing every topic under the sun, and nibbling on leftover Lithuanian Cold Noses, Hong Kong Wife Cakes and Turkey (nice combination). Later in the afternoon we were joined by Jurgita.
Dragon’s Back and a second helping of Christmas Magic
Around 3:00pm Egle, Jurgita and I decided we needed to get some exercise, so we decided to go hiking. We set out to the “Dragon’s Back Trail”, which happens to start with a major walk through one of Hong Kong’s largest cemeteries, which is a little eerie on Christmas. The three of us had a beautiful walk through the woods, including a side scramble up a dribbling waterfall! Jurgita took loads of beautiful pics, which are coming soon!
The best part of the trip was the timing. We happened to reach the highest point of the trail, the summit of Shek O Mountain, at sunset! From this beautiful vantage point, where we were surrounded by water on three sides, we yelled a powerful “Merry Christmas” to all of Hong Kong! Also, there, on Christmas Day, on top of the mountain, I saw the first stars I have seen since arriving in Hong Kong almost 6 months ago!
Our decent was a little hair-raising, as it was now completely dark. We discovered that Jurgita was the brave one of the bunch, as she led Egle and I down the path, and the two of us shivered at the back. Anyways, we made it down safely.
The Icing on the cake
We had just enough time to catch a bus and the MTR back to the MC flat. We had an hour to clean up, and put the flat in order for the party, as party guests began arriving at 9:00pm. It was another evening full of friends, food, great conversations and even Tarot readings by our lovely Taiwanese intern Ruby. I brought in some Canadian traditions such as a gift swap, and eggnog and rum, both of which were a first for all the people there. It was a fabulous night, which ended early Boxing Day morning at 4:00am.
After all the festivities, I finally had a peaceful moment to call home. With the power of new technology, I was able to talk to, and see, Nan, Grandad, Mom, Dad, Alex, Caitlin, Marcus, Auntie Susie (who is the CRAZIEST person on a webcam, in a great way) and Uncle Dave. Everyone had just finished gift opening, and was still mulling over new gifts, including a very popular electric guitar that Marcus received, and a beautiful necklace that Mom was wearing. It was SO perfect to see you all at the moment, and to see the freshly fallen snow out of the window of the cabin!
After a loving phone call with Erwin it was finally time for bed. He will be leaving Calgary in 36 hours (from now) to fly to Hong Kong, which means New Year’s is sure to be even better than this fabulous Christmas!!!
THANK YOU TO ALL THE FRIENDS AND FAMILY NEAR AND FAR FOR SUCH A FABULOUS MEMORY!! I AM SO SORRY I WAS NOT ABLE TO REACH YOU ALL, BUT I TRULY, TRULY HOPE THAT YOUR HOLIDAYS WERE EQUALLY SPECIAL NO MATTER WHERE YOU ARE!!!
BEST LOVE, AND WISHES TO EVERYONE! AND MAY YOU HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
posted by Lizzy at 11:18 AM
2 Comments:
What a wonderful story! It is so nice to read about how you turned a potentially lonely experience (not home for Christmas) into something so positive.
You were very wise to write about it so that you will be able to read it in the future, say 30 years from now.
Happy New Year! I hope that 2007 is even better than 2006.
Kent's Mom
Hmm...I see my mom beat me to the punch on the new years wishes.
Happy New Year, none the less.
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