Merry Christmas Darling

Hey Y’all! First off, I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas this past week! I was feeling sickly for the majority of the week, so we didn’t do much. But on Christmas, Buddy had the day off so we were able to spend it together. Then I felt sickly again, but we did venture into the city of Pyeongtaek on Sunday for a short visit.

On Tuesday which was Christmas Eve, as soon as Buddy got home we went to the post office on base to pick up some packages we had gotten a notice for. We had FIVE boxes to pick up! We thought we weren’t going to have any presents to open on Christmas, but we are so thankful for our family who sent us some goodies! Also, I love everyone who took the time to send us a Christmas card, I will probably leave these up on our fridge for the next couple of months because they make me smile every time I look at our fridge. Plus, we had stopped to get some coffee at the cafe downstairs before heading to base, and our barista there gave us a free chocolate bar!

Our plan on Christmas was to make a Christmas breakfast and dinner, and just be lazy. Since Buddy usually only has one day off of work a week, we enjoyed having a mid-week day off together. We woke up to the sound of Christmas music playing, but it wasn’t coming from us. We were confused because everyone around us said they were going into work. Well as it turned out, Buddy’s best friend Austin, who happens to live next door, decided to ultimately stay at home too. As soon as we knew he was awake, we invited him for breakfast, but he was also planning on making a big Christmas breakfast. So we decided to combine our breakfast meals, which was the best idea. I made us eggs, bacon, sausage, biscuits, and homemade gravy. Austin made breakfast potatoes and cinnamon rolls. We ended up eating in his apartment and watchingNational Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation movie.

Afterwards, we spent the day doing a lot of nothing. Buddy’s family facetimed us and we opened up the presents from them while we were talking. We talked to my family as well, as it was still Christmas Eve at home and my parent’s anniversary. I wore the Christmas tree earrings that Buddy bought me at the Christmas Bazaar market we went to a few weeks ago. For dinner, Buddy wanted some home favorites that I had never made before. I had bought a small Smithfield ham that was already cooked and spiraled, I just had to heat it up and put the glaze on it, so that wasn’t too bad. But he wanted his Nana Brenda’s skillet potatoes and corn fritters (corn bread in pancake form). I have the recipes for those, but they are in storage in Tennessee. So after asking his sister a ton of questions, I felt like I was ready. Plus, I even went out and bought a cast iron skillet just for this meal! Nana, I think I did you proud. I was so surprised at myself for how great they turned out! Buddy loved them, and I even let Austin come over and make himself a dinner plate.

The day after Christmas, I ended up not making Buddy a lunch to take to work because all we had was leftovers and he didn’t want those. I was already planning on going to the PX to look at their after Christmas deals, so I decided I would wait to go until lunch time so Buddy and I could eat lunch together. Just like the past several times, I had the food ordered and a table found just waiting for him when he walked into the food court. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I now realize why he didn’t look super excited that I was there. He ate super quickly and then said his stomach was upset. He told me it was okay if I left and went ahead and started shopping. I told him it wasn’t a big deal and that I would just wait for him to finish so I could say bye to him before he went back to work. He told me again that it was okay for me to leave, and I told him that I would seriously wait for him. So he begrudgingly got up to go to the restroom. I honestly didn’t think anything of it. About 15 minutes later, which had me worried for him, he comes back and says he has to go back to work. I go to try to hug him and he gives me a real quick hug and then says bye. I realized it was quick, but with his stomach “being upset” I was just like whatever, so he left and I went to go look for some deals. Which I didn’t find.

As soon as he gets home that night, I’m already cooking dinner. The first thing he tells me is I need to go look at what our neighbor George got that day, which was a new vacuum. I went to look, but was worried about my dinner burning, so I basically went out into the hallway, looked at it, and then walked back in our apartment. I’m also trying to watch some news highlights on youtube while cooking, and Buddy kept standing right in front of the tv. I kept asking him to move and he wouldn’t, which honestly really irritated me. But I finished cooking dinner and didn’t try to watch the tv anymore. After we ate, I get up to put our dishes away and Buddy tells me I need to get something out of my stocking. I told him there was nothing in my stocking, I had put everything in his (I had gotten him some of his favorite snacks). He told me to just go get it. Well as soon as I walked up to my stocking, which is right above our tv, I could see there was something in it. I pulled the item out and it was a little Swarovski navy bag. He got me one of the prettiest necklaces I’ve ever seen! As it turns out, he kept trying to go to their shopping kiosk in the PX the last couple of times he went to the food court at lunch when I didn’t make him a lunch at home, but I kept surprising him at the food court and he couldn’t go get it! The upset stomach excuse that day was just an excuse for him to go down there because it was already the day after Christmas and he still didn’t have it. He gave me a real quick hug after lunch because the bag was in his jacket pocket and he didn’t want me feeling it. He had me go look at George’s new vacuum so he could put the bag in my stocking, but I was too quick. So he kept little by little slipping it into my stocking while I finished cooking, which is why he was in front of the tv. Y’all, I love my husband and do not deserve him.

Throughout the rest of the week, I still felt cruddy. I’ve been waiting for it, as supposedly everyone gets the crud about 2 weeks after being here, just due to the poor air quality and dirty water. Sunday was the best I felt though, so we decided to go into Pyeongtaek to what is called AK Plaza. It is where the train station is, but they also have an 8-story mall. Getting to parking in itself was an adventure, there was a huge long line. They kept asking me to turn my emergency lights on, but I couldn’t find them because the phone holder we have for GPS was covering the button. Having those lights on though apparently means you’re looking for a parking space, so we didn’t have much help. We ended up going up this super steep curvy ramp to the top parking floor which was on the fifth floor of the mall. Each floor in the mall is for different things. The fifth floor for instance was full of name brands for men, they even had a Jeep area! Each area, or brand, has its own cashier. Not like JcPenney where you can go to any cashier to check out. There had to have been about 50-60 different brands geared more towards men on that floor. We went through the lower floors first. The fourth floor had shoes and jewelry. The third and second floors were geared towards women clothing. The first floor was all make-up. The bottom floor, or basement level, was a food court and market. After we made it all the way to the bottom, we decided we would go all the way to the top and then make our way back down to the fifth floor so we could leave. Also, for anyone who knows me, I HATE escalators. I do not know why, but they scare me, always have since I was little. I have to mentally prepare myself to step on one. And that’s what we had to take to get from one floor to the next, we took so many escalators!!! The eighth floor was a movie theater and concession stand, with a huge opening to look out at the “downtown” area of the main city. The seventh floor was also a food court, complete with a Korean Baskin Robbins. And Korean Baskin Robbins are way fancier than American ones. The sixth floor was for home, kitchen, and baby. All the name brands you could think of were there. Next time we go, I will have to take more pictures, I was just in awe at the time. They even had a cafe on that level just for babies!!!! Think of a Starbucks kiosk in a mall, but all the snacks are for babies and infants. That was interesting.

After we got back from AK Plaza, we went right to base and made it just in time to watch the showing of the second Jumanji film. One thing that was neat was they played both the Korean and American national anthems after the movie previews. A screen pops up telling you to stand. The Korean anthem played first and there were different clips on the screen of different areas of South Korea. Then there was a quick transition to the Star Spangled Banner, and it showed it being sung by the United States Army Field Band and Soldiers’ Chorus (go watch it on youtube). Then it ended and everyone sat down, and the movie promptly started. This was my first time seeing a movie on base, so that was something new for me, but I really enjoyed it. To continue our date night, we ended with dinner at Taste of Thailand for dinner in the Ville where I tried some Pad Thai and some of Buddy’s Garlic and Pepper Beef with rice. I wasn’t a big fan of either, but for how picky I am, Buddy was proud that I tried both of them. However, I will continue going back there because they have the best spring rolls I’ve ever had.

With New Year’s being this week, Buddy has Wednesday off again. Which makes both of us really happy. We’re not sure what we might get up to though. Driving in Pyeongtaek this past Sunday gave me really bad anxiety, so I’m done with driving in big cities for a little bit. And Buddy doesn’t want to drive in big cities because he has acknowledged that he would probably kill us (that doesn’t stop him from making fun of my driving though which doesn’t help my anxiety). But seriously y’all, people will park in the driving lanes, even if it’s a two lane road, which inevitably makes it a one way road. Red lights are optional when people get bored and think they’ve waited too long. Also, the further you get from base where the area is much more Americanized and lots of things are in English, the things in English become fewer which sometimes even with GPS can be scary. I will never complain about Memphis traffic again, or traffic on Wilma Rudolph in Clarksville.

So that’s been my week y’all. Again, I hope everyone had a great Christmas, and I hope that everyone has an amazing new year!