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I awoke on Christmas morning full of ambition and energy. I was cooking for twelve people. The first thing I had to do was clean and rearrange the house. This involved quite a lot of work as I had to put everything not necessary for the party (including beds and wardrobes) into the smallest room in the house. Then I had to move my three tables into the bedroom and surround them with the chairs I had borrowed from my school. I set the table with plates, knives, forks, spoons and cups borrowed from everyone I knew.
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| Strawberry makes Christmas cards on the night before Christmas. |
Then it was time to start peeling potatoes, chopping carrots and generally getting the cooking show on the road. I had everything copped and on the boil as the first guests started arriving. Not having an oven proved to be an obstacle to cooking a roast dinner, so I jumped on my scooter and dashed to Wal-Mart and bought three cooked chickens. Just as the food was ready to be served the last of the guests arrived. We ate chicken, mashed potatoes, carrots, green beans and gravy that had been sent all the way from England. It was great to eat mashed potatoes again; they're rare and exotic in Korea. My mother sent me some mince pies from England and they had arrived somewhat crumbly, so I served them with custard for dessert.
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| Partway through demolishing a roast dinner. |
When dinner had been disposed of we moved on to the gift exchange. Everyone had brought a gift and we set about drawing names out of a hat to decide who would give what to whom. Very surprisingly, nobody had brought any bottles of alcohol.
 
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| Marc, Karen, Eric, Anna, Denny and Strawberry get a Harry Potter DVD, a Trash Can, a Picture Frame, a Stuffed Toy, a Thermos Flask and a Coffee Mug. |
After the gift exchange we played a couple of games and then the party wound down. Some of us headed home and some of us headed to a bar named Santa Claus. Santa Claus gets its name from the fact that the owner is Mr Ho. But really, where else would we head on Christmas Day?