In my opinion, Christmas is absolutely the most wonderful time of the year. I seem to glide everywhere rather than walk and my cheeks hurt from smiling so much. It’s an amazing time where the good in humanity has a larger presence than usual and everyone seems to have a little happiness and love to share. Snow floating in the air, bundling up in a big coat and scarf, watching Christmas movies, the Christmas tree lit up and presents wrapped in love, just waiting to be opened.

Every Christmas I’ve ever celebrated has been relatively the same. That is, until now. For the first time in my life, I celebrated Christmas with friends and coworkers rather than family. I celebrated with sun instead of snow, with traditions from around the world instead of my own, with Lao coffee instead of Starbucks, and with brunch instead of dinner.

Considering the circumstances (those being that I live 8,000 miles from home, with a 13 hour time difference, without much Western food, and that I live in a predominantly Buddhist country),  I would say that we managed to pull off an absolutely amazing Christmas.

I’m extremely lucky to have found a wonderful group of expat girlfriends here in Luang Prabang, some who work for NGOs and some who are employed by other fellowship programs. However, most of them flew home for the holidays, leaving just three Americans, one Brit, and one Dutch to pull something together for the holiday.

Before a majority of the girls left for the holidays, we threw one big Christmas bash at Cara and Catherine’s house (both Australians). It was complete with Catherine’s pavlova (a kind of Aussie cake?), Christmas crackers that you pull apart like a wishbone, wine, Christmas music, and of course, Velveeta queso provided by yours truly. It was the one thing that I knew I absolutely had to make for Christmas to avoid homesickness! We also managed to build a gingerbread house that stayed together for all of 10 minutes!

Top left: Catherine and her pavlova cake, Top middle: Our gingerbread house, Top right: my beautiful Velveeta queso!, Bottom two pictures: The gal pals!

My friend Hannah (NGO worker from Texas) and I were determined to make this Christmas a memorable one. We each took the 25th off from work, planned a dinner with the others, a brunch with some of our French friends, reserved seats on a sunset cruise, made star lanterns, and even entered a holiday sweepstakes organized by one of the local hotels.

The star lanterns were the first major task to tackle… On Saturday, we took three hours to craft our masterpieces. We made them out of only bamboo, mulberry paper, string, and glue, believe it or not. I’m so incredibly proud of it, now I just have to figure out how to bring it home as my carry-on! Haha what a long flight for my seat mates!

My enthusiasm at the beginning (top left) and end of the project (bottom right), it was a long three hours, but I did it!!! Bottom right: from the left, me, Hannah, Mary, & Maddie

On Christmas Eve, I taught my year 1 students in the morning and then left work early to hop onto a sunset cruise put on by a new company in Luang Prabang. We donned our Santa hats and ordered a BeerLao (Christmas-y right?). A relaxing and beautiful two-hour cruise down the Mekong River isn’t the first thing I think of when I hear the word, Christmas, but it was absolutely perfect!

Top left: My year 1 students!, Top Right: The view from the sunset cruise, Bottom middle, left, and right: Hannah and I enjoying our sunset cruise and BeerLao

As luck would have it, we actually won the sweepstakes (much to our surprise)! So after our cruise, we walked our bikes to Villa Santi, the hotel whose sweepstakes we won. We were seated at a table for two equipped with Santa hats and the Christmas menu (a set, six-course meal). We ordered a glass of wine and they began to bring our meal course by course. Each time our waiter walked up those stairs with two new plates, we were beyond excited, taking pictures of each plate, ooh-ing and aah-ing over them, and then devouring them quite quickly. Santa even walked around to each of the tables with gingerbread cookies!

Top row: Our beautiful meal at Villa Santi, Middle left: The winning picture!, Bottom: Hannah and I enjoying every minute of our free dinner

On Christmas morning, I got up early to FaceTime my favorite people in the world and watch them open some of their Christmas presents. My wonderful family, thank you for including me in every possible way this Christmas! Then Dan (a new Fulbright placed in Luang Prabang) and I grabbed coffee and biked to Hannah’s place where we watched Christmas movies and got everything ready for brunch. Our Aussie friends, Cara and Catherine had actually even left us a couple of presents so that we would have something to open on Christmas, isn’t that the sweetest thing you’ve ever heard?! We then took our frittata, orange juice, croissants, and Prosecco, to our (French) friend Camille’s house. Sitting in the sun on their Mekong-view porch, we talked and enjoyed good bread, coffee, and mimosas for something like four hours.

Top left: The great family FaceTime of 2018, Right: Christmas brunch!, Bottom left: the presents that Cara and Catherine left for me to open

Finally, we headed back to Hannah’s to get ready for dinner. We had quite the international hodgepodge dinner with pork laab and spring rolls (Lao), baked potato soup, and pizza. Our bellies were stuffed and we were all exhausted, so we pulled Hannah’s mattress into her living room and all found a seat to watch Love Actually.

Christmas dinner and movies with friends!                                                                                   From left: Camille, Dan, Hannah, Maddie, & Mary

Sitting amidst Hannah’s adorable Christmas decorations with my wonderful friends on all sides, I felt my heart swelling. I already love Christmas. I always have and I always will, but I will never forget that day and the friends who made it bearable to be so far from home. Even though it wasn’t the same as Christmas back home, I’m so blessed to be where I am, living out my dreams that I’ve worked so hard to reach.

Just a friendly reminder to hug your loved ones just a second longer, smile as often as possible, send that extra text, fret less, and eat more! You’ve earned it!

Merry Christmas!

ດ້ວຍ​ຮັກ (With love),

Claire