This is my 3rd Christmas being away from my family. All three were very different from each other but each special in their own way. As much as I enjoyed Christmas here in Korea, absolutely nothing is going to stop me from going home for Christmas next year. Christmas is my favourite holiday and I miss everything about our Curtin Christmas, even the fighting!
We usually get up in the morning and my amazing mom already has the turkey in the oven and the fire lighting, the day then consist of eating, drinking, laughing, fighting and mayhem!
Here in Korea, this Christmas probably most resembled a typical Christmas as such. There was too much food and drink, laughing, lots of mayhem and some fighting (among the dogs)
Myself and Jason decided that Christmas wouldn't be complete without a turkey and wanted to try and cook one this year (how hard could it be?!) So we picked a frozen one up in Costco. This was our first time to Costco here in Korea, For those of you at home, Costco is an American supermarket that sells things in bulk. It is THE place to go for foreign foods here in Korea!
As I said the turkey was frozen and not knowing a whole lot about turkeys I just presumed that I could take it out of the freezer on Christmas eve and let it sit overnight...how wrong I was!
After doing a google search I realised that it takes up to a week to defrost a turkey the right way, with less than 24 hours before dinner time I panicked a little. The only other option was to immerse the turkey in cold water for 7 hours, changing the water every 30 minutes. We began this process at 8:30 on the night of Christmas eve! Even though we were facing a night of no sleep we decided to make the most of it, we got a take away from our favourite Italian restaurant, lit some candles, played Christmas music, drank some wine, skyped home and played with the dogs. (we are minding our friends dog while they are home for Christmas) .
So 4am came and we decided to remove the packaging and check the turkey, we were getting pretty tired at theis stage and there was no wine left so we were both heartbroken when we discovered that the turkey was still completely frozen in the middle. A panicked phone call to Jasons dad (the one good thing about family living in different time zones) and we solved the problem.
By 7am it was all completely thawed out (finally) and it was time to cook it. Our oven only has up to one hour setting so we were able to sleep for 45 minutes at a time for the next 3 hours. By 10:30 it was finally finished and we managed to get 2 more hours of sleep!
The finished turkey (finally!!)
But it was all worth it. We had a great day with great friends. Everybody brought food and there was wayyyyy too much for us. We ate, drank and were merry...what more could you want on Christmas day. Whatever happens I think myself and Jason will always remember that first time we cooked a turkey.
Our wonderful Christmas crew!
Oh, and did I mention that it was delicious? ;)
We usually get up in the morning and my amazing mom already has the turkey in the oven and the fire lighting, the day then consist of eating, drinking, laughing, fighting and mayhem!
Here in Korea, this Christmas probably most resembled a typical Christmas as such. There was too much food and drink, laughing, lots of mayhem and some fighting (among the dogs)
Myself and Jason decided that Christmas wouldn't be complete without a turkey and wanted to try and cook one this year (how hard could it be?!) So we picked a frozen one up in Costco. This was our first time to Costco here in Korea, For those of you at home, Costco is an American supermarket that sells things in bulk. It is THE place to go for foreign foods here in Korea!
As I said the turkey was frozen and not knowing a whole lot about turkeys I just presumed that I could take it out of the freezer on Christmas eve and let it sit overnight...how wrong I was!
After doing a google search I realised that it takes up to a week to defrost a turkey the right way, with less than 24 hours before dinner time I panicked a little. The only other option was to immerse the turkey in cold water for 7 hours, changing the water every 30 minutes. We began this process at 8:30 on the night of Christmas eve! Even though we were facing a night of no sleep we decided to make the most of it, we got a take away from our favourite Italian restaurant, lit some candles, played Christmas music, drank some wine, skyped home and played with the dogs. (we are minding our friends dog while they are home for Christmas) .
So 4am came and we decided to remove the packaging and check the turkey, we were getting pretty tired at theis stage and there was no wine left so we were both heartbroken when we discovered that the turkey was still completely frozen in the middle. A panicked phone call to Jasons dad (the one good thing about family living in different time zones) and we solved the problem.
By 7am it was all completely thawed out (finally) and it was time to cook it. Our oven only has up to one hour setting so we were able to sleep for 45 minutes at a time for the next 3 hours. By 10:30 it was finally finished and we managed to get 2 more hours of sleep!
But it was all worth it. We had a great day with great friends. Everybody brought food and there was wayyyyy too much for us. We ate, drank and were merry...what more could you want on Christmas day. Whatever happens I think myself and Jason will always remember that first time we cooked a turkey.
Oh, and did I mention that it was delicious? ;)
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