안녕하세요. 미국 Texas에 있는 공립 교환 32기 문정원입니다.
한국에서도 크리스마스는 많은 이들에게 기념 되고, 각종 예능프로그렘에서도 크리스마스 특집 방영을 하는 등 꽤 큰 행사라고 생각해요.
하지만 미국의 크리스마스는 한국의 크리스마스와 비교도 안 될 정도로 매우매우 큰 행사랍니다.
크리스마스 캐롤 가사 중에서도 크리스마스가 the most wonderful time of the year이라고 하기도 하니까요.
저희 호스트는 thanksgiving break 마지막 날, 크리스마스 데코레이션을 시작했어요.
크리스마스가 한 달이나 남았을 때였는데 말이죠.
학교 친구들은 할로윈이 끝나자마자 크리스마스까지 남은 날 수를 교실 칠판에 적기 시작했어요 XD



This is Jack, an elf. My host dad told me that Jack sits on different places every day and observes us. Then, every night, he flies to Santa in North Pole and tells what bad things or good things we did during the day. Finding Jack was my biggest fun every day, so I feel sad that I cannot see Jack anymore. He wrote a letter on the board on 24th night, that we are all in "good enough list", so we can get Christmas presents. And he also wrote that he would come to Korea next year to meet me.
 This is the Christmas tree in the living room. There is a funny story about this tree. My host mom set up the tree right after Thanksgiving break. However, she felt so exhausted after setting up the tree, so she didn't put any ornaments on it. While host mom wasn't doing this, everybody else just neglected it. My host mom and I were the only people who were concerned about the ornaments, but we were so lazy, thus every weekend, we repeated that we should do this, but we never did it. Finally, last Tuesday, just three days before Christmas, my host mom made a big decision to do it, and we put ornaments together. Yeah!! Doesn't it look awesome? Ooh, and do you see the stockings in the back? That red one is mine. Becuase "J" is the innitial of both of my Korean name, Jungwon and my English name, Justina, my stocking has "J" on it. Puppy stocking next to mine is Bella's stocking,the puppy at my house.

I think y'all are curious about what it is. This is the calendar from Dec.1 to Dec. 24. Christmas is a really big thing in America, so everybody counts down the days until Christmas, and there are many products that shows how many days left until Christmas. This in one of those products. My host mom put three chocolates in every boxes so that my host brother, host sister, and me could eat one chocolate everyday while we are wating for Christmas. I think it's really fun, isn't it? I looked forward the time to eat chocolate everyday. It was small happiness for me everyday. And whenever I opened the box, different Christmas carol came out. So I could listen to carol while l am eating a chocolate.

You open like this. There is a date on each box.





Dec. 19th was one of my host dad's friends' birthday. My host family and his family are really close that they spend Christmas eve together every year and sometimes go trips together. We bowled and ate dinner together. I was in a bowling club at school in Korea when I was in 9th grade. However, there was no instrucor to teach us, so my friends and I just practiced bowling by ourselves, actually we played with the bowls, not knowing any rules or skills. Most of the time, balls fell off to the gutter. However, this bowling center had bumpers. The bumper comes up at the corner of the lane like a fence so that the ball never falls off. Thanks to the bumper, I won the first game. ^0^
There are three girls in that family. One is 13, who is at my host sister's age and another is 15, who is at my age, and the other is 7. The one who is at my age goes to Smithson Valley High School, the same school with me. We are not that close, so we just say hello to each other when we come across in the hallway. I think during the last 2 weeks, our host family and that family met 3~4 times. I felt out of place at the first gathering, because everybody is close to each other except for me, so my host family and they hung out, but there was no group for me to talk with.
:( However, as we meet more often, I think I am getting close with them.

My host sister and I made cookies at Christmas eve. We started at 1 o'clock, but we had to eat lunch, get ready and leave home at 4 to go to church, so we were little bit in a hurry. And my host sister and I weren't good at baking, so it took very long than I had thought. We put icing on it and decorated with a deco pen. My host sister made ginger bread cookies family, and I made my cookies with Christmas theme. Cookies aren't as pretty as bakery cookies, but my host sister and I had a lot of fun, thus, it was a very meaningful time. We chose our best ones and put them on the plate for Santa at Christmasm eve night. He cleared our cookies! I was so delightful that Santa enjoyed our cookies.




Ooh, I almost forgot this. We went to Six Flags on 23rd. We have season passes, so we've been there 3 times before. Whenever we visit there, we just stay 2~3 hours. Sometimes, we go there just for watching shows or decorations and don't take any rides. At first time, I was really surprised that we didn't get any rides and came back home, because in Korea, I go to an amusement park once or twice a year, so whenever I go there I was busy running from ride to ride to get more rides as much as I can. This time was just for watching Christmas shows and seeing decorations. Christmas lights were so beautiful. My host sister and I took photos in front of the giant Christmas tree. There is a ride named "Goliath" which was not working for the last 3 times we went there. Finally, this day it was working, So I could ride it. XD It was really awesome!

 We took photo with Santa. Everybody else there were young kids, so my host sister and I felt little weird.


However, when I told Santa that I was an exchange student from South Korea, he spent more time with me:) At first, I was going to take a picture standing next to him, because I thought a-15-year old kid is too old for sitting on Santa's laps. But Santa beckoned me to his lap, so I took this photo on his lap. haha..And at the last minute, he asked me for a hug, so I gave him a hug. Everybody watching me hugging him gave heart-warming smiles.



 

Finally!! It's Christmas!! Originally, my room is on the 1st floor and other family members' rooms are all on the 2nd floor, but I slept in my host sister's room at Christmas eve. It is one of my host family's traditions that every family member sleeps on the 2nd floor at Christmas eve and comes downstairs together in the Christmas morning, then takes a pajama photo. Here is our pajama photo. These pajamas are Christmas presents from Mema (my host granma). My host mom told me that mema buys all the family members pajamas every year, and they sleep in the pajamas at Christmas eve night.

I want to show you my Christmas present.

These are cozy pajamas and cozy socks from my mom in Korea. She sent a card, too. Reading her card written in Korean made my eyes misty. My room is on the first floor so it's a little chilly at night during winter time. I think I can sleep better with these pajamas from now on. Actually, I slept wearing them at Christmas night, and I had a great sleep. It was realllly warm and cozy. Thanks mom♥

This is a make-up kit from Mema. My friend an exchange student from Germany and I weren't good at make-up so her host sister helped us with make up for Homecoming Party. After homecoming dance, I was texting with Mema. I told her about the make-up. She said that I was old enough to put on make up by myself. I think that time she decided to buy me a make-up kit as a Christmas present. My host sister said she would teach me how to put on make-up. After I posted my Christmas story on Facebook, my friends asked me to buy make-up kits for them when I go back to Korea.


These are a tennis racket and tennis balls. I'm going to take tennis classes next semester. I wanted to be in sports club to make many friends, but sports is a really big thing in my school, so I had to do try-out to join sports club. When I asked my teacher that I wanted to join spots club if it's possible, he said beginners like me cannot join at all becuase everybody else is almost professional. I felt really depressed about it. So I joined the choir club and I made several friends there. (Actually I wanted to join an orchestra as violinist, but there wasn't an orchestra at my school. :(..Unlucky me..) Anyway, I heard that there was a beginner tennis class on the 7th period and decided to join it. My host mom wanted to help me to get used to tennis before I go into the club because even though it's beginner class, everybody else praticed at least for 4 months more than me. I got this racket from Santa, but I think my host parents bought it for me. :-) I hope I can practice a couple more times before I go back to school.
 
Finally, my Christmas posting ended. Thank you for reading my long story:) Experiencing the big event personally will be much more fun than just reading. American Christmas is AWESOME!!