Celebrating Christmas

I spent Christmas this year celebrating with friends over a delicious home cooked meal. Everyone brought some food and we all sat down to an evening of good conversation and good food.

Our holiday table – photo courtesy of @wongers

One thing about holidays in Hungary, and probably in most of Europe, is that when its a holiday, it truly is a holiday. Everything is closed and shut down for days. This year, Christmas fell on a Sunday. This meant that shops closed on Saturday (24 December) around 14:00 and would not open again until Tuesday (27 December). Forgetting popping into the supermarket to pick up some last minute items. Nothing will be opened. Having everything closed for the holidays takes some getting use to (especially seeing as many businesses are open in Vancouver on Christmas day), but in many ways its nice. You have time to focus on your friends and family. No distractions.

Christmas 2011 was a good one. Gathering at our table were individuals from all around the world. I can’t think of a better way of celebrating Christmas when living abroad than sitting down with a group of great friends.