Christmas!

  

You may well have heard Liz or I complain about Christmas in Japan before (or the lack of Christmas in Japan). It's tricky trying to celebrate Christmas in a place where "Christmas" simply means blue fairy lights, Santa and his two red-nosed reindeer, sponge cake and deep fried chicken. Here in Japan, Christmas is a time for young couples to go on dates. It's more akin to our Valentine's Day (and like Valentines Day, it's just a normal day for the vast majority of people). Luckily, however, Christmas this year fell on a Saturday, so we didn't have to go to work (or take the day off). Another benefit of it being on a Saturday was that we could invite some friends over to celebrate with us. This year we invited Ippei, Yoko and Junko (who wore kimono at our wedding). Unfortunately, Junko had a wedding to attend that day, so she couldn't come. Yoko and Ippei, however, were free and keen to come and celebrate with us. This meant we needed to try our best to really show them as much of a "traditional" Christmas as we could. 

Ideally we wanted to cook a roast turkey, but there were two problems with this idea: first, turkeys are more of a myth than an actual thing in Japan. Most Japanese people we know have heard of turkey, but have never seen or eaten it before. They don't even know exactly what a turkey is! So finding a turkey to buy seemed like a mission impossible; Second, turkeys tend to be rather large, but our tiny microwave oven is... well... tiny! There would be absolutely no chance of fitting a large turkey in that thing! So we settled on chicken (probably a more popular option than turkey in New Zealand anyway). Liz picked up a chicken one day on her way home from school. That same day, I happened to have some free time at work, so I got online and actually found a small turkey that said it was "ideal for Japanese microwave ovens"... and so I ordered one immediately. Liz texted me to say "I got a chicken!" and so I replied "and I got a turkey!" haha... The turkey arrived frozen on the 23rd (which incidentally is a public holiday in Japan - the Emperor's Birthday) and it was then that we saw exactly how small it was. I mean, I knew it must have been small to fit in the micro-oven (actually, that's a pretty good name for it! I think I'll keep calling it that from now on..."micro-oven"...) but still, it was even smaller than our little chicken!! ha! It was imported from Russia. Go figure! So anyway (getting back to the story at hand), we decided that for Christmas dinner we would have both roast chicken AND roast Russian micro-turkey! mmm. Liz decided that she'd make a green bean casserole and some mashed potatoes to go with it. YUM!!

Anyway, in preparation for our dinner, Liz made little Christmassy name plates to put on the table, but not before we remembered one rather major problem... we didn't have a table!! So, we asked around and luckily our friend Simon said that we could use his table if we could fit it in the car. So, round to Simon's house we went,  Allen key and screwdriver in hand, dismantled his table and took it back to our place in two trips. Problem sorted! We now had a dining table. 

Liz did a great job on the little name plates

So, on Christmas Eve we made sure we had everything sorted and ready for quick assembly the next day. We had lots of presents under our tree, and we were just settling down to a nice quiet glass of wine and a Christmas movie when the doorbell rang. It was the postman with a package from "overseas". When we opened it, it was a beautiful card nativity scene sent to us by Liz's aunt! What perfect timing, too! So we set that up and took a picture (below).

 

Christmas morning came a little earlier than hoped, but I was amping... actually, not at first. It was cold, snowy and I had to have the Russian micro-turkey in the oven by 8am! haha. Once I was up and doing it though, I suddenly felt all Christmassy and THEN I was excited for the day ahead. Not long after, Liz got up (probably woken by my clanging in the kitchen) and started preparing breakfast (and a pot of Starbucks Christmas Blend). I think I cracked open the first bottle of Champagne at about 10:30am or so, and it just kept flowing from then until the evening... not constantly of course, but you know... once a year and all... haha

Oh, and let's not forget the presents! We had fun opening our presents from each other and from friends.

Then it came time to take the Russian micro-turkey out of the oven and bung in the chicken. Holy candy canes the turkey looked good!!

Liz took this picture of me massaging the chicken before roasting it. You know, you MAY laugh, but I heard it helps separate the skin from the meat, which results in a crispier skin! Try it next time you roast a chicken... haha

 Ippei and Yoko arrived bang on time, and we sat around chatting and snacking on fruit mince pies, gingerbread men, shortbread, butterfingers, and other delicious Christmas treats. Then we started dinner off with salad, ham, smoked salmon and sushi (which Yoko brought with her because in Japan sushi is often eaten at celebrations... she also brought a big bottle of sake!... so kind!).

The main part of dinner was absolutely delicious! Both the little chicken and the Russian micro-turkey were moist and tender. Liz made gravy from the juices left in the pan, and it was REALLY good, too. The green bean casserole and potatoes were also bang on! I think we had a really good Christmas dinner by anyone's standards.
We were then all so full that we moved into the lounge and opened the stockings that Santa had left us. He must have known that Ippei and Yoko were coming over, because he had filled stockings for them too. I don't think either of them were expecting that, and they both became very excited! 

 For dessert we had pecan pie and Christmas cake. Both were very good! But none of us could eat much of either! haha. That's got to be a sign that we had a great dinner!

All in all, Liz and I had a really fun and memorable first Christmas together (well, first since getting married), and thank you to everyone who helped to make that happen.