My Christmas

I can't say Christmas was the same this year.  Not getting to see my family and celebrate my favorite holiday was tough, and the fact that the vast majority of all of my friends here were either home (US) as well or traveling to Singapore didn't make it any easier.  But me being me, I made the best of a difficult situation.  On Christmas Eve and day I spent a large amount of time Skyping with family as they feasted on amazing food without me, but I managed to have a Christmas feast myself.  Fortunately my good friend Chris was in town and he invited me to a Christmas feast like no other with his family.

Chris's sister hosted the dinner and she had her family there, Alex and Elena accompanied by some of Alex's friends.  Elena is actually a senior at a private High school in CT, talk about a small world. She didn't know Lyndsey though.  

We started with a table full of delicious appetizers, prosciutto wrapped on a bread stick, cheese and crackers, chips and dip yum!  but this was completely over shadowed by the main feast.

The amount of food was overwhelming.  We had a huge ham roast and a huge turkey, with all of the fixin's one could ask for.  There was cranberry sauce, stuffing, sweet potato crumble (amazingly delicious), corn, mashed potatoes, salad and possibly a few others.

I didn't have any plans for Christmas, in fact I really thought that I would just be sitting home watching Holiday Inn followed by Chevy Chase's Christmas Vacation, then maybe some Rudolph and Care Bear Nutcracker Christmas ( :-) ) but I'm really glad I reached out to Chris if he was around and I wasn't expecting to get invited to such a feast.

Of course the dinner was amazing but talking with everyone made the night that much better.  Lisa's, Chris's sister had a friend from work and her husband there and we all some very engaging

discussions from topics ranging to my upcoming trip to India, to the global financial situation to book recommendations.  

It ended up being a very late night, in a very good way.   I've been meeting so many amazing people in Singapore, all of whom have done so much in life and have experienced so much that its giving me more and more ideas of things to do, places to visit, things to learn.  

It's been 3 months since I've moved around the world from my friend and family and home.  It's been 3 months of "NEW," new working, new friends, new ways of keeping in touch with my state side friends and family, new holidays traditions, new me.

   I'm trying to think of a good quote to summarize my experience in my first 3 months in Singapore, but using someone else's words isn't appropriate, so I might as well go with MY quote/thought/philosophy.

"Life isn't short!  Life provides you with certain opportunities to make it feel short, but in reality these opportunities expand your life infinitesimally, you just need to take advantage of them" 

I'd often found myself thinking that life was short to travel everywhere I'd like to visit, to work with people I'd never imagine possible, to meet people who've experienced the world in ways I'd never imagine.

 Now I find myself in an experience where I know my life will never be too short because every opportunity that presents itself to me I embrace and see where it will lead me.  Not knowing where I'll be in life in 1, 2, 5, 10 years from now used to seem terrifying to me, but now, knowing that every place I travel and person I meet I will find myself living the longest most fulfilling life anyone could ever ask for.