Yesterday was definitely a different way of spending Christmas. Away from family, away from familiarity. But amidst unfamiliarity, we create familiarity. We surround ourselves with things we are used to, comfortable in, where we would not notice the difference between home and abroad.
We started the day by going to mass. Yea, in the 7 year after becoming a child of God, I have never attended as many masses as I have within this 3 weeks I am in India. Interesting statistics to note. Allie is catholic, and there's a catholic church nearby. The Protestant church is quite far away, so my host father said that I could just follow Allie to church.

The mass started at 7.30am in the morning. Yea, ages since I woke up in the morning to go to church. It was only an hour, and we returned home after that. My host father is a pastor, so we had service at home. He had the service for the slum children. Before leaving for India, I prayed to myself in my heart, that I must attend service on Christmas. Little did I know that my prayers were more than answered. It was literally just two steps away from my room. Our host father tried our best to deliver the service, peppering it with English so that Allie and I could follow. We said a prayer to end the service.

Allie in her sari! All dressed up for Christmas :)

After lunch, Allie and I went out to find two girls, Merry and Cherry, that lived nearby us. We got to know them as we were sitting in the park nearby our house which we stay in. The moment we stepped in, we were welcomed by their hospitality. This is the second time we were in their house. They served us hot coffee. Ahh, just what we needed for a cold day. :) They showered us with many gifts after that, presenting each gift one by one. They gave us each a pair of earrings, and you couldn't imagine the delight that both of us felt. Both of us made similar decisions to leave our jewellry back home, but missed them nonetheless. So when they gave us the earrings, we immediately put them on. Ahh, how pretty. After that, they gave us some more earrings, some bangles (which both Allie and I broke while trying to wear them on...our hands are just to large!) and a small glass duck status each.
Merry and Cherry's father was very hospitable too. He as worked in Singapore for the past 20 years, and was delighted that his daughters was mixing around with a Singaporean. Thank God for the good reputation of the country that I supposedly come from. He said that there's 95% good people in Singapore and US, but the percentage drops to a mere 20% in India! He told me his stories on how he moved from Serangoon to Hougang to Simei. He worked as a sub-contractor in Singapore, gaining form the economic boom that Singapore experience in the 1990s. We had to run some errands, but the girls had something to cook for us, so we promise to be back to their house after our errands.
We were touched by what we saw. They gave us a box of carrot salads, they called it. I felt good eating it, cus it felt healthy. Not to mention tasty!


Carrot salad. Made with love. :)

Note the heart shape in the middle!

As I would be going back home in a few days, their father also showered me with his hospitality, showing us where his daugthers got their characterics from. He gave me not one, two, three, but four gifts! I felt bad taking those gifts, but it was a sign of hospitality, and I thought it would be good to just accept them. He said that when Allie leaves, he would also present Allie with gifts. Aww.

After that, we went home for dinner. Our host family invited some people over. One of them was a couple who runs a communications company together. Sampat and Corrie run corporate trainings, training people in personal development, communication skills and interview techniques. They met while they were in Bangalore, when Corrie went to India many years back from the Philippines. They are a Christian couple, and I think I can learn loads from them.

Ah, a typical day of Christmas, we shall call it. But it seems more like a typical western Christmas, with house visits, having family and friends over. What we do back home is get ourselves drunk and take advantage of the discounts that they have a Gurney Plaza in conjunction on Christmas. But what can be said as typical of one would be a world of a difference to another.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! :D