My favorite time of year has come once again, and I’m here to document all my Christmas events.
First thing – I brought a small noble fir, wrapped it in fairy lights and behold – a mini Christmas tree in a pot! I loved turning off the lights in my living room and turning these on and firing up a Vanilla Balsam scented Bath & Body Works candle while watching While You Were Sleeping, The Holiday, Die Hard, and other Christmas movies on TV. (Yes, Die Hard is a Christmas movie. Obviously.)
One thing that Hong Kong is better at than Singapore is the weather. I love the cold Christmas weather! I have always been a fan of coats and boots and was always sad that I couldn’t wear them as much as I wanted in the Philippines and Singapore which are both in perpetual summer. Of course I still can’t really do that as much now due to having to work from home, but at least I do get to cozy up in sweaters at home.
I know, how cute is that reindeer headband, right? May and I found that by accident while we were rummaging through the shops in Stanley Market.
Meanwhile, that cozy lilac sweater with puffy sleeves is my gift from one of my global Secret Santa exchange gift events conducted using Elfster.com and Zoom.
Here are some of the other Christmas gifts I got!
The Chanel rouge coco flash lipstick has such a luxurious, moisturizing formula, and the phenomene shade looks phenomenal on me, the perfect pop of color for Zoom calls.
The faux fur scarf is something that’s been sitting on my Amazon wish list for who knows how long now. I just love the way it looks. I don’t think Hong Kong gets cold enough to merit wearing this, still, but who knows!
The rose gold wine glass is something I use for all my beverages, even egg nog, which I’ve always been curious about but have never tried until now. It tastes yummy!
But my funniest gift was a Diptyque mimosa candle. It did not come with a note, so I initially had no idea who sent it. I asked all my friends and even posted it on Insta stories, no dice.
Turns out it was my former boss Sandra’s gift for our Secret Santa. The reason why I didn’t realize it was a Secret Santa gift was because I got another present which I thought was that.
This is where the funny sets in. One night, a delivery guy arrived late at night with a sack for me. I thought it was really dodgy, and I immediately wondered if this was one of those strange fake deliveries that I had read about, where some companies would send weird items to people just so they could leave fake reviews on their behalf. I gingerly brought the item to the garbage area on my floor so that I could open it there and immediately throw it if it turned out to be anything weird. Inside was a microphone boom arm (which I recognized from my wish list), a head scarf, and an elephant pillow. That last one had me convinced that my former teammate GH, the prankster, was my secret santa and that he had sent this.
It turns out I was wrong about him being my secret santa, but not about this gift coming from him. We laughed about how this turned out to be so much more than the prank he had planned on.
I also received a couple of handwritten Christmas cards from London and Canada.
My main Christmas celebration happened on Christmas eve eve. No that is not a typo, I meant the 23rd. Get it?
May and Mico invited me to have dinner with them in their fancy hotel room at The Ritz Carlton. Here are pics of me with the Christmas tree in the lobby. Yes, Christmas masks are a thing.
Their room was at the 110th floor and the view outside the window is exquisite. “It’s like a postcard!” a friend commented on this pic I took using an iPhone. Imagine what a proper camera can do.
Here’s our Christmas spread:
Aside from eating, we also posed for pics and played Jenga and Cards Against Humanity.
I have to admit there was a low moment when I felt depressed on Christmas eve after my friends who I was supposed to have a noche buena zoom call with abandoned me, but aside from that, I did overall enjoy my first Christmas in Hong Kong.
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