Christmas in Bali

We had a beautiful Christmas Eve celebration in Seminyak Bali with some old and new friends. We had representatives from Minneapolis, Sydney and Berlin. Our celebrations consisted of cocktails, a traditional Balinese dinner, poppers, a white elephant gift exchange and swimming in the rain. A Christmas Eve surprise was a phone call with one of my best friends, Madelon, asking me to stand up in her wedding! I was so honored and delighted.

The Christmas Eve menu was chicken satay, nasi goreng and fish wrapped in banana leaves cooked with a tomato sauce. The chicken satay peanut sauce was incredible and made me want to lick the bowl. Dessert was an assortment of fruit including yellow watermelon which I found is much taster than the red.

The Christmas miracle came the morning of the 25th when we were greeted with sunny blue skies. It had been the first time in a week since we had seen the sun. We made it a point to venture on the scooter to the beach and enjoyed mango drinks by the water. Our Christmas present to each other was a three hour honeymoon massage package which included a traditional Balinese massage, sea salt scrub, honey and milk scrub, aromatic bath and facials. It was pure heaven.

Christmas dinner was celebrated with our Bali crew at the SOS Rooftop Lounge with the most amazing views of the ocean and sunset from the second floor balcony.  We fancied one of the three delicious meals of either salmon, barramundi and steaks. Thanks to Jake for my first time experiencing the flavorful bone marrow. Now I completely understand why my dog, Wiley, loves it so much. During dinner we were surprised with the Ha Ha Ha’s of our visiting Indonesian Santa and his helper elf. We enjoyed the setting sun warm pink colored skies and beach front with the random crackling of fireworks down the coast.

We are especially grateful to have been able to FaceTime our family this holiday. Technology has a way of making us feel not as far away.