A Cochin Christmas

Taj Gateway Hotel lobby with a Nativity scene towards the back.

I'm sure some of you are wondering how Christmas was in India.  Two years ago, we spent Christmas in Jamnagar, India and it just seemed like another day except for the outside dinner with our favorite foods.  This year was different as Cochin has a large Christian population.  Carols were playing throughout the hotel for the last week and the lobby and restaurant were even decorated.  I lost count of how many times people said "Happy Christmas" to us. 

Most of the UOP guys, Santa, Denise and I

Christmas Eve started out with a turkey dinner buffet that included a beer or a glass of champagne.  I'm only telling you this because they almost doubled the price of the buffet, but it included turkey, a whole pig complete with the apple in it's mouth and a drink.  Denise is a therapy student from Austria who is interning at Raksha.  It was her first Christmas away from family so she came over and joined us for dinner and drinks.  Santa and his scary mask visited us too and gave us candy.  I'm not quite sure why they insist on Santa wearing a mask...can't he just be an Indian Santa? 

Cheers!

Christmas morning they had a special champagne brunch which was just like the normal breakfast only with pancakes and mimosas.  The only good thing about Jason having to work a few hours on Christmas day.... I got his mimosa!  Such a hard worker he is!  

One of the managers and waiters.

We had Christmas dinner at the hotel again (of course) and I had to get a few pictures of the staff.  See, we knew we were moving hotels the next day, but they didn't know.  It's a long story, but we knew they'd make a big deal out of it and we didn't want everyone coming up to us asking why we were moving, etc so we told them there were delays at the refinery and we were leaving.  We're sneaky like that.

After dinner we did the traditional Saturday night routine...  Christmas music, a couple drinks and games.  Nothing too special, but what do ya do in India for Christmas?  Maybe next year we'll be somewhere awesome...or at home.  I could handle the every other year Christmas at home thing.  My mom is convinced she is leaving the tree up until we come home but my goal is to convince her otherwise.  We can celebrate Christmas while grilling out on the deck in the sunshine in March...April....May, who knows.