It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Dec 2007... so far

So it is already the middle of December and we can hardly keep track of where the time is going! We're measuring time mostly based on how soon the baby is coming and it seems like it's bearing down on us like a freight train at the moment. We have been keeping busy by getting ready for Christmas, getting involved in our branch, getting ready for baby... it still feels strange to not have the usual accompaniments to the season (snow, eggnog, a piano to play Christmas carols...) but we have been pleasantly surprised with the apparent celebration of Christmas here! There are Christmas trees in all the shops, they play American-style carols over the PA systems, (it was hilarious walking down the aisles last time we were shopping, singing along to "Santa Baby"), and there are twinkling lights all over downtown. The traffic is even reminiscent of home during ridiculous jams from holiday shoppers... I was even coming home last night from a Visiting Teaching dinner at 11:30pm and sat in traffic for almost 20 minutes because the roads were jammed! (That's something we had to adjust to here-- the late schedule... people eat dinner after 8 or 9 and then shop afterward. Some of the streets look like the middle of the day with people thronging on the sidewalk... seriously, who buys luggage at 11:00 at night? Apparently Malaysians do.)

But Michael & I agree that by FAR the best Christmas moment we've had here was on December 1st, we went to do our usual grocery shopping and about DIED when we walked in the store... there, in the check-out lines, each cashier was wearing a jauntily-placed traditional fir-trimmed Santa hat... which would have been great in itself, but the icing on the cake was seeing the young girls wearing their headscarves underneath the santa hats!!! Seriously. I've never kicked myself so hard for not having a camera, although it may have seemed slightly offensive to take their picture. We were so disappointed when we went the next time, armed with camera, the hats were nowhere in sight. It was just such a hilarious juxtaposition that I will never forget that image as long as I live. So, we hope the rest of you are having memorable Christmas experiences. Sometimes we really do miss the snow, so go play in it a little for us.