It is hard to tell that we are approaching the Christmas season. There are few decorations anywhere. No houses have outside Christmas decorations. Very few stores have any Christmas decorations. We don't have TV or radio so nothing there. When we heard in church that it was the second Sunday in Advent, we were both surprised. Halfway through Advent and we were hardly aware of it. Being the month of December should have been a clue, but it is 80 degrees outside and there's no visible evidence of the season.
Then a couple of days ago, we heard voices singing a Christmas carol outside our front door. It was Linda from next door and a daughter bearing three gifts. Kind of like the Wise Men. The three gifts were a Christmas tree, a string of lights, and their surplus ornaments. Instant Christmas tree and Christmas season! OK, technically speaking, it isn't a tree. It is several branches propped up with bricks in a bucket of water. Hey, if we wanted to set up an artificial tree in our living room, we would have stayed in Walla Walla. Actually, last Christmas we had to toss out our mangled 20 year old artificial tree so we put up lights on our huge Hoya plant. It changes Christmas a bit to sing, "Oh Hoya plant, Oh Hoya plant, How lovely are your branches."
When we inspected our Christmas branches, we found all these small green balls. They look like they will become cones. The branches have that coniferous look. Both Debi and I immediately recalled the story of my parents' first Christmas in Africa years ago. They found a treeish growth of the right size that had already grown balls on it. "Great", they thought, "It already has the balls on it. It is already partly decorated." To their surprise and dismay, they discovered that those balls were homes to a host of insects that enjoyed exploring the house. Merry Christmas and Buggy Christmas are not synonymous.
So far no bugs. Now, isn't this the epitome of Euro-American Christmas?
Don
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