I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas Tree!

Even in one year we've seen how Christmas has changed here in our new little city. We have been told that just a few years ago there was only one place to buy a Christmas tree (artificial, of course), but this year there are grocery stores, stores at the mall, and a few other little shops owned by Christians that sell all types of artificial trees and ornaments and lights. Our local Safeway has made the biggest improvement. Last year they displayed a Santa outfit on a pregnancy manequinn. (see below)

But this year they have some stockings, lots of deocrations and even though they are already sold out of lights, they have done a great job of bringing in some great yet random Christmas cheer. I know it must be hard to get all this stuff shipped in from other places to please the many ex-patriots living in this country. We're just thankful the Butterball Turkey shipment made it in time for Thanksgiving this year. What's funny is that we are just now starting to see the cranberry sauce. Oh well.

We bought a tree this year to try to be a little festive. Of course, we aren't the most traditional people, so we went with a non-traditional tree. Check it out!

It was the cheapest tree at the store - we don't know why - who doesn't want a white and silver Christmas tree?? The hardest part has been trying to explain it to our local friends. They don't totally understand the whole reason behind the Christmas tree, let alone a crazy one. My language tutor came in and looked at it and took a picture on her cell phone. Then she just touched it and said, "mish aadi, mish aadi", which means, "not normal, not normal". I think she was trying to figure it all out. I explained to her (in arabic) that Daniel and I were sometimes a little crazy and we liked things that are different. She seemed to accept that and then we talked more about why we celebrate Christmas and how we don't worship the Christmas tree.

Christmas will be really different this year as we are feeling more settled and not in such a transition as last year (well at least not until we have this baby). I think we are going to be missing family and friends a lot more. But we will have a real Christmas this year in our own apartment, with our own 'not normal' Christmas tree and thankfully, we will also have Skype to see our loved ones!