how lovely are your branches...

Holy smokes its christmas time. I am sure you out there in the real world have known this for some time, but it sneaks up on you when you live this close to the molten core of the earth. (actually it has gotten cooler and is now a tolerable temperature) Although I have been looking for the Heat Meiser around here. You may know him as Mr. Green Christmas, or Mr. Hundred and One. But apparently he doesn't live in a buddhist country. They have really embraced christmas here, any occasion to festoon something with garishly colored garland and lights and ribbons is wholly embraced here. I have a similar philosophy when it comes to using the word "festoon", I use it when I can. Of course if it is over used it looks weird when something is festooned with festoons so I also try and keep my festooning to a minimum. Or I could go blind.
Another problem we have encountered during our tropical noel is that there are no evergreens here. Where is a douglas fir or royal pine when you want one?

This was the dilemma when we set out on our journey of discovery. We searched high and low, in the mountains, in the rice paddies, along the shores of the mighty Mekong river. Maybe we could just decorate a giant Mekong catfish, the largest of all freshwater fish reaching lengths of over 2 meters and weighing close to 400 kilos. (damn I am still infected with the metric virus). But placing our gifts under a merrily decorated dead fish didn't seem right, it just didn't seem like christmas. Santa would probably have not approved, although the smell would have made it easy to find our place. We literally scoured the country side looking for tree. Which was good because the countryside was filthy and in need of a good scouring. But still nothing. No luck. Nada. Not one damn tree of note.

We were down hearted and beginning to lose our festive spirit. When lo, what is that jingling sound? Is it someone selling mystery ice cream? no. Perhaps someone wishing to purchase our recyclables? no, not that either. Its a familiar sound, the type of sound you hear on every street corner. SILVER BELLS!!! SILVER BELLS!!! Its christmas time in the city. Of course why didn't we think of this sooner. Our town is festooned with tourists from all over the globe, many from countries like ours that celebrate christmas. So that is where we found it, on a shelf in a store for Japanese expats and it was calling our names. "Mr. and Ms. Cook please take me home and decorate me. Give me meaning," called the tree.

and we did.
We miss you all and love many of you, or as many as we could any way.

MERRY CHRISTMAS