Christmas Wrapping

So many favorite Christmas songs, so little time.

You see, I saw your weather forecast in NY and NJ and my last title fit better than it seemed.

I just finished my Christmas shopping and shipping a couple of hours ago. It's typical of me to wrap things up somewhere around the 23rd. The problem is that it doesn't matter to international postal systems that I am finished; they still have to do their thing. So if you're a family member and you're reading this, the estimated date of arrival of your Christmas gifts is December 29. If it's accurate, it's still impressively quick. I wish they were there by Christmas, but it wasn't an easy task shopping here, as you might imagine from my previous descriptions of shopping experiences. I didn't expect to, but I still found myself running around for the last couple of weeks in that familiar frenzy. The additional challenge here is that things seem to cost either $1 or $1000, without a lot in between. Now let's hope that as I was in a rush to pack and seal the boxes as the post office was closing that I put the correct labels on the corresponding boxes. Oh, wouldn't that be a laugh. Just make sure you check the gift tags.

We purchased a lovely artificial Christmas tree the other day. I'm lying. It's entirely made of silver tinsel with fake tree leaves (cause it's a tree?) stuck uniformly all around it. It took Paul about one minute to assemble, so it won his vote there, and it folds into one flat piece so we can store it here in Tinyland. Though if we can't fit it somewhere, we'll get over the approximate $6 we spent on it... half the price from the day before! I say, it has just the right amount of weird tackiness - or tacky weirdness - to make it very enjoyable to look at. I added red bows and the angel on top was a gift. I know it looks a little sad without gifts underneath. That's what happens when you give yourselves the gift of travel. I'd like boxes under the tree, but I'd rather to go to Vietnam in a couple of months.


I didn't put any Christmas music on the computer - and I am a fan of a particular few - in the hours of marathon downloading back in March before we left, but we're not without it. Through the wonders of playlist.com, I found all my favorites. We listened to many on Sunday night and I started to feel a little sad that we won't be home for Christmas now that it's practically here. We'll have to watch A Christmas Story seven or eight times when it's on TBS, on the Slingbox.

Can I share my exciting news that I'm aware is only exciting to me? There are a couple of gourmet, international, i.e. expensive, supermarkets around and on a day of Christmas shopping in Kowloon (alright I'm lying again - I went over to check out the new Sephora), I stopped in one on my way home through Central. They appear to stock up on certain items around the holidays for ex-pats preparing their native holiday meals, so I believe because it was near Thanksgiving... lo and behold... Cool Whip! I bought two. I may never see it again. Also, in my regular supermarket, Louis Rich Turkey Bacon is now making an appearance. I don't think it's holiday-related, so maybe it will remain a regular item; you never know around here. But I know we had a good breakfast last Sunday morning.

Now for actual good news: Paul received a promotion last week. He is now a Vice President, referred to in the HK office as Executive Director. I just call him Sir. Aren't we proud of him? He certainly deserves it and it's another reason to be thankful for all that's happened for us this year.

I'm thankful that I didn't have to shovel any snow, but I can't wait to finally visit home soon. Hey, it got chilly here the last couple of days. It's only 55 now.

Maybe I'll write something quick in the next day or two but if not, we hope you all have a very merry Christmas and enjoy being with family and eating wonderful food and counting blessings. We miss everyone and we'll be thinking of home.