Buying a Christmas Tree in Borneo

Last Saturday we decided to go Christmas tree shopping, so we piled the kids in the Kijang (kind of like a Jeep Cherokee style vehicle) and went to the mall. The bookstore was our first stop once at the mall because I'd asked around and someone said that they'd seen trees there. It being Saturday afternoon (and we generally avoid the mall on the weekend cause it's so LOUD and crazy with people) there was some kind of event going on including live music and all sorts of kiosks right in front of the bookstore. (PARENT WARNING FOR THE NEXT SENTENCE:) As I followed Josh and the kids through the crowds of people, one of the kiosk people shoved a small box into my hand - I looked down - it was a box of condoms - OK, not sure what that was about since I'm obviously married and have 3 children - not a promiscuous teenager - but I made sure to drop the box off at the next kiosk I stopped at. We trailed into the bookstore and sure enough - there were a number of trees there. Some were too short, but two had promise. One had pine cones so that didn't really float my boat, but the other one looked really thick, pretty tall and though kind of expensive, my thought was that we're buying it once and will use it for years, so it's worth it in the long run. Josh and I talk about it and agree to pursue getting this tree but we should look at the other stores too. I checked with the clerk to see if they had many in stock, and he said, something about stock but I wasn't sure what so I took it as a positive thing. I said we'd be back in a bit to get the tree.

We went down the hall to one other store, but the trees weren't anything to write home about so we went back, through the crowds, to the bookstore to claim our tree. We talked some more with the clerk and found out that they DID have stock of the tree we wanted - it WAS the stock - they only had THAT ONE. I'm glad we acted right away. So we arranged to come back in 30 minutes while they disassembled the tree for us. We brought the tree home and made plans to put it up the next day!

Julia and Mitchell rockin' around the Christmas tree!


I had looked at the inside part of the tree and THOUGHT I'd seen hinged branches - I was wrong - each branch had to be installed one-by-one. It was a pretty big job, though I thought it was easier than having to fluff the branches one by one after they were already on the tree (less scratched arms that way). I'm pretty pleased that we even found a tree this great here and I must admit, it's helping with the Christmas spirit. We also think it's important to continue some of the traditions that we have at home, at least the ones we CAN - since there are so many we can't continue. We're still evolving as a family in this aspect as the kids are getting older and understanding more.


Speaking of which - Spencer said at supper tonight - "Did you know that Mary didn't have to be married to a boy to have Jesus? She wasn't really married to Joseph." I kinda went, "What? Where'd you hear that?" So not sure when we'll finish that conversation but it will have to be had. Some of this stuff I was hoping he'd click with after I have this last baby! :)

Anyway, I should go hang with my family for a bit before bed. I'm still doing pretty much the same - tired and nauseous, often triggered by heat, so am mostly laying low, though I do hope to bake some cookies sometime this week to participate in a cookie exchange my co-workers are having! (Baking is really not a great activity for me these days since it involves a hot oven and a hot kitchen IN the hot tropics ON the HOT equator!) :) This too shall pass - if nothing else I'll do Christmas cookies next year!


Anyway, hope you're all having a great time doing your Christmas shopping. We're saving most of ours for the next time we're out in another Asian country (no plans yet, though) as a lot of the toys we can purchase here are easily broken, not really great quality. Not to worry, we also have some coming in the mail, if the packages get here before the 25th!

Take care!