Happy Holidays!

Just a quick note about the Holiday Season in our little corner of West Africa.

It's a hoot!

We can't make ourselves believe it's already December 20- and since we will be gone for the actual holiday, we don't have a tree or decorations to help us remember how close we are to the Solstice or Christmas or New Year's.

We keep listening to Holiday songs, but it still seems like weeks and weeks until the Holidays. It's still plenty hot after all.

My sister called the other night as she was getting off work (and it was after 10pm here). My phone was blinking to me that she had called already twice, when she tried one more time. I explained I missed the first calls because we were in the pool. She had called to tell me about their new snow and the flurries that were blowing by her as she sat in the parking lot. Brrrrr!

So, as it should be, the Santas in our Ghanaian stores are jolly black men, but sadly they are not sitting on Santa thrones inviting children to tell them what they want. Most children in Ghana aren't getting much for Christmas, let alone what they really want. So basically our Santas just wander the store being jolly-ish and helpful.

There are blinking colored lights everywhere, carols on the muzak, and traffic traffic traffic! We have distributed Christmas cheer in the form of money to a list of people - the guards (day, night and weekend), our Houseboy, our Driver, and the tunnel guys. A little goes a long way, and it feels good to be in a position to really give some Holiday Cheer to people who have been such a help in getting us settled in our new home and making us feel so comfortable here.

Wherever you are I hope your New Year is as exciting as we plan ours to be. I'll be back to share more of our African adventure in 2006!