IT'S A FESTIVUS MIRACLE!

"So this is Christmas. And what have you done?..."



Tonight Kaddi and I sat on the couch trying to watch a downloaded version of It's a Wonderful Life on a laptop screen connected to the television speakers. The movie would periodically stutter and freeze as the download progressed slowly. I ate sticky rice with mango and even with the air-conditioning on at 9PM, still sweat through my clothes. It was just like I remembered Christmas as a little boy growing up in Alberta.

Despite being in Thailand, the Strate's are trying their best to make this a Merry Christmas. We bought a tree at Carefour and some decorations. We accidentally got the blinking kind of lights, and can't seem to figure out how to stop them from blinking. As such, anytime we want to watch TV we have to unplug the Christmas lights...and then we sometimes can't plug them in again. But the biggest problem is that we don't have star for the tree. We didn't see anything appropriate at the store, and decided we might have to go without one this year.

Normally, that would be unthinkable. But not this year - not when we've already got enough Christmas decorations to make Martha Stewart eat her own pine-scented stocking carp out of envy.

A little garland, some holly, and a few...uh, blue things can brighten up the even the homeliest curtain rod.

A traditional Thai nativity set dating back to the year 165 BC. Most people don't know that there were elephants in Bethlehem that night, because Catholics edited that part out at the Council of Nicaea.

Kaddi picked up this Nativity set at Que Pasa, the local Mexican restaurant just outside Nichada. We're breaking down so many cultural barriers here we often get lost in the rubble.

Kaddi's stocking. I can't wait to see the look on her face Christmas morning when it's full of special scented candles I picked up at a local market. I got curry, dried fish, and my personal favorite: cab-driver.





Still, the cornucopia of wholesome decorating goodness felt incomplete without an appropriate ornament to put on top of the tree. For a few days I wondered if our Christmas wish would not be granted. We comforted ourselves as best we could by listening to BNL's Elf's Lament'(with Michael Buble) and of course the greatest Christmas music of all - The Muppets and John Denver: A Christmas Together.

And then, one afternoon the doorbell rang. It was the postman, and in his arms was the most beautiful Christmas decoration I had ever seen. I knew at once that this heaven-sent gift was destined to reign atop our Christmas tree....


















Who's ready for the feats of strength?