Holiday Season in South Africa

My wife has stated that it will be very odd having Christmas during the summer months.  It is exepected to be quite warm here in South Africa on December 25.  Being from Florida, I'm ok with not having snow or cold weather whilest opening my presents.  Heck, when I lived in Arkansas I only remember a few times having a White Christmas.  It does get cool in Florida at times during December, but nothing like the rest of the country.  I've even been to the beach on Christmas day, so I can say I'll be fine.

However, it'll be difficult for Lovely English Lass.  She's Yorkshire through and through, and darn it, December is supposed to be cold!  There should be, if not snow, then weather cold enough that it might freeze the alcohol in your glass!

(Funny aside: in England there is a show called "Soccer AM."  Each week they used to do a parody called Yorkshire News.  One of them showed a football player scoring an amazing goal for Leeds United, a Yorkshire team.  The "newscasters" weren't commenting on his goal, however, but on the fact that he was wearing gloves and that it wasn't THAT cold out.)

The one thing that isn't different here in South Africa is the ability to push the holiday season further and further back in the year.  I think the first Christmas tree here went up the second week in November, and they were all touting possible Christmas sales at the end of October.  It used to be in the States we had a firebreak with Thanksgiving to keep all of that out of November.  Not any more.

Well, we're going to be putting our tree up and decorating soon.  We wait until after Lovely Little Girl's birthday to make sure we give her a special day.  The kids will help with the decorations, and we'll hope that none of them get broken this year.  (Especially not the limited edition hand numbered one we got from Neuschwanstein Castle.)  But it'll be good to see some of the ornaments from where we've been.  LEL likes to buy wooden ornaments from our travels.  It's great to see them, and remember what we were doing when we bought them.

While it'll be sad not to be with the rest of the family (both my side and LEL's side), I can at least be happy that LEL, Lovely Little Girl, Crazy Little Man and I will be safe and together enjoying our time together.  And maybe, just maybe, that's all we need for the holiday spirit to catch on, no matter what the weather is like outside.