It's December already. WHERE did the time go?
(Warning : this is a "woe is me" post ... bear with me)
It is NOT beginning to feel "a lot like Christmas" here in Delhi!
The snow is falling back home. Facebook statuses are heavy with "Look what I got on Black Friday" and the "Elf Yourself" videos are already starting to be sent around cyberspace.
Here though, it just feels like plain ole' normal ... and this novice expat mom is KICKING herself.
See ... the majority of my experience with Christmas (the surface celebration and recognition only) is that it is typically 28 degrees and snowing. Growing up in Nebraska and most recently living in Ohio - we are used to snow being a part of our Christmas landscape.
I didn't think I'd miss the snow, the Peppermint Coffees at Starbucks, the obnoxious constant Christmas music at every store you walk into, the commercials on TV or the tradition of pulling out tub after tub of things from our garage storage to start decorating the tree.
I'm beyond upset with myself that for some odd reason, I thought it would be FUN to recreate Christmas in India ... and make some new memories and start some new traditions.
* * *
I left the Christmas ornaments at home and said "What fun it will be to buy NEW ornaments"
* * *
I packed away the Christmas music and said "I bet there will be some neat Indian-styled Christmas music we can find"* * *
I boxed up and taped the artificial Christmas trees and said "bah, why bother adding that much volume/weight to the shipment, we'll find a funky Indian native tree to use for Christmas!"
The only Jingle Bells we're hearing over in our neck o' the woods is our housekeeper's bangles as she swoops through the house cleaning.
I'm so mad at myself. Christmas is one of *those* holidays that means alot to me. It is "my" thing and I love, love, love it. I have special candles, special mantle decorations, the works. I LOVE it.
A couple of days ago, I got asked, "Momma, is Christmas time going to find us in India??"
Normally the day after Thanksgiving, we are humming along to Dean Martin and singing Christmas Carols, drinking egg nog and putting up the Christmas tree. Normally, by this time of the year, I am beside myself with anticipation of our wonderful holiday get-togethers we've scheduled and canNOT wait until Christmas morning to see the looks on the kids' faces.
I really don't know what I was thinking and am r-a-t-h-e-r bummed about my lack of preparation and my dumb decision making while getting ready to pack up and head out of the snowglobe.
BUT ... I decided to pull up my big girl panties and just figure something out.
Kushal took us to a market where I proceeded to purchase two artificial Christmas trees ("Straight from America, madam!" the shopkeeper proclaimed)
Mia and I scoured the shop for some ornaments (and listened to Christmas music while we tinkered around)
And we set to bringing a bit of Christmas spirit to Delhi.
I'm still working on the missing Christmas music. Anyone in Delhi have some CDs I could borrow to um ... burn? I know it's against all of the copyright rules, but this novice expat is struggling to bring "Christmas as usual" to her family ... no one is going to beat down my door and expect an explanation of whether I paid for those CDs, will they?
Note :: I have since originally writing this post ... downloaded and burned Christmas music onto three VERY full cds ... and momma is now ... HAPPY!(collective sigh)
