Silver and gold
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| Christmas 2005 | Christmas 2006 |
We got a good lesson in the importance of procrastination last week. (Though I doubt my wife paid heed to it.) The occasion was my daughter's birthday. For many months now, maybe even since last Christmas, she's been dropping big hints that she'd like an artificial Christmas tree for her birthday.
Now, maybe it's because of her birth month or something, but the child has always loved Christmas. Coming to China posed a hardship for her, as we were not going to shlepp an extra suitcase full of tinsel. But, creative child that she is, Ga Dai managed to start amassing craft materials and cobbled together a nice bunch of decorations, including a Christmas tree made of posterboard. We were delighted with it, but the child wasn't satisfied. In her opinion, it looked too much like Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Hence the desire for a "real" fake tree for this year.
Well, loving parents that we are, we both decided that we would get her a Christmas tree. Fortunately we still communicate with each other after many years of marriage, so we didn't get two trees. Yau Neih opted to get the tree, I decided to spring for the decorations. Like I mentioned last year, the Christmas shopping season comes a bit later to this part of the world, but we had a vague recollection that we had seen some holiday decor for sale around this time last year. Of course, something happening last year doesn't always guarantee a repeat performance. We kept an eye out for the first signs of Christmas, but they weren't coming. Our regular supermarket, which had decked the halls last year, wasn't showing any holiday cheer. They were, however, rearranging all the shelves and adding new infrastructure, so we figured that maybe they were just to busy to haul out the tinsel.
So as the final week before B-day approached, we made it a point to extend our regular grocery runs to visit other supermarkets and stroll down different streets, all in hopes of finding a place selling Christmas decorations. Alas, day after day, like Yukon Cornelius, we came up with nuthin'. It was very discouraging. We had a dim hope that there would eventually be some decorations on sale somewhere, so Yau Neih decided to wrap up an I.O.U., and I planned to purchase the camera I had promised the child along with a mess of film. So, the day before Ga Dai's birthday, we headed towards the camera store. We strolled up the hill, past the pharmacy, the little grocers and the gift store, and there in an office supply/toy shop--behold!--we saw a rope of tinsel. Upon investigation, we found a nice little stash of Christmas decorations. With eager delight we pulled out the phrase book and asked if they had any trees. May yo--no. But they pointed down a cross street, indicating that we try there. We hurried up the street and, sure enough, we saw the store. The shopkeeper was setting up a bunch of trees out front. We made our selection and happily headed on to the supermarket, tree in hand. (Well, actually it was in a box, but you know what I mean.) On the way we passed three other stores setting out there Christmas decorations. For once, it seemed, waiting until the last minute paid off.
posted by John @ 12:10 AM
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