Currently Faith: A Holiday Album By Kenny G see related

                I know, I know, it seems strange to be sweating in hot, humid weather and talking about signs of Christmas!  But there are signs of Christmas all around!  Even though I didn’t really celebrate a traditional American Thanksgiving (okay, to be quite honest, I forgot that it was Thanksgiving that day until my parents called…), I still observed my usual routine: once Thanksgiving is past, it’s time to pull out the Christmas music!  This afternoon I was sitting at our partner organization’s office using the internet, and another expatriate (a British guy who works for the other organization) walked out into the common area where I had Christmas music playing on my computer.  He was almost shocked by the fact that he was hearing Christmas music!  What I told him is true – something I learned from my Mom a long time ago is that no matter where you are, you just have to make Christmas happen.  You have to do something to get yourself into the spirit of Christmas.  So for me, that means Christmas decorations, Christmas music, a nice cinnamon scented candle, and reading my favorite Christmas book – “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.”

                So it’s not like some of you are seeing signs of Christmas; there aren’t stores having big sales, there isn’t any snow, and no Christmas baking happening around me.  But there are still signs all around – I saw my first “Christmas bird” of the year on Sunday morning when I woke up.  Christmas birds are these white birds that migrate through here, and they are always around in December.  And if I go downtown in Greenville in the next few weeks, I can anticipate seeing more people selling beautiful lappas (cloth that is used for sewing clothes), hair extensions, trinkets, toys, and all kinds of other little things for Christmas.  Already yesterday one woman started asking me for her “season” – the little bit of money that everyone (children, adults, everyone) begs for as it gets closer to Christmas.