Making Christmas

Well, the Saturday after Thanksgiving John and I rode the van into the city. We got off at Traders Hotel and walked next door for a hard-to-find-in-China treat, a Subway sandwich. My Subway melt was not to be melted because I was told the ovens weren't turned on until 10:00. It was 10:27 but whose counting! After our treat of a lunch we headed to Metro, a store that carries many Western brands and a store that had...Christmas decorations!!
We bought a tree for 229 RMB. (This is another word for yuan)and decorations. I did notice that the decorations run a little to the cheesy/gaudy/WOW it sure is Christmas huh?? style, so I have been sparing with their application.
The Christmas lights don't link together as they do in the states. Each strand is separate. Apparently the idea that someone would waste electricity on more than one starnd of lights is a bit foreign. I have four strands on my tree. Every time I turn it on I have to spend five miniutes synchronising their settings so one isnt flashing, one strobing, one cycling and one randomly turning on and off. Also, of the five identical boxes I purchased, four werw hite lights and one was a colored strand that played music! That one...did not go on the tree. :)

So now, Christmas is alive and well in the home, and we did it all in one five hour shopping trip to the city. Not bad!