It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

It's after Thanksgiving, so the Americans here are throwing themselves into the Christmas Spirit, with Christmas trees appearing in houses on base, and lights and red bows being placed on our palm trees. :-) After researching some Spanish Christmas traditions, I learned that they typically wait much longer to begin the festivities: sometimes until Dec. 22nd! But officially they view the start of the season as Dec 8 (Immaculate Conception) and this year Advent begins this Sunday, Dec. 2. So... I joined my American friends in decorating this week!
First, we had to figure out where to get a tree. There are fake ones sold here on base, but at several hundred dollars each, we decided to look elsewhere. There will be trees available in town the week of Christmas, cause that is when the Spanish set theirs up. But thankfully the garden center near base caters to our American whims, so they got their trees in the Monday after Thanksgiving. We went that evening to pick one out. They had a good selection of heights and varieties, though I didn't recognize the typical species of pine and fir that I am used to. They most notable thing about the trees is that they were all sold with the roots still attached, balled up and wrapped neatly with some dirt. So you can either cut it off... or put it in a pot! We went for the latter version, since the garden center has so much beautiful pottery, and we can use it for other plants this summer.

Once we got it set up, and I painstakingly wrapped it in new lights  (our old tree was pre-wired), the kids were super excited to start decorating it! Amazingly, none of our Christmas decorations were broken during the move. We have an eclectic variety of home-made kid ornaments--including some I made! and heirloom ornaments our families bought to commemorate births. My mother-in-law has a cool tradition of getting us something different every year, so there are some special ones from her. Unfortunately, the kids were a little baffled by the softness of the real tree's branches (our fake one was very stiff) so they needed help hanging even the simplest ornaments.

 Eventually, we got them all on! The kids each have their favorites they keep trying to pull off: Sophie's is a gingerbread girl from Grandma Cindy and a Barbie princess. Danny's is a nutcracker (which he calls coconut or nutter), a bear on a sled (which he wants to pull around), a bear on a traffic light, a rocking horse... ok, anything he can get his hands on basically! In fact, Alex has caused the least trouble this year! The pot puts the very bottom of the tree at his height, so we just didn't hang much on the first few inches. Like last year, Sophie has a favorite branch, and keeps trying to move all the ornaments to occupy the exact same space!

 While the Christmas tree is my favorite decoration (yes, I sit in the dark at night and just watch the lights), there are some other very special decorations that I'm glad made the move with us. I bought my first Nativity set in college. It moved with me to my 1st apartment on my own, then our 1st apartment in Quantico when we got married, then to our North Carolina house, and now here! Sophie liked setting it up with me, and created several unique poses. First, she gathered everyone in a 'holy huddle', a perfect circle around Jesus. Then she lined them in a straight row according to height. She finally settled on this arrangement... which I promptly put into a more traditional setting.

 I also set up another Nativity scene for the 1st time. It was given to us a few years ago, and was painted in Mexico. It always seemed out of place in our other houses, but it fits perfectly here in Spain! The figures are quite small, but have wonderful cultural dress and details!

 I also set up an Advent wreath for the first time this year. Yes, there are supposed to be 4 candles, and yes, they are supposed to be purple and pink (to symbolize preparation and joy), but this is all I have to work with for now! In church, one candle is lit each week. At home, we will try to light it nightly and say a prayer or talk about Christ's birth. Now that the kids are 4 and 3, they can begin to understand some of the reason for the season.

 Finally, I was happy that our front door wreath was still intact! 3 years ago, when Danny was born, my mom came to visit in December and brought a wreath she had made using cedar from the house where I grew up. Of course, the cedar is gone, but I saved the beautiful bow she made herself. When I pulled it out of the box, I was flooded with memories, and glad that I could have just a little bit of my Mom's decorations here with me in Spain. We will certainly miss the families this Christmas, since I have celebrated with them almost every year, especially during deployments. So while I look forward to acquiring many more Christmas decorations while I am in Europe these next few years, I will also treasure anything that is from HOME.