Merry Christmas!

On Friday, December 7th, I came home from school to a wonderful surprise from Andrew. He dug me a Christmas tree. He actually went out with our little trowel, dug up a papaya tree (a little taller than me), and potted it. Then he decorated it with various lights (the colored ones aren't working in this picture), construction paper chain, and some ornaments he borrowed from our friends a week before. There were even presents underneath! He also had Christmas music playing and everything was clean. The whole thing sure made me happy. I had been a little bummed that we wouldn't have a tree. It seemed silly to buy an artificial tree, since we wouldn't be around to enjoy it for Christmas.
The next day, the tree was completely wilted, but our stick is still standing with all it's decorations.

I heard a funny story about why there are no real (non-artificial) Christmas trees for sale here. A few years ago, some stores tried to import some trees. The shipment arrived late... too late... after Christmas. So the stores had some firewood and a large bill. No one has tried since.


Now, some dog pictures: Oliver likes to bite my leg.
He looks and acts a little goofy at times.

Rocky, the neighbors' dog, gets into a lot of fights. Here he is pathetically nursing his wounds.
Moments after this picture was taken, he heard some dogs fighting, and darted over to join the action.