Christmas is coming!

Bob got a Christmas tree. Not a plastic put it together tree, but a real honest to goodness blue spruce. His mom found some organization that donates them, but she had to mail it here. It really did pretty well for being in the mail for a week or so. We put it in our Navy B-hut and water it daily and its still looking really good! We got lights and ornaments the other day, so we have now added all that! I also put up some Cardinal lights Kara sent, to add to the ambiance. Its a great atmosphere in the B-hut now when we have the lights off. It makes it feel like a little more like the holiday season, and I am pretty sure we are among a handful of people in country with a real tree! Our Christmas tree has a first name, its S-P-A-R-K-Y, our Christmas tree has a second name its - never mind, no second name. We DO call him Sparky though, only because some of the worriers in the group thought it was unsafe to have a real tree with lights in a what basically amounts to a building made of kindling. What's Christmas without a little risk of fire?

Sad note: We had to get rid of our dogs. Rule #1 in country is no alcohol, sex, pornography, and evidently no pets. The new generals in the region decided to crack down on rules, which from what I understand have always existed. What is really crappy besides the fact that we really enjoyed having dogs around is that we were close to them and that they actually did work for us. They were great guard dogs and spent their evenings walking the outer walls of the camp barking at and drawing attention to movements. It was fun having them around, feeding them and occasionally inviting them in the B-hut. Thanks for the good times Scruffy, Ashley, Angel, Petey and Boomer. Can't possibly have any good deals over here, the morale suppression team is in full force.

It's stayed cold here, winter has arrived earlier than usual and colder than usual. I expect this to last until I leave in late spring. I guess as long as the wind stays in check, I can deal with the temps.


Pictures of the Christmas tree are here.