There's No Place Like the Mall (!) for the Holidays

 Of course, the moment I hit "post" on the blog about life being blissfully boring, life became anything but. It has been a tumultuous week or so with work and the holiday break has shown up at exactly the right time.

Somehow, it just doesn't feel like the holidays. Being a Northwest girl through and through, I associate the holidays with cold, wet weather, pine trees, fleece and curling up by the fire with a cup of hot cocoa. It's about 95 degrees here, dipping down all the way to about 80 at night, the only pine trees are made out of some strange paper-like material and curling up by the air conditioning with a glass of cold water just isn't the same. 

Last weekend, I found myself heading to the mall 3 times with the kids. Given that I generally can't stand malls, I was intrigued as to why I kept feeling drawn there. Then, I realized, that despite my best efforts as an adult to stay away from malls and "holiday stress", I did spend much of my suburban childhood at the mall and being so far away from home, I found the mall oddly comforting. The mall, with its traffic, decorations, Christmas carols blaring (although I must say that carols with an African twist are quite a bit more interesting) and the overall energy of people bustling about was the one place that felt like Christmas.

Thankfully, we will not be spending Christmas at the mall. We're leaving this weekend to an eco-resort along the coast about 5 hours west of Accra. To make our bungalow feel more like Christmas and entice Santa to come all the way to Ghana, I'll be taking our 1 string of lights, the kids' batik stockings, some very out of their element polar bear candles (found at the mall) and lots of sunscreen.

There is no place like home for the holidays, but I think we'll be just fine all the same. Blessings and love to all of you this season.