Turkeys, Trees, and Trinkets

How different was our Thanksgiving holiday than normal?

Thanksgiving Day: Someone told me, “Happy Thanksgiving!” at school. I said, “Oh yeah.” It’s easy to forget that it’s Thanksgiving in the “land of eternal spring,” especially when you are still at work that day. We get PNG holidays off here, not American ones. For dinner, we could have had turkey...but we would have had to pay about $100 to buy one! So instead, we took advantage of a “special” offered by our grocery store here and ordered a rotisserie chicken. We did have access to stuffing, so we had chicken, salad, stuffing, and dried cranberries.

Hanging of the Greens: My family has a tradition of decorating for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving (the hanging of the greens) and watching White Christmas in front of a fire afterward. Eric and I continued the tradition after we got married, but we had to make some modifications this year. Since we had to work during the day and Eric had a game night in the evening, we watched White Christmas while we decorated (and made!) the Christmas tree. No fire, because the type of wood we have here bothers my asthma when it’s burned.

Black Friday: We only have one store in Ukarumpa, and it is only open on week days from 8:30 (sometimes later) until 4. So, no Black Friday deals and no Black Friday shopping in the wee hours of the morning. However...the store DID hold a Christmas sale on Saturday morning! The sale didn’t start until 9, but people lined up outside the store around 8 a.m., and some of the high school students entertained those waiting by playing Christmas music. We live so close to the store that I opened my windows and listened to the music while I did dishes! We went to the store right at 9 and joined the slow procession of people entering the store.

The back warehouse of the store was converted into the Christmas sale area, and it was packed! It was even more crowded than any Black Friday sale I have ever been to because the space was so limited. The sale included everything from practical items (we got a laundry basket, which we have been looking for for months!) to fun Christmas items (later in the day, several of Eric’s students showed up at our house in festive Christmas fedoras). I have only done Black Friday shopping a few times, but the Saturday Christmas sale in Ukarumpa was definitely the most fun post-Thanksgiving sale I have ever been to—it’s amazing how excited you get over things like flavored hot chocolate mixes, candy canes, and laundry baskets when you don’t have access to them all the time!