FA LA LA LA LA: A SHOPPING TRIP

John, shaking packages and trying to guess their contents.

Dearest Friends,

Our first Christmas abroad was to be quite unlike anything I had ever experienced -- and not just because I was far away from friends and family.  Thirty six years later, it still sits at the very top of our "Most Memorable" list.  Yes, it was to be my very first ever where I wouldn't be surrounded by my parents and siblings, hanging the same stockings and decorations in the very same places we always did, and eating the very same things we always did, with the very same people we always ate them with, but to tell you the truth, I was ok with that.  I was so ecstatic to finally be spending a Christmas with John, and to have the opportunity to form new traditions of our own, that the homesickness sort of faded into the background.  No, what really bothered me was that we had no tree, no ornaments, no stockings, and no gifts, and even worse, nowhere to get them!  I think I probably sewed a shirt and made a frog beanbag out of batik for him, and even covered a styrofoam ball with red sequins (the most tedious thing I'd ever done in my life), but you could hardly call that Christmas, now could you?  So, imagine my glee when John burst through the door one day, saying "Pack your bags baby, we're going Christmas shopping -- in Jakarta!

Funny, come to think of it, that I remember the beanbag frog and the sequin ornament to this day, but don't remember any of the gifts that we purchased in Jakarta.  Guess it just goes to show you, great memories have nothing to do with how much money you spend!  Anyhoo, I was so over the moon about finally getting away from Cilegon for a few days, spending some time with my hubby, and eating someone's cooking other than my own, that I wouldn't have cared if I'd had to barf all the way there and back.  Luckily, I didn't (perhaps Indonesia was toughening me up?).

What I do remember buying is that scrawny-ass plastic tree in the photo above, though to me, it was the most beautiful tree in the world!  We also found a box of those old-timey metallic glass ornaments, like our grandmas all had -- the first of many, many things we were to discover that, once they had gone out of vogue in the states, somehow found their way to third world countries (including many processed foods that were years past their expiration dates).

I&I's little girls.

We happened to run into our British friends I & I in one store, who were desparately trying to find a few things for Santa to bring their kids.  They had finally settled upon some really cute wicker baskets, about three feet tall, woven into different animal shapes -- all with big tummy pouches that could be filled with an assortment of small toys and "sweeties."  We liked them so much that we bought a kangaroo for ourselves!  It served us well for many years -- first as my sewing basket, then as a laundry basket, and finally as a toy basket in my kids' nurseries -- before we finally let it go.