Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

Christmas is starting to take over in our household. Cards have been sent, presents have been bought and decorations are up. Although most of the people round Tuzla don't celebrate Christmas, the shops have been packed with surprisingly nice Christmas fare - probably because most of the big supermarket chains are Croat or Slovenian owned, both countries which do do Christmas.

Many years ago, when we were first married, I agreed that D should be in charge of purchasing our first set of Christmas tree lights. Letting him go out completely unsupervised was an elementary error, the likes of which will not be repeated. For instead of some calming, restful, beautiful white lights that just stayed on all the time, he returned triumphantly with a set of lights that were not only red, blue, green, purple and yellow but had 7 different settings. Every year since then I have made an attempt to get some white lights but have been thwarted at every turn. This year, with the lights safely buried in storage, we had to look for some more. Despite his best efforts, D couldn't find any coloured lights. Or lights that had settings. So, for the first time in our married life, I have the Christmas tree lights that I like. And may I say although it is the only Christmas tree in the neighbourhood, it looks pretty good.