Something Silly About Me

Something I've learned about myself since I've been living out of the US. I love decorations. I never really thought much about this when I was living in the states. And, I've always been a "less is more" kind of person, so I've kept things pretty minimal. But I guess because decorations are everywhere in the US and I tend to protest when they put things up too early, it's just something I didn't really notice about myself. But when I got to Tanzania, where so many of "our" holidays aren't celebrated, I realized how important it is to me to mark the time of year by putting up a few decorations.

So that's how I found myself skipping around the house this afternoon when we go these little guys in a package from my grandmom.*



Last year my friend Melissa sent me these happy fellows:



But I think they arrived after the holiday. I put them up anyway but I've been looking forward to putting them up this year BEFORE Halloween. It's silly, but when I was in Nairobi and not sure when I would return, I kept thinking in the back of my head, "OH NO! What if I'm gone all month and I can't put up my jack-o-lanterns?" What a dork!


*Decorations aren't the only cool things we got today. We got 2 packages today! What a great day! Thanks Erica and Fuzzy and thanks Grandmom and Grandad.  Have I told you how lucky we are?