Christmas Cheers

I am so glad we moved to this neighbourhood. The place is much quieter, affords us more privacy yet without the isolation we felt in the old place. If I may be so bold, it feels less like "nouveau riche" and more like "old wealth" though of course, this is far from being an area of the rich and famous. It is decidedly middle class. The houses are not so hemmed in and there seems to be more room to breathe.

And the Christmas lightings here is wondrous. The community takes a great deal of pride in its surrounds and the families have a friendly competition on the best decorated home. Some of the decorations and lights are wonderful to behold. You can tell it took a lot of work and the expenses definitely not trivial. I can't wait to see the looks on the kids' faces when they arrive. Ethan and Elliott first. They will be here tomorrow. Yeah!

And yesterday, to our great delight, as we were coming home in the afternoon from the half man's piano recital, we saw bags of white all lined up neatly along all the roads in the neighbourhood, up and down. Just hundred of them, maybe even thousands. Except at the road junctions - here the bags were more christmasy, red and white with christmas tree designs. A truck and an SUV driven by moms and dads with teens in the back were happily driving slowly up and down, placing the bags along the sidewalks. I could not resist and took a peep. In each bag, sand and a candle.

The Lai's picked us up at 4:15 and we were off to spend a very fun night at CJ and Tommy's humongous home in Tracy. It was one of their monthly home team gathering and this one was special because it was also to celebrate Christmas together. The house was new and huge - over 5,000 sq ft built-in and with a very large land lot. Just a beautiful home. CJ and Tommy were very good hosts. We made new friends - John and Jeannie and their two boys - and Elvin and Eve were there with their two girls as well. The company was delightful, the discourse full of self deprecating good fun and the food very good. It was altogether a very enjoyable night.

And to end on a high note what had turned out to be just a day of surprises, as we turned the corner into our corner of San Ramon, all the hundreds, maybe thousands of bags were lighted up. Someone or someones had taken the trouble to stand every candle up in the bed of sand in each bag and lighted it. The spirit of Christmas was truly in the air. I have never experienced Christmas as it has been celebrated in this community. The Lai's were suitably amazed and drove us up and down to admire all the Christmas lightings.

As I said, I am so glad we moved.

Soon

In a matter of days, this house will be full of people. There will be the pitter patter of feet, chatter, laughter, arguments, beddings and food everywhere, all the vital signs life and living. Wow. It has been a long time since we have so many folks under our roof. It will be crowded. Driving out the chill of winter and breathing warmth. We won't need to turn the heater up so high - the qi of so many in a confined space will be sufficient to rob winter of its cold within these four walls.

Then long drive south. Snow and trips and falls on slippery slopes. Long drive back. Hanging around. Trips to the city. Golden Gate Bridge. Etc.

A few more days.

Winter concert at middle school is over - reminded me of the first time when BYY was here with Wen Hui and they were both snoozing away from jet lag. Tomorrow is the boy's recital. Then a trip to Tracy with the Lai's to meet some Malaysian friends. I messed up. Accepting dinner at the Tan's when I had accepted the trip to Tracy long ago. As LK said, "torn between two lovers". She's funny. I really really like our friends here. Could have ask for better friends so far from home. We will spend new year's eve at the Tan's. UJ and F will find them fun.

Trips

Here we are just two and a half weeks from Christmas. The siblings plus will soon be here. Siblings plus some others. And in ten days we head off south again, reliving the same road trip we took just a couple of weeks ago. But not quite as far as Palm Desert. Plam Desert was pretty relaxing despite driving 1,000 miles just to spend one weekend. The weather was perfect. The timeshare talk was tolerable - much less preesure than what we experienced in Bali, in exchange for spending a fraction of what we would have spent otherwise. But then again, we probably would never have made it ever to Palm Springs - not high on places to see before I die kind of list. Given that it was just before Thanksgiving, we got lucky to be able to book a room. The man and a half got to play a round of golf and the man played a second round at the course that boasts a long list of celebrities from Bob Hope to Bill Clinton. That corridor leading to the golf shop was like a walk of the rich and famous. Overall, I can't complain.

And soon, maybe, hopefully, the man and I get to see Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, and the other regulars on the golf channel. Gotta get me an autograph book and hide it in my volunteer shirt for some surreptitous requests. 3 days of rubbing elbows with the household names of the golfing world.

But before that, a huge family reunion at our humble abode. It will be noisy, crowded and wonderful. Can't wait. We bought some lights and stuff. To decorate a bit - this new neighborhood is BIG on Christmas decorations. For crying out loud, there is even a neoghborhood Christmas lightings competition, a much smaller version of the one we used to have at Orchard Road.

Then from watching the golfing greats to freezing cold as we rejoin the family at Big Bear. Hope there will be snow, lots of snow.