Christmas Mood in Chandler, Arizona

It is Saturday, December 11, 2004. At 2:18 p.m. it is 73 F (about 22 C) and the sun is shining. In 5 hours we will be at our first Christmas party in the USA. The school I work at is the organizer and it will be a cocktail party. Before the party I will be at the Saturday evening service of Chandler Christian Church together with Cheryl and Boyan. I feel good and would like to tell you about the spirit of Christmas.

The Christmas decorations throughout the city, the TV commercials about Christmas sales and gift giving, the church service tonight, my new dress, the remaining number of days to Christmas, 14, the greeting cards that we started sending today to friends and family in Bulgaria and some other countries - this all charms me and contributes to my Christmas mood. Had I ever dreamed of Christmas without real snow?...

Most of the houses in our neighborhood are in their Christmas outfit. There are garlands of lights on the facades, bushes, cacti, and citrus trees. Santa Claus, his sleigh and branched-antler reindeer, plastic Christmas trees, and the red star of Bethlehem get lit up in the evening. In fact, the tradition here is to put the Christmas decorations at Thanksgiving. From Ben, one of my students, I know that he had put about 10 000 tiny Christmas lights on the roof and around the trees and bushes of their house. The neighbor opposite us is trimming their bushes and his son is helping with adding lights to a Christmas gate built right on the sidewalk in front of their house. They have already "planted" numerous red-and-white Christmas canes along the cobbled path to their front door.

Our house is decorated, too. Farah and Kent keep on adding new decoration almost every day. About two weeks ago when we came back home in the evening, we found new cushions, porcelain and ceramic Santas, snowmen, candlesticks, wooden deer, red paper stars, kitchen towels, an apron, baskets of plastic cones and apples, plastic flower pots of red flowers and garlands of plastic conifer tree branches interlaced with mistletoe electric bulbs. There are two “Magic winter” mats in the kitchen. The Christmas stockings are hanging at the fire-place. At the front door there are wooden road signs to Christmas and snow. Some of them read "Holiday highway," "Let it snow," "Mistletoe trail," and "Snowy hollow." Even at this moment Boyan is helping Kent in adjusting some additional lights in the front of the house. He is actually giving a hand with the ladder which is so big and clumsy that last night Kent broke his windshield with it.

Life is beautiful and living in Chandler, Arizona proves it. We are surrounded by beautiful Christmas decorations both inside and outside our house. I dare make a Christmas wish to keep the beauty of Christmas spirit with the help of my students, fellow teachers, husband and friends while I am in Chandler.