318/366

When Matt revealed my upcoming travels, one of the many thoughts that kept me from sleeping was the Christmas tree.  I love Christmas, but I also thoroughly enjoy Thanksgiving and I am a strong supporter of giving Thanksgiving her own time in the spotlight.  However I don't return to Cartagena until a week into December and I thought it was important for Matt to have some reminders of Christmas to get him in the spirit when I am not here to be his daily Advent calendar {in all honesty, I am likely to email and text him with a Christmas countdown} and since we were celebrating Thanksgiving I decided it was appropriate to 'haul out the holly' and get in the Christmas spirit.

Even trimming the tree can be a Colombian adventure.  We discovered the general public must love blinking Christmas tree lights, because that is about all they sell.  Sarah... not such a fan of blinking lights, just give me traditional white Christmas lights and I am a happy girl.  Matt and I purchased lights a few weeks ago and Matt asked the employees to plug in the lights at the check out to make sure they worked and they weren't blinking.
Check.
Check.
Apparently blinking lights need time to warm up.  As I began to string the lights on the tree, the lights began to dance, not a sight I was pleased to see.  As I continued decorating I tried to convince myself that I could handle it and it was just another part of the adventure.  That self talk lasted all of 5 minutes before I decided the blinking lights had to go.  I translated the directions from the package, hoping there would be a trick to turning off the blink function.  That was wishful thinking.  I turned to google next, who informed me to look for some white tipped lights.  If the white tipped bulbs were replaced with clear bulbs, the blinking function would be no more.  I will end my story here, but I spent the better part of the morning searching and replacing white tipped lights.  I am proud to announce that we currently have no blinking lights on our tree {although part of a strand is out of commision}.


My parents and I spent the day preparing Thanksgiving, checking out the Old City for lunch at Mila Cafe, and sitting poolside.  While we waited for Thanksgiving dinner to come together we listened to Christmas music and played a highly competitive game of Monopoly.

Our Thanksgiving feast was delicious.  The best part is that we made so much that Matt has more than one Thanksgiving meal waiting for him in the freezer so he can celebrate again, which makes me feel a little less guilty about getting the opportunity to do it all over again... the real way.