Christmas

Christmas in Jakarta is not quite the same as it in the US. It's tropical, empty, and everything is still open as if nothing is going on. In the US, even the non-Christians and the "seasonal" Christians celebrate Christmas. In Jakarta, the expats go home, and the local Christians seem to treat it like any other day. One thing is very apparent - and is something the people who feel real animosity towards stores in the US that cater to Mexicans by speaking Spanish should recognize - businesses in Jakarta know that their is a big market for English-speaking foreigners who want to celebrate Christmas, and they cater to us. Businesses know their opportunities and do whatever is necessary to extract the available profit from them.

Even though our staff don't celebrate Christmas, and we gave them gifts for their holiday - Idul Fitri - in September, we still wanted to share the Christmas spirit with them. My wife made each of them a loaf of banana bread and put together a care package. The big spikey thing you see is durian, a favorite fruit of the locals that we think smells like garbage.

For us, Christmas Eve meant baking cookies and watching Disney's "A Christmas Carol". It also meant my first time putting together the "Santa" toys after our daughter went to sleep. Now I know why Santa has elves. The scooter we bought required some "adjustment" before I could actually assemble it per the instructions. I'm glad I had my own tools. Next year, I'm going to assemble at least a week in advance. I don't want to think what would have happened if it had been missing a part.

Christmas morning, my daughter was much more patient than I ever was. My wife and I were both awake before she was, but decided to stay in bed so she could come and "wake us up to go see if Santa came". When she did wake up, she wanted to take off her pajamas, get dressed, brush her hair and THEN go see if Santa came. Delayed gratification will serve her well when she gets older.

Merry Christmas!