Gifts

Tis the season for holiday decorating here in Beirut. There are blinking Christmas trees everywhere you look. The other day I saw a woman in a traditional Muslim headscarf leading her little boy by the hand as he proudly wore a big cardboard Christmas tree on his head. The fancy hotel where I spent my first four days in town has an interesting little display out front. They have a model of a rustic-looking cabin surrounded by fake snow, with animals lying down outside of it. At first it looked like a manger scene, but upon closer inspection there is no Mary, Joseph, or baby Jesus. Instead, inside the cabin is Santa, and outside the cabin, hanging out with the model sheep and deer, are a bunch of lawn gnomes! It is a perfect Beirut holiday decoration--nondenominational and slightly surreal.
 
On another merry note, I got a phone call at work on Friday from a frazzled-sounding delivery man saying in that I had flowers to be delivered. After explaining to him where I was, and after explaining that I could not just go and pick them up because I was meeting with students, he eventually found his way to my office bearing a huge, lovely poinsettia arrangement in a basket. I was so surprised and excited to see them. Upon opening the card, I saw that they were from my Auntie Wendy and Uncle Paul and their sons in Pennsylvania. How nice to know that they were thinking of me from so far away. After the delivery man politely refused to accept a tip, he started to leave my office. At the threshold he turned around and said, very slowly and carefully, "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!" as though he had been practicing that phrase for weeks!
 
Of course, Christmas and New Year are not the only important holidays this time of year. Winter Solstice is upon us, which means that the days all get longer from here on out, which sounds to me like a good reason to celebrate. Jeff and I celebrated Solstice eve last night by taking a stroll through the neighborhood and having dinner at a tiny little pasta restaurant with checkered tablecloths. It was a nice change from all the Lebanese food we'd been eating, and it also provided an opportunity for me to show off my new Solstice necklace in public. Before we left, Jeff handed me a festively-wrapped little pouch that rattled when shaken. He told me that he'd made my Solstice gift himself, which had me wondering what it could possibly be. When I opened the pouch I found a beautiful string of painted wooden beads on a black satin cord. In between the beads dangled three charms that were attached to the cord with silver wire. The middle charm was the metal plate that had been in Jeff's foot since early 2006, and on either side of it hung the screws that had held it in there. When he had them removed from his foot a few weeks before coming to Beirut, Jeff kept them, cleaned them up, and fashioned them into a necklace for me. I guess he didn't need to worry about whether or not I already had one! I love it, and can't wait to wear it to work.
 
Monday is the last day of class before our nearly three-week long winter break, and it feels festive over here, despite being so far from home. I wish everyone a happy holiday season, and may Santa and his gnomes be generous with you!