It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

This is a poinsettia tree spilling over a bus stop in Pretoria North.

I used to look forward to Christmas to break up the long winter and short days of Northern California. When we moved to the southern hemisphere, Christmas became a summer event and winter became a drudgery that reminds me of a line in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, "Always winter, never Christmas."

This is the first winter that I haven't moped because there's no Christmas. Maybe it's because of the World Cup, or maybe it's because I'm finally stripping off the cultural trappings that are attached to my Christianity. At any rate, I'm learning to accept each season for what it is regardless of holidays, and to celebrate holidays regardless of the season in which they occur.