Maybe you haven't caught this yet but I spending Christmas in Sofia this year. Maybe it's because I haven't actually made a big deal about it because it's not. Not really.

A couple of things came together to lead me to this decision but mostly it was the calendar. It was not, I repeat not, in any way shape or form related to my family. If fact, I know that I am going to miss them <em>terribly</em> the closer and closer we get to Christmas. Even knowing this, I still decided to stay in Europe.

This year at ACS we are working through the 22nd of December meaning that I couldn't actually get on a flight until the 23 and flights are <em>expensive</em> this year that close to Christmas. Moreover while it's great to go home it stinks to fly for 20+ hours and then I am supposed to be human for the next two days!? Ha. And the next two days just happen to Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

The other thing is that flying for a short holiday (10 days) does a number on your body. For me there's a ten hour time difference between Sofia and Walla Walla (that's near Seattle). Ten hours of jet-lag is a serious thing. It means you're starving in the middle of the night and you wake up at 3am ready to go but no one else is awake and there's not even anything good on tv and then by 5pm all you want to do is sleep. So you tell your MoM: I am going to take a nap on the couch wake me up for dinner. (Ha.) She'll wake you up, you'll beg for a little longer nap, maybe you'll eat some food but you won't be able to produce language and then you'll stumble upstairs to go to bed feeling kind of bad about the whole thing but unable to do anything else.

I read once that you need a day for every hour of jet lag. That means I need 10 days to get over my 10 hour jet lag. <em>Oh</em>. So by the time I've adjusted I simply turn around and then I get to fight 10 hours of jet lag going in the other direction. For anyone who's counting that's 20 days of jet lag in a row. <em>Gross</em>.

So I made the executive decision to stay in Europe for Christmas.

It bummed my parents out. My sister told me that Christmas wouldn't be the same without me. I reminded her that it's happened before. I assume that my brother will also be sad that I am not there but he's not a wear-your-heart-on-your-sleeve kind of guy. Sure, I'll miss them as well as my aunts, uncles, cousins and the dogs (I'm a dog aunt you know) but I couldn't quite figure out how to swing a Christmas visit this year.

So what does this all boil down to? Well, I am going to be spending Christmas in Sofia. On the 26th I'll catch a flight to London to explore (I've never been to England) and then after a week I'll be taking the train to Paris and then I'll fly back to Sofia from there.

As a result, this year I feel much more obligated to make sure that I am celebrating Christmas. Basically, it's up to me to make sure that I'm doing what I love, that I'm enjoying myself and that I am creating whatever I dream of as Christmas.

First step? Christmas tree. I decked it out with lights. I am going to make some little ornaments for my little tree. I was given a poinsettia for Fakesgiving so the timing there couldn't have been better because I was planning to buy one this week. I adore mandarin oranges and for whatever reason these scream Christmas to me so I bought a bag of them. I filled up a green glass bowl that I have and put it next to my tree.

This seems like a pretty reasonable place to start my decorating and celebrating.