The Tree of Christmas.

This is a picture of some friends in the climbing tree. We all just called it "The Climbing Tree". That tree was an entertainment staple during my time at Conserve. It´s literally perfect: You can climb really high without feeling scared because the branches are all spaced so close together. It´s also right next to Big Donahue Lake- beautiful. I love that tree. There are not so many pine trees like that down here.

We´ve got a lot of unfamiliar tropical flowery-looking trees, but I´m honestly terrified of climbing them due to the large populations of lizards, snakes, and biting insects I´ve encountered. I realize I haven´t yet shared my "Mysterious Tropical Insect Bite" story, that´s for another day. Anyway, back to trees. I say that they are unfamiliar, because anytime I ask about the name of a tree, my friends and family tell me: palma. If I ask what kind of palma, I usually just end up feeling really annoying, regardless of their response. I guess I could do some, you know research, if it really bothered me. So for now, we´ll just say that a combination of personal laziness and cultural lack of interest in tree species has left me not-in-the-know.

Basically, the only thing I can tell is that there are not any coniferous trees living in Tabasco. Or so I thought. It turns out natural Christmas trees are all the rage. Every super market has a corner of its parking lot turned into a tree-pen of sorts. The first time I saw this, I literally ran into said tree pen and stood there for about 10 minutes just sniffing the air. It smelled like home. It´s the little things, right?

My family has a tree now, and so does my Grandma, so I´m getting plenty of quality "tree-time" (And yes, sometimes I still just stand there sniffing it). But there is one thing that has put a bit of a damper of my enjoyment. They don´t water their trees here. They nail them into wooden "X" shaped supports like Charlie Brown´s tree had. In my family back home, or tree sits in a big pot of water that we change really frequently ("Give the tree a nice, big, drink now") Of course, in my family we have also been known to give our trees names, but that´s beside the point....

I feel very sad for our tree here. It´s pretty right now, but I can already see it whithering. We got it late (late being around November 24th) so that, in the words of my host mother: "It won´t turn brown until a couple days after Christmas". I have a feeling that a brown tree in the house could be a bit of a downer, yes.

So- those were some thoughts on "Arboles de Navidad". In other news, today is my fourmonthiversary here in México! Go team! Happy December 10th!