Monday

Progress toward moving-in slowed this weekend because one household member was sick with what would be called a "summer cold" back home. We also had to skip another Christmas party on Saturday owing to this "cold". Decorating stalled as well, though we are ostensibly waiting for a box of ornaments to arrive in the mail before we make any hasty decisions on what to actually go out and buy. A three-foot tree isn't really all that bare with just the lights we've put on it already, but we can certainly do oh-so-much more. We've also decorated our tin three-foot Mexican cactus, and there are two Chinese-style silk brocade stockings to be hung by that cactus with care. Hồ Chí Minh City's spirit proceeds at a far more dramatic pace, as polar and panda bears, dogs, giraffes, aluminum Jesus caves, and puffy cotton and Styrofoam snow collect in impressive dioramas all over town. Jesus caves? It seems a very popular local representation of the classic crèche involves placing the nativity in a cave instead of a manger. Actually, that may just be my interpretation. Caves are frequently represented by wadding up massive amounts of tinfoil or shiny fabric in an arc and displaying Christmas kitsch inside. Sometimes it's baby, mom, Joe, animals and magi; but frequently it's whatever the creators deem festive. This photo captures multiple background cave structures (behind the snowman). In other news: as if air travel wasn't terrifying enough already, a Vietnamese Airlines flight from Đà Nẵng to Hà Nội was evacuated after boarding last week because it was crawling with scorpions. Actually, flight attendants only captured two of the beasts before allowing the passengers to re-plane. The remaining four were captured by the customers themselves after landing safely.* We fly to Hà Nội in January! [Cavin]