This is a story of a holiday-disgruntled American expatriate living in Oman and her mission to spread Christmas cheer through "the taking tree" task.

How this idea came about was the fact that Thanksgiving in Oman was a serious disappointment.
This is my Thanksgiving dinner.  A sad sad tuna sandwich purchased in a pub after 10pm.  (If you are American and not a vegetarian, let us pause shall we, and shed a patriotic tear?)  That's right comrade, feel my red, white a blue pain. ;) 


   So later that week when I was at a supermarket in the MQ  (Madinat As Sultan Qaboos) neighborhood, which caters to it's more Western residents of the neighborhood, I came upon Christmas ornaments!

I was just shopping along, when suddenly... WHOA!  What's this?!?!?!  An entire shelf of Christmas joy beaming right at me!!!!

When I counted that package and realized they came to 10, I felt it was as though it was a message from the Christmas gods: "Here are 10 ornaments to hide in 10 trees, now go my child and spread Christmas cheer where Christmas isn't celebrated"

 (culture note: Unlike many Arab countries in the western part of the Middle East (i.e. Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Egypt, and even Iraq in the gulf) Oman has no indigenous Christian population, therefore, nadda on the X-mass.)
Now, to find a tree!  As you can see, trees are harder to find than one might think.  Many of the trees where I live are more like bushes, or they are planted on private plots of land as a personal oasis. 

I truly considered making this more interesting by scaling walls and palm trees, but then I considered what Omani jails might be like and decided to head to the capital, Muscat, for greener pastures instead.

  Behold.... trees!!!!!


So I waited for night to fall, and that's when I unleashed my sneaky Christmas cheer.  At one point a jogger passed by (he looked very suspicious of me.  So suspicious in fact, that he kept jogging back and forth closer and closer trying to figure out what I was photographing in trees.  Perhaps he will eventually return and find the Christmas ornament and be Zapped with Christmas-ness. :)  I like the idea of that.  :)

One day you are just jogging along and you look up in a tree and WamoZappo, you've been Christmas-cheered.  That's right, yo! Now wattcha gonna do 'bout it?  Sugar-plum-fairies and red-nose-reindeers in your dreams are your only destiny!!!! Resistance if futile!!!!!!