CHRISTMAS started to seep in immediately after the thanksgiving holidays last week. Turkeys and pumpkins are gone and in came Santa and elfs and wreaths and many merry joyful things.

ONE of the very elevating things to be living here is really the holiday atmosphere. Los Angeles doesn't snow, and in winter it almost feels like home, but people don't skip on decorating their houses. Lights line the eaves and window frames, dress up giant sugar canes and light up lanterns that shape like >>Rudolph.

ACROSS the street from our teeny tiny office, is a christmas tree lot. I swear it was the saddest plot of barren land when I first started working there. But on a beautiful day last week, in the span of a few hours, it transformed into a glowing field of christmas trees!

NOW every day I walk by, I contemplate buying a tree home to make this year a special one.