lonnnnnng entry.... sorry... lol

Twas the night before Christmas and I forgot to write…. And then four thousand years later I decided to sit down and have a go at it. Lol

Shame. I’m so bad at this lately. Lol. I have a life now you see and more things to do that write. J totally a good thing!
Christmas was amazing considering I was totally homesick and expecting it to not be that great…. But it really really was. God blessed this season totally!

Christmas eve was spent working the morning shift and then cooking my sweet potato recipe for an amazing Christmas eve dinner with Sidney and Janine. Janine is Canadian and she KNOWS how a Christmas dinner is supposed to look. We had the works and it was stunning! We had mashed potatoes, my sweet potatoes, ham, green beans, veg with cheese sauce, bread, stuffing……. We ate and ate! And for pudding (desert) we had Nanaimo BARS!!! Whoot!!! It was so nice. After dinner we played a game and then went to the 10pm evening service at church. Soooo nice. We sang our hearts out caroling and the preach was good. Lattteeee late I made the dough for sticky buns so that it could sit overnight in the fridge… and that was Christmas eve.

Christmas morning started VERY early as all the volunteers decided to work the whole day together. So Me, Amy, Taylor and Lauren worked from 6 am with the kids. It was sooooo awesome to be there with there. They didn’t have presents or anything because all of December they have been receiving presents through donations. In fact, it seems every day they got something new to play with. So the actual Christmas morning they didn’t have anything to open. But it was fun because we were all there to play with them. We had a great time. Each of us taking turns to run back to our place to shower and get ready for the day. I made the rest of my sticky buns. We had a group potluck Christmas breakfast with all the people on the property at 10 am. We brought most of the kids down to the breakfast with us and it was a yummy feast! Mom, your sticky bun recipe is just as popular in Africa as it is in Canada! They went over VERY well, even with the security guards who came to find out why the gate alarm got set off and ended up with a plate of food each! J it was a wonderful way to celebrate with all our friends from the property!!!

After breakfast it was nap time for the kids so we all went on break and opened our Christmas presents from each other. It was so sweet. I got a great book from Amy and Lauren about safaris and a huge bar of chocolate from tay tay! Yay. At half twelve Adrian pitched up to drive us to Christmas lunch at Catherine’s mom’s place, Elma. We had a huge feast with homemade Christmas crackers for all of us and stockings as well full of candy. the dinner was amazing and we had such a good time. It was wonderful to spend Christmas with another family and just feel so blessed! At four we had to be back at the baby’s home to get the kids through their baths and dinner and bed!!! At seven when we were all done our shift we high fived and collapsed from sheer exhaustion. Lol!!!! It was such a great day but oh so tiring.

After that we all made our phone calls. I talked to my entire family and then Lisa and then I got sweet phone calls from Angela and mark and jen! It was so cool!!! it made me totally homesick to hear everyone’s voices but it was so nice at the same time!!!! What an awesome day!

Boxing day was another work day. Everyone was super tired from the day before so we just dragged ourselves through our shifts!! Lol.
Sunday night Amy, Lauren, max and I went out to a pool bar and I learned that im not totally rubbish at playing pool. We had a nice time seeing as we were almost the only people there. There was one other couple playing and a guy sitting at the bar who ended up being invited to join us and play with us. we played probably eight games at least! And I made friend with the other couple who turned out to be a south African and a Scottish lady who enjoyed picking the music with me from the jukebox! J

Today was my day off and I went with Taylor to book my tattoo appointment. I’ve decided to get a tattoo in Africa as my ‘souvenir’ of being here! Taylor got one last week at the same place I’m going and it looks really good so I know its gonna be a good place to go. My original piece was going to be pretty big but I have zero dollars left so I’m going with something fairly small. It actually pretty much the same price to get something here as it would be in Canada so that’s cool. I’m excited!!!I may not buy groceries this week to pay for it but I’m excited!! Hehe.

Afterwards we got lunch and I got stung by a wasp at the restaurant. That REALLY hurt but considering last time I got stung I got toally ill and swelled up majorly, this time was pretty good. I didn’t even have to take a Benadryl. I was sure that I would, but by the time we got home an hour later the swelling had gone down and my arm wasn’t’ hurting anymore. So. Phew. Apparently African wasps are better for me?!

We went out tonight to the movies (where else would we be going? ) and saw avatar. That was a GOOD movie. I totally enjoyed it. We saw it in 3D which made it all the more amazing. The colors and ideas that are behind that film are pretty amazing. Very much enjoyed it.

Btw I saw a movie called ínvictus the other day, and I can’t remember if I wrote about it. But if you get the chance, go see it, it is a brilliant movie. Probably my favorite one of this year. And a lot of the scenery is totally what I see all the time here. Probably one of the main reasons that I enjoyed it so much actually. For my family, WAIT TO SEE IT WITH ME!!!! Then I can point out things that are familiar to me now!!!