Christmas spirit

I have been finding it a bit tricky to get into the Christmas spirit without the nights drawing in, the Christmas tunes blaring out everywhere and the temperature dropping. Of course there are santa's grottos appearing in all the shopping malls and decorations and Christmas marketing opportunities everywhere but that just feels a bit surreal rather than festive. And Father Christmas popped into the school "stocking filler" sale, on the back of a major 4x4 -apparently he's come by helicopter in previous years. Only in Kenya!

The children, of course, are having no such difficulty and are revving up for Christmas with advent calendars thanks to granny, nativity plays, Christmas parties and lots of discussion about where to buy a Christmas tree here - most plants come from roadside nurseries and the closest i had seen to a tree was a small ornamental cyprus type bush. But after I had been told that pine trees do appear and having almost certainly spotted a couple up by the US Embassy earlier in December we set off for some Carols by candlelight last week via the roadside nurseries. And after some negotiation (both between the kids and with the trader) we settled on a local, straggly tree which smells nice but is struggling a bit with the weight of our decorations and a splodgy giraffe print pot to keep it in. And our sitting room now feels a bit more festive.

So with only five more sleeps to go till Christmas morning I am beginning to get there. Cards are written and were dispatched to the UK with my mum when she flew back on Tuesday night. We've tried to manage kids' expectations of presents - although Tim's suggestion that we would only get gifts available in Kenya led to some urgent calls to go back to the UK for Christmas after all as the boys are really hoping for a wii sky landers game which they have seen costs the equivalent of half a year's local salary here. I've ordered a turkey - we spotted some being fattened up on the side of the road when we went out of town with my mum a couple of weeks ago and whilst i doubt this is a traditional Kenyan food there are enough Americans and canadians who celebrate thanksgiving here and enough Europeans and others looking for Turkey at christmas to help the market thrive. I've made my mincemeat (with thanks to mum for some of the ingredients and with the addition of fresh mango to supplement cooking apples and quinces that I tend to use in the UK) and Matthew has asked to make a first batch of mince pies today, assuming our power comes back on. Fingers crossed its ok for Christmas day otherwise we will be working out how long a turkey takes to BBQ! At least I've restocked our drink supply so that bit of Christmas Day should be fine.


Anne