Christmas, Kenyan style

We've had a lovely, very relaxing family Christmas at our home in Nairobi. It's been much less of a consumer experience and much more about time off together than we have been used to. And Jamie very sweetly reassured me that it was his best Christmas ever, with great presents. Clearly my efforts to manage expectations weren't completely wasted.



Some things have been very similar to previous festive seasons. We've eaten lots of turkey and mince pies.

Our 3 Father Christmas refusniks were transformed, with a bit of NORAD santa tracker and some philosophical debate about how, if mum and dad are father christmas they can get to all the other childrens' homes - katie had no answer to that - into very excited children up by 6am and ripping open stocking presents. Presents that appeared straightforward took longer to set up than anticipated not least because Matthew decided that the only way to really try out his new camping plates, cutlery and scouts pen knife was to set up the tent and have a picnic - he took more of an executive role in the former.

Some things were a little different. Kenyan Christmas crackers came with morals rather than jokes - "the ballot is stronger than the bullet" seemed a very appropriate message to be sending out in advance of March elections here. On Christmas Eve, carols from Kings College accompanied our evening meal. The carols at tea time, with christmas cake and mulled wine, were a more local affair with the kids joining in happily (particularly in cake consumption) and the weather significantly sunnier than we are used to at Christmas.

And some things were very different. An afternoon swim at a local pool whilst the Turkey roasted.


A boxing day breakfast with friends in the national park.

We have had torrential rains the last few nights (which made us all glad that the kids had eventually opted out of spending Christmas night in the afore mentioned tent) so the park was pretty muddy and we were briefly stuck at a spot called lion's corner. Luckily our friends were close behind and towed us out. But that did necessitate both Tim and Steve getting out of the cars to attach ropes and issue instructions. In the midst of this activity our friends' 13 year old son pointed out a male lion slowly heading in our direction. I was a little distracted and failed to get a photo. But believe me it was very real and unlike any other Boxing Day search for fresh air and exercise we have had before.




Anne