Hope you all had a fantastic day filled with joy, laughter and fun with friends and family.
We had a lovely day here with a church service in the morning followed by Sunday lunch for 13 on the veranda of a friend's house and then pudding at another house in the afternoon. We ate incredible food and even managed cranberry sauce this year that Nai had brought over from England (she used to work here and has returned for the Christmas hols). No brussel sprouts still, but we did have fantastic turkey and ham and Rach was particularly proud of her tomato and red pepper gazpacho we had as a starter and the Chocolate Brownie Ice Cream Bombe she made for pudding... Turns out maternity leave has done wonders for her cookery skills :)
Josh seemed to enjoy his first Christmas. He enjoyed all his favourite things... milk, sleep and getting lots of attention. He wasn't very good at unwrapping his presents (they were all about the same size as him) but he's enjoyed them all so thank you Grandma Jan, Auntie Marian and Stitch.
We go away on Sunday to celebrate the New Year on safari in Amboseli National Park. It's famous for having hundreds of elephants so we're excited about that and hopefully seeing some cats too. Josh has still not seen a domestic cat so we're hoping he'll meet lions, leopards and cheetah first.
We've already had 3 weeks of Christmas hols and will be back in meetings this time next week. We enjoyed 5 nights at the coast at the start of the hols. We loved being back there in the sun, visiting our favourite places and trying to rest lots to recover from the manic term Dan had and a fair amount of sleepless nights. Here are some pics - the first is of Sails restaurant - our favourite place to eat in Kenya and the second is of Josh's first swim :)
Rach led a candlelit carol service here on 23rd December and really enjoyed working towards that, using some of the theology she's learnt from her Moore College Course. It's something she hopes to get into more in the future - possible chaplaincy work or children's work in a church, so she's gonna start pushing doors and seeing if anything opens up. She's looking forward to being back in the boarding house and teaching a few pupils this term but will still be mainly looking after Josh. Dan's enjoyed having lots of holiday time to spend with Josh, but also feels it's about time to get back to work. Hopefully this term won't be quite as manic as last but they definitely keep us busy here.
We're looking forward to Rach's parents' visit in February followed by hopefully a trip to South Africa in the Easter hols. I'm sure we'll do some work at some point too but holiday planning and cooking seem to be Rach's forte at the moment...
Love to you all. Hope to hear your news too and happy new year to everyone, wherever you are.
Love Dan, Rach and Josh xx
