Merry Christmas everyone!!! We woke up at around 8:00am again this morning, all had tea and coffee and eventually sat down to open presents. It is a Beale tradition to wear a silly hat whilst opening Christmas presents and this morning we had two Santa's, one reindeer and one angel :) Dan and I got some really lovely gifts from my parents this morning, including a beautifully decorated African set of chopsticks for our sushi habit, an African angel Christmas decoration (also a tradition) and a beaded fridge magnet frame! I could go on, but I won't :) it was great to watch them open their presents that we had gotten for them throughout the trip up to Lusaka.
After presents we all got through the shower and got dressed to do the last little bit of preparation before our guests arrived. We made the final dish for lunch, a broccoli salad, put out the smoked chicken, the gammon and the salads and set the table up. Just after noon Kylie, Mike and their daughter Lucy arrived with Christmas crackers, a couscous salad and delicious homemade bread. Prella and Daisy arrived shortly afterward with ice and a yummy cheesecake. Daisy, Mike and Kylie all work with dad on the ISchool project, Daisy is an administrator, Kylie and Mile both volunteer for the company, and Prella has the fascinating job of being a government pilot. We popped the crackers and started eating the mountain of food, chatting and laughing and enjoying the mulled wine cocktail I made yesterday.
Kylie told us about a game they play every Christmas with the silly cracker paper hats. During lunch one person surreptitiously removes their hat, and everyone who notices should also slowly remove their hats till the last person left sorting still wearing their hat is the loser. The game had us in fits of hysterics eventually because Daisy realised that Kylie had removed her hat and so she just snatched it off her head while she was talking, which obviously everyone noticed and quickly whipped theirs off too, so no one lost! We all moved to the couchs after the huge lunch and sat drinking more mulled wine cocktails and chatting. eventually everyone became quite tired and they all went home, leaving us with time to ring Jess and James and the Whiteleys in York. We also got to chat to Edna and Kim who were the for Christmas lunch. After all the fun of the day we relaxed and watched tv, and out on the porch till it was time to go to bed :)
and then the journey ended ?
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