December went by in a blur, partly because I think we stayed so busy!
Ben won the daddy of the year award when he played in the rain with Mikayla this month. She had so much fun getting messy with her daddy.
I spent the first week or two prepping for camp and helping out with it while Ben finished up last minute reports and end of the year work stuff. Max even made his debut as baby Jesus during the camp play. He was not so thrilled about this and cried through the whole thing! After the staff Christmas party we hit the road for a week of fun and relaxation in Nelspruit.
Decorating sugar cookies at camp. Both students and staff had a blast with this!!
Simo and Simo hanging out at the Christmas party
Max as baby Jesus
Jabu and Max
Max hanging out with Bravo
Max hanging around while we decorated the Christmas tree.
Max "placing an ornament on the tree".
Hanging with Katie and Max at the Christmas party.
We spent a few days just the four of us hanging out in Nelspruit eating junk food, shopping and not cooking! We actually went to the grocery our first day and spent over $100 bucks on junk food and candy. Totally spoiling ourselves. Then Katie joined us and we continued the trend. We ate at some really fancy and yummy restaurants like Orange and Saffron. You can read an article about both of them here. We were also able to start and finish all of our Christmas shopping (nothing like a little last minute shopping)! And of course we took a couple trips to Kruger National Park to "see the animals". I am hoping to post some of those pictures soon. Mikayla and Ben even hit up a water park that is in Nelspruit one afternoon while Katie and I shopped. She had so much fun and that was all she could talk about that evening. Ben said she was really brave and went down the big slides all by herself. That kid never ceases to amaze me!
Sibling bath time fun!
Don’t you wish you were this flexible?
Max wasn’t sure what to think about the rhinos at Kruger.
Family photo time!
Max’s first dip in the pool. He was not a big fan, but to be fair the water was freezing!
Mikayla loves jumping in the pool!
On the 22nd we headed back to our house to start prepping for our Christmas festivities. I spent the 23rd making the annual batch of cinnamon rolls and even made a gluten free batch for Katie. I also cleaned the house because over the next few days we would have a houseful! Ben had some friends come in that evening, Chris and Kara, and they stayed through the 26th. There were also a few other random visitors hanging around the mission that joined us over the next few days.
On the 24th we had a pig roast to celebrate Christmas Eve. It was a hot day, not sure I will ever get used to it being hot over Christmas. We had a lovely time and invited pretty much anyone who was still around the mission for the Christmas season. I think we had between 15-20 folks over for lunch/dinner that day. Plus I think of all the pig roasts we have had, this was the best cooked pig. It was so tasty!!
The next morning was Christmas, so of course Mikayla woke up extra early ready to start the fun. We had our annual family photo shoot and then opened up packages. Mikayla was so much fun this year. She was so excited and appreciative of each and every gift. She would exclaim things like, "this is brilliant" or "marvelous" each time she opened something new. We spent the rest of the morning playing with gifts and then hosted a big breakfast for Joe, Katie, Chris and Kara. It was a fun and relaxing day. We also managed to play a little Settler’s of Catan that evening.
Mikayla talking to Lylah on her brand new Doc McStuffins cell phone. She thinks she is big time now!!
And that pretty much wraps up our December and our 2013! January and February will be busy months of traveling (we head to the US in just two weeks)!
