Of course, we did have a wonderful Christmas, and one thing I can say without any guilt whatsoever is that it’s absolutely wonderful to be with family & friends. We got in lots of parties and a few evenings out while Toby stayed with his grandparents. We visited with lots of family, mostly on my mum’s side, and got to see most of my friends at least once. Toby was baptised on New year’s Day, and for the first time in memory, I didn’t drink a drop that night! I figured we were already ‘out’ for New Year’s – Sackville is a long way from Kenya after all!! Jake called from his job on a boat off Newfoundland, and Devon came over after a fancy party she went to. Sometimes all you need is family…
Unfortunately we were plagued with a fair amount of sickness, from the odd cold to the Norwalk virus at the end of the trip – the whole family was barfing! (except Anthony, funny enough!). Tremblay was also down with an illness and we didn’t meet up again due to the combined contagious factor. We ended up cancelling the combined ‘Farewell to J’ and ‘Welcome back to Jake’ party, and I didn’t get to see quite a few people that I meant to, among them my cousin Sue’s new baby girl. We had a great evening planned – after a round of visiting during the day, we were planning to meet up with our hockey-loving friends and take Anthony to his first live ice hockey game! A few hotdogs & beers for supper, then to see my old friend Warren in Pogey at the Old Triangle. Alas, it was not to be… we were lucky to make it out the following Tuesday to London! I hope Jeff & Donna survived as we didn’t quite realize we may have been still infectious and spent a fair amount of time at their place…
It seems I’m talking mostly about what we didn’t do! But we did watch a couple movies (Blood Diamond is a MUST, though I cried through most of it), hung out with Angela and friends at the best restaurant in Enfield, had dinner with Danette and her French boyfriend at Finbar’s, saw the Suades at Key Largo’s, partied at Jeff’n’Donna’s Christmas tradition, hung out with Tracey & Ronnie and then caught up with SHL folk at Jo’s party, and various other events – though I must say, I felt more low-key than I ever have before! Nowadays it’s exciting to watch Mum or V bath Toby, or watch Air Farce with Dad while Toby falls asleep in his arms. Hmm.
The only other thing that we didn’t get a lot of is… snow! I guess it’ll have to wait for Anthony’s next trip to Canada – this time it was unseasonably warm, and in fact Anthony was outside in just a T-shirt on more than one occasion. He saw snow falling once, and we did get a dusting on the ground, but no good blizzards.
Unfortunately we were plagued with a fair amount of sickness, from the odd cold to the Norwalk virus at the end of the trip – the whole family was barfing! (except Anthony, funny enough!). Tremblay was also down with an illness and we didn’t meet up again due to the combined contagious factor. We ended up cancelling the combined ‘Farewell to J’ and ‘Welcome back to Jake’ party, and I didn’t get to see quite a few people that I meant to, among them my cousin Sue’s new baby girl. We had a great evening planned – after a round of visiting during the day, we were planning to meet up with our hockey-loving friends and take Anthony to his first live ice hockey game! A few hotdogs & beers for supper, then to see my old friend Warren in Pogey at the Old Triangle. Alas, it was not to be… we were lucky to make it out the following Tuesday to London! I hope Jeff & Donna survived as we didn’t quite realize we may have been still infectious and spent a fair amount of time at their place…
It seems I’m talking mostly about what we didn’t do! But we did watch a couple movies (Blood Diamond is a MUST, though I cried through most of it), hung out with Angela and friends at the best restaurant in Enfield, had dinner with Danette and her French boyfriend at Finbar’s, saw the Suades at Key Largo’s, partied at Jeff’n’Donna’s Christmas tradition, hung out with Tracey & Ronnie and then caught up with SHL folk at Jo’s party, and various other events – though I must say, I felt more low-key than I ever have before! Nowadays it’s exciting to watch Mum or V bath Toby, or watch Air Farce with Dad while Toby falls asleep in his arms. Hmm.
The only other thing that we didn’t get a lot of is… snow! I guess it’ll have to wait for Anthony’s next trip to Canada – this time it was unseasonably warm, and in fact Anthony was outside in just a T-shirt on more than one occasion. He saw snow falling once, and we did get a dusting on the ground, but no good blizzards.
We were sad to leave, but pushed on to London, where Anthony had the time of his life – at the Emirates stadium, home of the Arsenal! We didn’t get to see a game as the date was pushed back, but the stadium tour was a great alternative. Anthony was thrilled! After walking around London for a couple of days with Toby in a babypack, I was worn out, but we found a few restaurants that accepted our little baby in, and had a great time. I went back to the hotel with a bottle of wine while Anthony went to the pub & watched the game. In fact we may take advantage of Anthony’s visa and go again in the spring… next time with a babysitter!
After a bit of hell on the way home with delayed flights, we made it, and the kids arrived from Kitale with Anthony’s brother the following day. We had tonnes of gifts for them, and they had lots of stories! And even if it was unusually warm in Nova Scotia, it sure was nice to get into the hot African sun back in Kenya!
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