We had a lovely holiday weekend out here, even if we were at work all day Wednesday and Friday. Thanksgiving itself was a low-key, family-only affair, after having spent Tuesday and Wednesday night out with friends at other events. This meant we had a lot of food for two adults and two small people. We kept things pretty classic: Turkey, flown in to our Commissary through what lengthy, expensive, and circuitous route, I don't even want to know (brined overnight before roasting); mashed potatoes (which K actually ate and liked for the first time meaning she might be related to me after all as I have never met a potato I didn't like); gravy (probably my first real success with making gravy, I was very excited!); stuffing (from a box) cranberry sauce (from a can); spinach cooked with onions and bacon; and, of course, the always traditional loaf of crocodile shaped bread! As you can imagine, we barely even put a dent in the food day of but we have been working through our leftovers with a great deal of dedication.
Know who likes Thanksgiving? T does! Well, more accurately, she likes almost everything and is just a happy kind of girl.
After working on Friday we took off down to our favorite lodge just to get out of town for one night. The rains have finally arrived so it poured for the whole morning, but was just easing off as we arrived, and by the time we finished lunch, and group nap (everyone actually slept at one time, a holiday miracle!) we were able to go out on the boat. The girls enjoyed their new life jackets. And yes, it took me four trips down before it occurred to me that life jackets would probably be a good idea for my small, non-swimming children while boating around in waters literally infested with hippos and crocodiles. I may just miss that mother of the year tiara this year. Oh well, such is life, better late than never.
C made several attempts at taking a photo of me with both girls... this is the only one in which two of the three of us look half-decent (and I will leave it to you to decide which two!).
So we got a nice dose of hippos and elephants, probably for the last time until after the rainy season, so sometime in March or April. The lodge was lovely, as always, and they take great care of us. The one small hiccup in this trip was that while we had already had a few heavy rains up in our home town, this was the first heavy rain down on the river which meant... flying termites! Apparently, once a year, after the first big rain, the termites come out, fly around, then lose their wings and pair off to go and start happy new termite families. They are harmless... but creepy, and their wings are really loud, so when they started swarming about I was trying very hard to stay calm to keep K and T calm but was inwardly freaking out. The show only lasted about an hour and then the ones that survived went about their newly wingless business and the others were eaten by frogs, lizards, ants, people, etc. We survived, had an interesting experience, and some of us were very tired on the way home today.
