We survived a second Festive Season in Africa, though I feel like I am still catching up on lost sleep. School let out for K on Dec. 16 and doesn't start again until Jan. 17 so it is a long, long month of trying to figure out something for the girls to do every day. Shuttling them to and fro from various play dates is annoying, but they are having fun, even if I am not. December was filled with holiday events, some Embassy sponsored, some galas with locals, some just parties with other families. We had a few occasions of three or four nights in a row when we were out of the house. Suffice to say, our nanny did really well on overtime and my liver is still bruised and battered and in post-holiday recovery mode.
We hosted two other lovely families for a great Christmas dinner. We had a turkey and stuffing and BBQed ribs and garlic-cheddar mashed potatoes and assorted other yummy sides and desserts. We learned that the pigs here really just aren't as juicy and wonderful as those in the US. We used the exact same rib recipe that many of you have had the opportunity to enjoy in the past and while the flavor was great, they just did not end up fall off the bone tender, no doubt because there is such a scarcity of meat on each bone.
On the upside, we had a chance to trot out our hosting skills a second time for a New Year's day brunch for about 40-50 people. It is worth nothing that while it is rainy season, it had not rained for over a week. We had a tent set up in the back yard plus several tables and lots of extra chairs and were ready for the onslaught of kids to run amuck out back. But we woke up to rain... and more rain... and more rain. So we put Plan B into action and pushed all the furniture in the giant living room to the side (luckily the beer pong table was already disassembled) and opened up the guest bedroom as a second playroom after safely stashing K's new dollhouse back in our bedroom (had it been injured in the chaos I would have been heartbroken). So we squished 30 or so adults plus 20 or so kids inside for the first hour or so, which worked in part because the adults were all well lubricated with mimosas and bloody marys (from my homemade mix using fresh tomatoes from the garden). Everyone was happy, and everyone especially enjoyed the tenderloin sandwiches with horseradish sauce (horseradish courtesy of my parents, because you can't find it here) and the key lime pies (key lime courtesy of C's folks).
An interesting aside about beef. Butchering a cow here pretty much consists of cutting out a t-bone, the tenderloin and maybe one other cut and then everything else goes into "mince" (ground beef). So the ground beef is really good. And for whatever odd reason of economics that I don't fully understand the tenderloin is dirt cheap. I am talking $10 for a full tenderloin, what could easily be a $30 or $40 cut of meat in the U.S. thusly we ear a lot of delicious fillet. Enjoying it while we can!
The point of all of the above is that Christmas in Africa is a little bit different. It isn't so much about family, since very few either travel home for the holidays (though some brave ones do) or have family visit them. So we replace family with good friends... and a lot of alcohol. It also feels particularly consumer-ish as the kids torn into an absurd pile of gifts. If we had been in the U.S. then I would have brought the girls with me to shop for gifts for C, and for other family members but making them sit with me while I look for things on Amazon doesn't really have the same feel. We did go through their toys and pick out lots of things to give to the local Toys for Tots sponsored by our awesome Marine Security Guard Detachment, so that was good, but a certain feeling of the season is somewhat lost here.
As a final aside, we gave all of the Marines remote control helicopters as stocking stuffers and rumor has it they spent Christmas day flying those puppies around the Embassy atrium. Haha!
Enjoy a few photos from the chaos of Christmas morning:
