Christmas at The Farm Inn

We spent Christmas this year at the Farm Inn, which happens to be right across the street from our estate. We had a nice Christmas buffet and then walked around enjoying the animals. We also got a photo opportunity with Anthony the Cheetah, who is tame. There are also game drives available here, which we have taken before.

 

 Gia's Christmas cracker. This is a tradition here. You are to cross over your hands, make a wish and crack each other's crackers at dinner and there is a surprise inside.

 

 The Babilons, Christmas 2013

 Anthony the cheetah

 Fiona, the baby giraffe

Merry Christmas from South Africa!!!

Christmas in South Africa

It has been 80-90 degrees and the sun is shining brightly as the kids swim on school holiday all month. There are no Christmas movies or specials on television and no holiday music playing on the radio. There is not that Christmas buzz or rushing to finish up your shopping list. No big cookie exchanges or parties to attend. Most people here are getting ready to go away for the holiday if they haven't already. I saw two houses in the neighborhood so far out of 1,000 that have Christmas lights up and obviously there will be no snow for building a snowman either. This surely does not feel like the Pittsburgh Christmases that we grew up with. Nope...it just doesn't feel like Christmas at all to my husband and I here, but to our kids they are still in the Christmas spirit, so we are going to do our best and make the BEST of it here again this year.

We have decorated the tree, had a visit from Santa, found our Elf on the Shelf each morning, baked some cookies and will be watching Christmas movies sent to us from our loved ones at home and bring the Christmas magic to South Africa for our kids :) And Christmas Day, after we open all of our presents and take a swim in the pool,  we will be having dinner at a lodge that lies on a game reserve of lions, giraffes, hyenas and other wild game. Hoping that these memories are ones that the girls will cherish when they are grown. Of course the biggest thing missing is our family and friends at home, which we will be thinking of all the while. Merry Christmas from South Africa!!!! We love and miss you all xoxoxo

Animal Adventures with our Visitors

You cannot possibly live in South Africa without taking advantage of all of the beautiful wildlife. While Matt's parents are here visiting, we have tried to take them to see as much as we can.

South African School Holiday

In America, when we went on holiday break it was usually the day before Christmas Eve until the day after New Years Day. Well, today is December 5th and Gianna had her last day of school, not just for holiday, but for the year. Kenley's last day is Friday. Since South Africans go to school year round here, their breaks are scattered a bit differently. The schools here all break for the month of December and most people go away on holiday, like us Americans would for the summer. It is their summer now. Surely not the white Christmas that I was dreaming of, but swimming and enjoying the sun is okay too I guess.
With the end of the school year comes the girls extra curricular exams and concerts as well. Gianna had her Monkeynastics Awards Day, Christmas carol concert, and Grade 0 graduation. Kenley had her Dance Mouse Dance assessment day. Gianna will start at the American International School in January and will be back on the US school year schedule. Kenley will be moved to the four year old room and continue learning everything in Afrikaans as well as English and Zulu.

Awaiting Our First Visitors From Home!

Today we are waiting for Matt's Mom & Dad to arrive from Pittsburgh, PA! We are so excited. We have been here 15 months and have yet to have any visitors so we are really looking forward to seeing them and showing them all of the beauty of South Africa. Meanwhile, there is no daylight savings time here in Africa, so the sun is coming up around 4:45am and so are Kenley and our dogs. So...Dax says good morning everyone!

Gia Turns 6!

This year our daughter, Gia turned 6! This is her second birthday that she has celebrated in South Africa. We had a great time planning and enjoying her "Puppy Party". We created everything "puppy" that we could and the kids, swam, enjoyed popcorn from a machine we rented, slid on a water slide and hit the pinata for goodies! A really fun day! And who would've thought we'd ever be able to swim in November, ha!

October 2012

Well, October in South Africa is a bit different than October in America. First of all, there are no fall leaves. It is actually spring here now and the Jacarandas are blooming in radiant PURPLE. You will also not find any pumpkin patches here. In fact, orange pumpkins are very uncommon here. They generally grow white pumpkins. So we have learned to improvise and painted ours just as we did last year. This year we actually lucked out and found some orange "Halloween" pumpkins to carve at Woolworths. Unfortunately, they rotten to the ground and were infested with fruit flies within four days due to the heat. Halloween is not a holiday in South Africa, but luckily with so many Americans where we live I believe we have started a trend.Our estate did do a Trick or Treating night and we noticed a BIG increase versus last year. Us Americans also held our own "Trunk or Treat", which is an excellent way to celebrate. We all had a great time decorating our cars and getting into the Halloween spirit. So just as always, we are just trying to make best out of what we have :)

Puppy!

Well, we have been discussing getting a new dog for months now and just couldn't seem to make up our minds on what breed to get. We have been calling, emailing and visiting pet places around every weekend. Then this morning, I took the girls out to have a look and we met this little guy and just could not leave without him! He is a Yellow Lab, 7 weeks old and our first dog that we have bought as a family! We couldn't be more excited! Now if we can all just agree on a name :)