Temperatures in the 80s. Trees full of green, leafy branches. Monkeys running on our roof. Wearing tank tops and shorts. Is it really December? Can it possibly be Christmas time? Add a little Christmas tree with bottle cap ornaments. Hang paper snowflakes from the ceiling. Turn on Christmas music. Decorate sugar cookies. Give out secret Santa gifts. And we have Christmas in Kenya!!
Our Christmas celebration began with monkeys running around like crazy on our roof around 6:30am. We had planned to sleep in, but the monkeys had gotten into ice cream and were high on sugar!! We fixed a brunch of scrambled eggs and cinnamon rolls. Then received stockings filled with candy. My team, Transformers, celebrated Helen’s baptism renewal on the beach of Lake Victoria in the afternoon. Several hours were spent in the kitchen preparing turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, biscuits, stuffing, etc. Then we handed out Secret Santa presents. I was presented with two huge pots of popcorn, one of which was peanut butter popcorn!! Amazing present, huh!
After our delicious Christmas dinner shared with many of our new friends/family, we watched “Elf” from a laptop! The movie was interrupted towards the end due to an unexpected visitor that the guards found in the garden. A 7-foot python!! No worries, the guards killed it before bringing the snake up to the dining room for us to see. Several of our group had to get pictures with it around their waist or neck. But not me!! Surprisingly though, I wasn’t as freaked out as I would have expected. I’m just glad that the snakes showed up towards the end of our stay and not at the beginning! Definitely a Christmas that will never be forgotten!!
