holiday party

After the Christmas festivities, we spent a few more days enjoying our time in Essex.  I especially enjoyed all the Kyalo-free time that I had.  Dexter and I even had our first REAL date since he was born.  By real, I mean not going to a grocery store which is what happened when my parents visited us in Kijabe last year.  We saw Les Miz and got dinner together.  Since Dexter's not much of a musical guy, this was a real gift to me.  And he loved it, too!  If you haven't seen it, I do recommend it.

We left on Saturday because we would be hosting our little group of international students for a holiday party on Sunday.  We left a couple of hours later than intended {packing up always proves to be more challenging than I remember} and pretty much the minute we got on the highway the snow started.

The conditions, esp through Connecticut, were pretty awful.  We saw a lot of cars spinning out, parked in the embankments, narrowly missing accidents.  When we stopped for gas we spent a long time debating if we should carry on or not.  We got the weather report from my dad, and decided to press on. Dexter, bless him, drove the whole way. His first time driving in a snow storm.  We sure crossed a lot of firsts off his list.  I was so glad to not be driving, and very grateful to have made it home without incident.  The trip, normally 5ish hours, took well over 8.  Ugh.

So we had to work hard on Sunday to get things ready for the party later in the afternoon.  The unexpected treat was that Dexter had some friends from Kenya visiting NYC and they came too.  Sebastian is German, his wife Kenyan, so we just added to the international mix!

 Kenya nativity scene

 pretty much the extent of our Christmas decorations

next year it will be better

let's hope

a Christmas tree from my friend Jaime, from when I lived in Oakland.  She got it for me because she felt that my apartment was lacking decorations.  So, clearly, I haven't improved in that area of life.  Sigh.

Dental Students

Dexter was in his "comb? what comb?" vacation mode.  Joel (Cuba) Sirisha (India) Seungah (Korea)  Don't they all look relaxed and happy?  Vacation is so great!

Next time we're together I'll try to get a picture of each family, and one of all the kids.

Sebastian and his wife, Jael, and their daughter Talia stayed on after everyone else left, which was a nice catch-up time for all of us. Talia is just a month or so older than Kyalo, and they played SO well together.  I really think that he needs other kids around him all the time, and he'd be a perfect child.

Here's a perfect example.  Kyalo & Talia spent a long time simply chasing each other around the house. The video is a little long, and certainly not overly interesting, but you will get a sense of Kyalo's simple joy.

 

our first tripod photo!

Sebastian is an Ophthalmologist so I was able to ask him about something Kyalo does with his eyes I've been wondering about.  He assured me that's normal kid behavior, but did a quick little exam all the same. Kyalo's been given the all-clear for a little while longer.  Phew!

Dexter and Sebastian

All in all it was a great day.  I really enjoyed the time and conversations I had with Dexter's classmates.  I look forward to our next gathering in the coming months.  

We're now back to our usual schedule...Dexter at school, Kyalo and I going it alone.  10 weeks til spring break!

Happy New Year everyone.