Christmas

I had wanted a big traditional family affair for Mieke's first christmas. Instead we shared the day with a handfull of people we barely knew, so far away from anything remotely traditional. I always felt rebelious of the hype and commercialisation of christmas, and this time I wasn't even able to buy any presents, or make cards because we didn't have any stationary and I couldn't get to a shop for anything, even wrapping paper, or ingredients to bake anything, so it took quite a chunck of my sense of humour to feel good about christmas morning. I had grabbed a packet of finger pupets from the local Ikea store the last time we were there and that turned out to be the sum total of Mieke's christmas gifts. And she loved them! I, on the other hand got many gifts from Rean. You can always count on him to make a plan! He got a kiss and a cup of tea. I'll have to make it up to him for his birthday!

Jummy Panda

Later the morning we packed our camping gear and (with great navigational adventures!) found the party spot and had a braai, right on the edge of the red dunes. We did see what looked like a camel market just outside of town, unfortunately I wasn't able to get any pictures this time around. We also passed a herd of animals that might have been sheep. Or goats, I really wasn't sure! The gravel plains before the red dunes has quite a few plants in it, especially along the river beds. It had recently rained so it was probably a bit greener than average.

Mieke and I had our own special tent for naps. There was a moment when I was lying on the bright red stiped arabian camping mats, watching my baby daughter stand up against the side of the tent and falling down in giggles, a peek of fine red sand blowing outside on a cool breeze, listening to the two boys playing with Rean (they were digging to China) and Nicholas singing a christmas song and strumming on his guitar. I thought, wow, could I ever have imagined such a strange, happy day?