Holidays are coming

Here starts our Christmas holidays......a 'dream' combination of safari this week and then Christmas by the Indian Ocean next week! Not even a hint of work from me at the moment but no guilt as this is our scheduled holiday time...we had a long debate about whether to spend Christmas in our African home in Muheza. Pros & cons on both sides but the offer of the hospice car for the whole week swung it (they are closed until the New Year)...to good an opportunity to miss having a vehicle to explore the coast further south.
So tomorrow we board our first bus and hopefully arrive 6 hours later in Moshi. I am full of anticipation for our first view of the great Mount Kilimanjaro. R has been doing some volcano prep work and filled me full of facts. At over 5km high it's Africa's largest mountain and amongst the world's largest volcanoes, though many 100,000s years since it was last active. At least a handful of people die each year trying to reach the summit......we shan't be amongst them on this trip. Just trying to work out the logistics of both parents going on a hike and leaving the girls at the bottom or for M & R to meander up...I'm not so fussed about reaching the top, more keen just to admire it.
My mind as usual, jumps around ever so fast.....shall fill you in on the details of the safari experience afterwards. We're trying 3 days.....wondering at what point a 5 yr old has enough of sitting in a car looking at wildlife. Been trying to persuade them all that we could do a walking safari (my horse skills sadly preclude a horse back safari) but they look askance at the thought that if perchance a wild beast wanted to eat us then the guide would likely have to intervene. No, they are not distressed at the thought that we might get eaten/hurt.... it is more that the animal might get shot. I fear my birthday hot air balloon ride over the Serengeti will have to wait for another day.
I have been polishing my domestic goddess halo with daily Christmas activities...although maybe not quite earth mother enough to have suggested the girls use all the beer bottle tops to decorate our door wreath. I am sufficiently rose tinted to skim over the moments where I'd quite like to walk out the door & keep on walking.....as on the whole this family adventure is molding us all in the positive direction little by little. So, bar the occasional star wars movie, the girls are spending hours making houses of cards, playing marbles, endless lego, plenty of crafting, reading.....we're just seriously lacking on the exercise front (and I suspect where the less angelic moments come from). Just too hot to contemplate running around outside.
M however, puts us all to shame with a morning run, on which R occasionally joins him. Never having had a problem with talking myself out of a run, I find the humidity is even less compelling. I am helping that halo with my mini yoga class stuck to the back of the door...thanks to my gorgeous sis for my personalised morning routine (check out anandapanda.yoga if you live anywhere near the South Downs).
M is also wearing his domestic god halo with pride.....I am due a reminder of gratitude to have picked such a Fundi (handyman) to help me through life! Yes I totally take it for granted that my husband can wire up defunct fans, install a gas cooker so that the house doesn't explode, fix everything and anything and be an all round engineer. We all know that every partnership share out the household chores...I unashamedly handed over the DIY mantle years ago. I may groan at his perfectionist tendencies, but what a relief to have someone who can solve most of our daily problems.