St. Paul

After three visits to Somalia and a trip to the UK in November, by early December I was sensing that I was in need of a break. It generally happens in the weeks leading up to vacation. The problem was that vacation involved more travel and more travel tends to be draining. But I knew that once we settled in at my in-laws’, I would have some respite from my professional stresses. It wouldn’t stop completely given that I generally work a small amount each day (usually very early in the morning) to keep track of what’s going on and mitigate, to some extent, getting completely slammed upon return. Also, when you get back you are expected to make decisions about things that happened while you were away. This just makes it easier.

sort of a tradition - making Christmas cookies

We flew through St. Paul, Minnesota, and stayed for a couple days. It’s always good to see our friend Kathy and we have grown to enjoy visiting the area. Lots of interesting things to see and do. Arriving in December it serves as our initiation to the US Christmas. This year in Nairobi we’d actually put up some decorations, saw a couple of Christmas specials and listened to a bit of Christmas music. The girls are older now and we’re gradually forming some traditions. Living in East Africa and spending holidays in the US every year does present some challenges to having our own family traditions. It’s hard to say how our girls will look back on their holidays/traditions but they will invariably not resemble what I experienced as a child. As precious as those memories are to me, I’m quite okay with the differences.

and putting puzzles together

Temperatures in Minnesota were actually quite bearable during the two days or so while we were there. We would be punished by their weather later in the trip during a layover as we spent a few hours going to and from the Mall of America. It was worth the trip (and we were able to see Kathy again) but the midday temperatures were around -22 degrees Celsius (-8 F) not considering the wind chill factor. It was uncomfortable to say the least.

Mall of America

More or less adjusted from the jet lag, we were soon on a flight to Louisville.