Christmas in Indiana

We arrived in Louisville on schedule. The family was awaiting us, as they normally are. I’m the guy that carries the bags for the stars. The two little ones in particular tend to steal the show. As it should be.

happy to be out of airplanes and airports

We were soon at Priya’s parents’ house and getting settled in. As I normally say, it’s a very relaxing place to be. It does have its moments of chaos, as it is anywhere we go, but generally we can unwind and not feel that we need to be on the go all the time. It’s not that we are inactive while we are there, it’s just that the pace tends to be manageable.

it looks more peaceful than it is...

We had done a considerable amount of Christmas shopping online in advance of the trip and it had a marked impact on how much time we needed to spend doing last minute trips to shopping malls and so forth. I hope to do even better next year. It makes such a big difference in how stressful things are while on holiday.

new fedora

We did get a bit of snow while we were there. Not much however. Things got much colder after we left apparently. Living near the equator, as I have for the last nearly 13 years, I quite like the cold weather. Much easier to appreciate it when you don’t have to live with it, I guess.

turned out to be a bit of a competition

Something else we’ve done a couple of times now is go to a play at a place called the Derby Dinner (“Derby” obviously referencing the Kentucky Derby whose home is in Louisville as well). It’s a small theater in the round with a substantial buffet dinner. The talent (more the actors than the cooks) is surprisingly good and young and old always seem to enjoy it. This time we saw A Christmas Carol. And the food isn’t bad.

mum and daughter sharing a hug

Christmas was more or less as it normally is. We sang carols, the children had lots of gifts (too many, in my opinion) and put together gingerbread houses, had Christmas dinner and Christmas pudding, etc. We create too much noise when were there and we create too much silence once we're gone. Given our lack of traditions in Nairobi (and before that Bujumbura), these are their traditions. It’s a bit of a strange upbringing but it’s never dull.

my cute girls