Christmas season

We had our first tropical Christmas Party last Sunday in the Botanical Gardens. What a setting! It was Beatrice's class and siblings and parents. A great morning. The weather had been really bad and rainy all week but luckily Sunday morning was nice and dry. It was a great opportunity to meet some parents whom you never see. We don't do schoolruns here, so there are not too many chances. Kids had a great runaround and playtime and parents had a chatty morning enjoying the brunch - snacks that everybody had brought including fruitcake and gingerbread men. And then Father Christmas arrived. Quite a sight in the midst of this tropical foliage. He was good fun. However Beatrice has become very suspicious about this whole thing and said afterwards that it was not Father Christmas but Rupert's dad (she was right of course). Also she recognized my wrapping paper and labels. So will have to be really careful. Raoul and Karl luckily did not believe a word of what she was telling and were absolutely convinced that it was the real Father Christmas who brought their presents.

Unfortunately Beatrice fell ill on that day and has been home since then. Coughing and temperature. Hopefully better soon. The boys get really bored when we can't do anything now that their school has finished. They went to play at a friends house one day this week and had great time but not a lot more action for them.

We had parent teacher conferences at Beatrice's school this week. I was very surprized and impressed by her work. I thought with all the assemblies and parties they won't have any time at all for real work but they have done quite a bit. And her maths has caught up so that she is in the top group.

Last night we had another "teambuilding" dinner with Robert's work. Had some great food - the best steak I have ever eaten! But the whole atmosphere was very funny. Since James has left there is a new project manager who has brought in some of his own guys. One of them is here with his wife - they are from Alabama. That means I could hardly understand what they said, and not just because of the accent... . A whole new world!