Dear E,
I had a very busy Christmas holiday this year! Paul and I were bustling around from one relative's house to another's... it is a wonder we made it through the six family events scheduled over the course of just two days! It was really a lot of fun though...
I bet next year when you are spending Christmas with us you will get to take part in matching Kittle family pajamas!
We all got them! Even Jaron.
I bet next year you will get to join us at Benson Christmas breakfast... where we eat scrambled eggs with left-over Christmas Eve ham, and home-made cinnamon rolls.
(I will even let you help make the glogg for my Christmas Eve's Eve celebration... I am starting to make up my own holidays to host haha!)
The saddest part about my Christmas holiday was missing your phone call. We have talked every year on Christmas Eve and this year I missed your call by about eight minutes! (I may or may not have been singing Christmas carols along to a player piano at the time...I guess you will just have to wait until next year's Christmas Eve and find out for yourself!)
I hope you are having a really nice time on your Christmas hiking excursion! All that jogging you did up the hill on your lunch break should help. Miss you!
Yours with love-A
Dear E,
I am so sorry that I missed your call on Christmas Eve! I hope Nepal is great!
Do you remember when we spent Christmas together in 2007?
When you were in Oz in November you got us those matching outfits...
Even though we we were both miles away from our families we managed to make it a special event.
Can't wait til next Christmas when you are here having Christmas! Miss you!
Yours with love-A
Hey Kittle,
It's nearly Christmas but it really doesn't feel like it for me. We arrived in Nepal almost a week ago and it was really like stepping back in time. There is no electricity during the day and doesn't come back on til 8 or 9 at night (if at all....Chitwan National Park!) and it is often difficult to get foreigner hot water instead of Napali hot water!! Besides that we found Kathmandu to be filled with quirky shops, unique laneways, friendly people and temples popping up in the strangest of places. We spent a few days there before we headed to Chitwan National Park. We stayed at Rainbow Safari Resort as part of a 3 day package. This was a bad decision even worse than getting my fringe cut in Nepal!! The food was terrible, no electricity or hot water for the first two days plus we couldn't do the elephant bathing which was the whole reason I wanted to go there. But we survived and saw some cool things none the less...an 8 day old elephant, rhinos while riding elephants and a crazy Russian licking rhino pee off a tree while his friend requested to taste it's poo, which the guide rejected after I let out a loud "WHAT!!"
We said farewell to the new friends we made (even the Russians despite the things they put in their mouths!! Haha) and headed off on our tiny seated bus full of loud instrument playing Chinese to Pokhara. We had heard great things about Pokhara so we had planned to spend the majority of our Nepal time here, and we were not disappointed. The main tourist area is located next to a giant lake underneath the mountains so the view is breathtaking. The streets are lined with prayer flags which I love and have already purchased some for my new room in the UK....let me know if you want some :) We hired bikes today and cycled around for awhile til the pressure of the trucks and buses became too much for me.
We plan to do a 4-5 day hike into the mountains over Christmas so it really won't feel like Christmas for me this year, besides the random decorations we have seen sporadically.
Hope you, Paul and the rest of my 'adopted' family have a merry Christmas and hopefully I will be there celebrating with you all next year.
Love Em xx
Dear E,
It is the highly anticipated Christmas season but here in the Midwest we are lacking one key component...snow! Paul and I have been busy decking the halls and rocking around the Christmas tree, but it doesn't look much like a winter wonderland without the snow.
We have our tree up! I strung tons of big vintage Christmas lights all over it but unfortunately they all blew out... it took forever too. Thankfully Paul took them down and re-strung other lights... lights that actually work haha.
Wish you were here to join in the festivities with me... if you were here right now I would pour you a glass of hot wassail to enjoy with a plethora of different Christmas cookies! You would probably tell me how being in America makes you a fatty (all that liquid and fried cheese) and I would say that we can just go to the Y and work it off! Here's to hoping next Christmas season you'll be here!
Yours with love- A
