Christmas in SA!

 Sometimes with all the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, when you can't be in the middle of it all with tons of friends and extended family, it's nice to just have a chill holiday and relax at home doing a whole bunch of nothin'. This is exactly what we did this year. We closed the gate at about 2pm on Christmas Eve and didn't open it again until Saturday! Christmas eve dinner we had gammon with roasted veggies, super easy but very festive:

I actually did not know what a gammon was...they were set out for the holiday and everyone at the store was grabbing one so I thought "shoot, 'When in Rome...'" and tossed a Gammon into my cart. Jeff was like "What's a gammon?" and I said, "We'll find out when we open it!" It turned out to be a ham and it was moist and delicious!

 On Christmas eve we packed off the 2 nuts with strict instructions NOT to wake up adults until 7am. Of course they were NOT at all tired...

 Kids man, they just don't have any idea how much set up there is to be done on Christmas Eve. Go to sleep you two!! We stuffed the stockings and set up the big Christmas surprise:

And Roxy WATCHED Grammy stuff her stocking! What a cheater...

 I love those eyes:

 Christmas morning the kids woke us up at 6:48... close enough right? We had locked the safety zone and taken away the key so that they couldn't start Christmas without us! Haha suckers!

 What's Christmas morning without kids?

 Roxy ripped into her stocking, grabbed her new Kong baby, and ran out the door and around the yard with it, tossing it to herself. She was so happy she wouldn't come back in and open the rest of her stocking for an hour!

 Hooray!

 My budding guitarist got a big upgrade:

 And my fashionista got a cool new jacket for our USA trip:

And I got an amazing medal display made custom for me by Jeff! Can't wait to fill this baby up!

 Jeff and Max, just Chillaxin'

 The big surprise of the day was our Disney cruise and the reveal took about 2+ hours from the scavenger hunt to the solving of the puzzle. It was so fun! VIDEO HERE.

Of course there's always one toy that no one can put down... not even the adults... not even Grammy! This year it was the Perplexus puzzle. Man that thing is maddening. I want another, easier one to practice on!

 In the afternoon the kids had a swim....

 While the adults relaxed and made a seafood potjie for Christmas Dinner.

 Yum! Probably the last time in a long time that we will dine al fresco on Christmas Day!

 Happy, relaxed and grateful for the time and the holiday:

 I am grateful for so many things this year and this season and these 3 are high on the list!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all our loved ones near and far!

Cape Town Finally! (Part 2)

Cape Town Animals : VIDEO HERE

On Thursday we woke up early and had breakfast on the patio. Another beautiful day! We had a full day planned going all the way down the Cape and then back up the other side.

Our first stop was Simon's Town, and the penguin colony that lives there. AWESOME!! There are penguins, on the beach, as far as the eye can see, just hanging out and being penguins!

 I love you...

 They are so fun to watch... you can focus on the big group or just pick one and follow it. I loved seeing how graceful they were in the water and then so comical as they come back ashore.

 It was nesting season and they were digging holes and laying eggs. This one laid an egg right in front of us!

 Yeah, you get a lot of pics, this is a fraction of the pictures I have... what can I say, I love penguins...

When they were sitting on their eggs they would all hang out with their mouths open wide and just freeze. Like hoping bugs would just drop from the sky or I don't know what...

 We watched them for what seemed like hours, it was so entertaining, and then it was time for lunch. We found this restaurant that was right on the beach and they gave us the corner table right on the water!

 They we drove on towards the tip:

 Cape of Good Hope:

 First we hit Cape Point, which has a lighthouse and this amazing rock outcrop jutting out into the sea:

 There were amazing views of the Cape itself:

 Lighthouse!

 There was a trail between Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope and Sasha and I wanted to hike it so Grammy and Teddy took the car and drove around to meet us and we set off down the trail.

 So nice to have a hiking buddy:

 Maybe the most southerly pocket beach on the tip of Africa...

 Me and my girl, looking back toward the lighthouse:

 South-Western Tip of Africa!!

 We took the switchbacks down to the parking area and Grammy and Teddy were waiting for us. We had to get our official group shot:

 On the way out there was a baboon troop being epic as always. We got some good video that you can link to at the top of this post but check out this pic! Yep buddy, it's still there....

 Then we visited an Ostrich farm. Ostriches freak me out...

 Seriously, they're like Aliens:

 Our last stop of the day was a vineyard in Noordhoek. They had an open-air Christmas carol concert with wine and a million food booths. Strolling through food booths and deciding what to eat is pretty much my favorite kind of dining EVER.

 Dessert and cheese section of the food:

 Main food area... how do you choose?!?

 I got dinner from these guys, they were cooking up 3 kinds of potjie. It was AMAZING!! I asked them if they would adopt me into their tribe....

 The setting:

 The view:

 We sat there listening to beautiful Christmas music, sampling our yummy food, and watching the sun set over the water. It was the perfect end to a perfect day!

 The one thing we didn't get to see that was on our list was this cool fort that Sasha had learned about in school. We took one wrong turn on our way home and there it was! She was so excited... Cape Town bucket list sorted!

 On Friday we had a 10 hour drive back to P.E. But I can't complain as it has to be one of the most scenic drives on the planet. Plus I had 3 very entertaining people with me. You never know WHAT kind of trouble they're going to get us into....