Phew! We left for South Africa on the 9 December and although the flight was good my travelling was not so hot and it took a couple of days to begin to feel myself again........I really don't know what I am going to do about this traveling lark, but got to get my head around it somehow. Still, the journey is always worth it and this year is no exception. We have never spent Christmas with my daughter and her family in SA so it was lovely to see the house decorated and the children getting excited. We brought over a couple of gingerbread houses for the kiddies to make. Lots of fun and I have to say they turned out really well, what do you think?
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| Just the beginnings |
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| Don't they look smart and all their own work |
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| Oh so proud |
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| Where do we start |
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| Start with the chimney.....Yummy |
Before the celebrations we have some forest time to catch up on, and a few tourist and seasonal days to 'do'.
There are obviously the beautiful walks in the mountains, which are cooler and not so busy with visitors.
Mr D and I took the children to the fairy forest while J was working to get the last of her orders off before Christmas. Our plan was the fairy forest then off to 'Deerpark' for lunch. One of the favorite bits of the forest is the stream and tadpole catching, but silly Nana and Gaga forgot that chasing around the water is always going to end with wet clothes........ Good job the sun is hot and shorts and T Shirt dry quickly, so lunch was had in comfy clothes.
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| Great tree to climb |
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| The mountain stream is too tempting |
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| Tadpole catching |
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| Just a beautiful spot |
We also had a day practicing putting up tents ready for the holidays. Mr. D and I used to camp when
our children were small so it's not that we are novices at camping, but of course things have moved
on and the tents of today almost seem like pop up tents, unlike our ones which had poles that fitted together like a monkey puzzle, and canvas that was a lot heavier than the nylon/Teflon, so in just a few shakes the tents were up, tested, and put down again. We seem ready for our trip to
Beaverlac
A week into the holiday and our first trip to the waterfront. I love the waterfront as it has everything you could wish for, harbour views, table mountain views, restaurants where the seafood is delicious, shops for the posh, shops for the tourist, shops for the locals, and in the 'Watershed' Cape craft people. The first
stop though was to find Santa and remind him of the things on the Christmas list. He was nice and comfy in his garden and the children told me that although he sends his helper Santas to other shopping malls, he likes to come to the waterfront himself! We shopped a bit, lunched a bit in the food hall, where the choice of freshly prepared and cooked food was so yummy that I think we all overindulged. Then shopped a bit more before going to the play area for the children to run off some of their energy. Ending up at The Hildebrand restaurant for supper......what a lovely way to spend the day.
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| Ben with Santa |
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| Isabella with Santa |
Mr D and I have our wedding anniversary on the 18 December. I know it's a silly time of year to get married but at the time I thought a winter wedding would be fun, not realising that with Christmas just a week way there would never be enough money to celebrate, but as we are in S,A we decided to go out for a special meal. We booked into the
Round house restaurant which sits above Camps Bay over looking the sea. We chose the
'taster menu' which was a 7 course meal starting with the 'organic vegetable patch' set as a garden of raw and pickled vegetables with mushroom soil, so yummy! We ploughed our way through the rest of the food with Mr. D having the appropriate wines with each dish ( I am not a drinker and someone needed to drive us home) a glass of champagne was ample for me. The last course was a white chocolate panacotta with mulberry sorbet and fresh fruits.......I thought I had died and gone to heaven!! The staff were so attentive they even rushed out and opened the car door for us.....what a treat.
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| What a setting |
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| Organic vegetable patch |
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| Setting sun |
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| Last course White Panacotta with red berry sorbet |
This was not quite the last of the tasting, we had 2 macaroons each, one violet and the other apple- infused, and a honeycomb chocolate and almond sweet.......we almost rolled back to the car!!
Until next time I would wish a Happy Christmas to everyone.
