Saturday 24th

It's Christmas Eve!!!!!!

We woke up this morning to find it was still overcast and raining!!! I thought Africa was sunny all the time. However it was still warm so after all having breakfast we set out for a drive to a place called 'Piggly Wiggly'. It was a place with little shops, places to eat and a kiddie's play area/golf course. The sun did come out for a while whilst we all enjoyed a milkshake but it soon went overcast again!

We then went our own separate ways and we drove to Gwen & Ian's who own and run a dairy farm. We caught up with them over a braii and again the sun came out. From their garden we could see the grey clouds coming over the hills in the distance and could hear the slight rumble of thunder. Gwen had organised my wedding favours for me from a local craft shop. To fill you in - Gwen & Ian had visited the UK back in April this year and I mentioned I would like some of the wire animals as my wedding favours. When they got back home she found someone local who made simple wire animals and posted me a sample. After placing an order I was told they would be ready by time we came out in December! Fast forward to today and I had my wedding favours!

After saying goodbye to Gwen & Ian we headed back to the Everglades where myself, Chris, Paul, Mark, Ryan & Andrew played Killer - the darts game they had played the night before. After having a brief explanation of the rules we began to play……… an hour later, only Paul and I remained! Another 30mins passed and still no winner! At this point we needed to get ready for dinner so we had to call it a draw!!

We all got to enjoy a Christmas dinner this evening with turkey and all the (African) trimmings! It felt very strange having this dinner sitting in summer clothes and warm weather outside! After enjoying dinner we all retired to the billiards table to play… pool! And for now, this is where we will stay until Santa comes by!

This is my first Christmas away from home so to all the family reading this on Christmas Day - I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas in the cold British weather! Craig - enjoy your prawn cocktail of ham & grated cheese. Mum - don't get too stressed cooking dinner. Dad - allllllrrrrrrriiiiight. Gran - hope you have a lovely Christmas and no, mum doesn't need any help! Lots of love xxxxxxxxx

(p.s internet at The Everglades is not that great so it's too slow to upload photos!! Will upload when I can!!) xx