So now on to Christmas vacation 2010 – Pretty much the best vacation our family has ever had – except for the fact that Jonas wasn’t with us. We had over two and a half weeks with a lovely balance of action and relaxing. A couple of times I felt like I was living National Geographic dream vacation, with all the adventures we had. I’m going to try to quickly summarize and include some of the best pictures.I arrived in South Africa on the 15th and got a chance to visit the embassy and see where Mom and Dad work. Then a medical office party offered a great chance to get to know the colleagues in all their glory. The others came in later that evening and everyone went to bed exhausted.
The next day was Reconciliation Day, a holiday of national unity that was declared after the end of Apartheid, on a day that had been a Afrikaans nationalist day. It was only appropriate to take the day to travel to Johannesburg for a visit to the Apartheid Museum. The special exhibit on Nelson Mandela was extremely powerful in showing the strength, determination, and love of this great man.
In the evening, Mom and Dad treated Rebecca and Rachel to a viewing of the latest Narnia installment in 3-D. Little did they know that Naomi and Joseph remained at home with plans of their own – to decorate the living areas for Christmas, including an exquisite “tree” topped with the POTUS.
And for those of you who don't know "POTUS" means "President of the United States" in diplomat/government employee lingo. So yes, that's a picture of Obama at the top of our made up Christmas tree of house plants :-) Which ties in to the best way to introduce what country you are from while in Africa: "Obamaland". People LOVE it when you say you're from "Obamaland". It's even better than pretending that you're Canadian :-)
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