Matt and Becki Dillingham

Christmas in Madagascar

Our first Christmas in Madagascar almost snook up on us without us noticing. Without the shops and radio playing cheesy Christmas songs from November but with warm weather and nesting birds, it didn't feel like the run up to Christmas at all. On the 17th December, we had the MAF staff Christmas party. Previously a work do has involved an evening out with colleagues, having dinner in a nice restaurant but this year it involved games, devotions, speeches and lunch, starting at 9am and over by 3pm!

Staff Christmas Party games

We had fun eating ice creams while doing our Christmas shopping at the 'mall' and stopped off at the souvenir market for some small toys to put in our home-made crackers (that didn't bang but did have hats and jokes) and a new dress for Bethan to wear on the 25th.

I'd really like all these teddies!

Thanks to a visit from Jo at MAF UK in November, we had some imported brown sugar, so Christmas cake and mince pies were on the menu!

Making mince pies

Christmas day arrived and thanks to the enormous fireplace, Father Christmas had no problems getting down the chimney! Bethan, however, was a bit unsure about what to do with her stocking of presents.

 

After a while she got the hang of opening them and enjoyed playing with the contents.

Opening presents

Christmas lunch was a lovely red onion tart (Delia) with the usual roast trimmings - roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings, stuffing and carrots. Couldn't find any sprouts in Antananarivo but we didn't really mind about that! All enjoyed outside in the sunshine:

Not our traditional setting for Christmas lunch!

Christmas lunch in Mascar

The afternoon was spent opening presents, talking to family on FaceTime and enjoying the paddling pool. Then in the evening the power went off so a few presents were opened by candle light. Thankfully the power cut was only an hour or two, unlike last years Christmas in the UK when the power was out for 2 days!

Filling up her new paddling pool