Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Not A Christmas One

Merry Late Christmas & Happy Early New Year! I simultaneously love & am somewhat tired by the holiday season. The excitement of it all is wonderful, and the let down is a bit larger than I'd like it to be. As my husband said Christmas morning as we were tidying the living room post gift exchange "cleaning up from Christmas...biggest let down ever."

We had a very nice Christmas (I'll post pictures soon - irritatingly enough I can't plug in the USB cable from my camera to the computer at the same time as our internet modem so by the time I realize I need some pics from the camera, I'm already connected to the internet and...well, you get the idea. Pictures later). We spent our Christmas morning as just us 4 (as far as gift exchange is concerned, 2.75 - Chris & I equal 2, Kai .5, and Mika .25. She slept through Christmas; hardly counts.) Our morning was incredibly relaxed & enjoyable with us each getting a fun 'bigger' gift. Kai got a tricycle, Chris got a guitar amp & I snuck over his favorite music gadget (loop station) & I got a sewing machine! Watch for some crafting blogs...I may try my hand at a couple tutorials for things I'm putting together.

Our Christmas afternoon was spent with family friends, and lots of skyping with our families. We spent Boxing Day (truly a holiday here) at an alumni reunion for the highschool I graduated from. It was incredibly enjoyable to reconnect with people, and to find a few people who are now back in the area/never left. It's much nicer to reconnect with people when you know your 'hello' is not also your 'goodbye'.

I won't bore you with too many details of our Christmas season, but I did want to pass on a little 'gift' to you. As Kai has grown up, he has provided us with a plethora of stories, and while I have shared some of them, I have been encouraged to share more of them. So - my gift to you, dear blog readers, is a Kai story:

Our second week in Kenya, Chris went on a work trip to western Kenya. I didn't like the idea of being home alone with the kids so, I called a few people I knew...ok the few people I knew and invited them over for dinner. I decided if Chris had to be gone at work all the time, I might as well just ramp up my social life.

I took on the ambitious, and delicious, endeavor of making homemade tortillas with all the required fixings. I was in the final stages of preparation, and everything was going fairly smoothly. Kai was outside watching the birds, Mika was asleep in the kitchen. Kai came back in & started playing nicely with Mika...perfect.

I continue cooking the taco meat & stirring the refried beans. Glancing at the floor, I realize I dropped some refried beans & reach down to the floor, scooping the bit up with my finger, and bringing it to my mouth. With less than a second to spare, two terrible thoughts race through my mind:
1. Kai is potty training
2. These are not refried beans

These two thoughts were followed very quickly by, well, by a lot of things:
1. the thought: Kai has been playing with Mika...oh no
2. the irrepressible squeal of disgust that snuck out of my mouth, despite my refusal to be a 'shrieky' girl
3. a quick grabbing of Kai to prevent further collateral damage
AND
4. a phone call from my dinner guests saying they were at the gate & needed to be let in

I ran Kai back to the bathroom, stripped him down to his nothings, throwing his soiled clothes in the toilet & closing the lid (I'm not sure what I thought would happen...they would flush? wash themselves? disappear?), wiping my hands off quickly, and running to get the gate - leaving Kai covered in his own excrement in an empty tub.

I haphazardly, though with every effort at grace, greeted my guests (and met several new people) with my non refried bean hand, hurridly & incompletely explained the story & hurried back to give Kai the quickest & most needed bath of his life.

My guests were of course exceptionally gracious, and when I re-emerged from the bathroom with a clean Kai & more composed self, dinner was done, Mika was being held (she had somehow avoided any, how shall I say?, fall out? from Kai's lackadaisical approach to potty training)

The night proceeded smoothly, and while we have had quite a few brown reminders we are not yet done with potty training, nothing has come close to our refriend bean encounter.

So - with that lovely story to usher in your day with happy thoughts - good night & Merry Christmas :)

3 comments:

  1. That is hilarious!!! Never again will I lick my finger of refried beans without thinking of this story!

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  2. You're a wonderful writer...really made the (very funny) story come to life! I loved it! Wow... refried beans will really never be the same! Love it!

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  3. HAHAHAHA!! Sarah you and your humor have a way of getting to me!!! This one had me laughing so hard I was crying!! Maybe it's because I can HEAR your voice telling the story. It's great. Sorry for the unfortunate timing! Thanks for the laugh :) Love you!

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