Post of Christmases Past

This post gives an overview of how Christmases have been.

December 2000: All the cousins from my ma's side invaded (literally) our grandma's (mum's ma) house. We totalled 20 ((kids only) without counting the parents present) in a small house normally resided by 2 - grandma (cucu -pronounced show-show) n grandpa (guka pronounced as is with a guttural g). There are those who slept on the floor, under the bed, etc, etc. We ate, n ate, and played, n ate. That Sunday, as we went to Church - we could hear comments such as "It must be Church time - everyones headed there now going to Church". Our number was convincing of the actions of a village.

December 2004:
The 25th: This Christmas I am particularly fond of. We had our Christmas mbuzi (goat) with a family in our neighbourhood - to paint a picture of how close the family is to ours, my mother n the mother of that house where classmates 40 years ago, and have remaind friends, best maids, etc, since. The 26th: We decide to return the favour and invite them over for a cup of tea (if you've ever been in a true african setting, you know a cup of tea is more than just a cup of tea, n the tea itself may not be there). Another family quite close to ours drops in coz we'd wondered what had gone wrong with them. The previous night there'd been a theft-scare. In the course of the day, 3 more familys (and be families i mean no less than 4 people) drop in also. In the evening, the last one arrives ... to spend the night. Keep track how many we'd originally invited. That night we watched The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Due to gastrointestinal technical problems, we got to host them for two nights - twas a blast.

December 2005:
This time we ganged up as three families (ours n two cousines from my father's side) and invaded our granny's (dad's ma) home for two mbuzis. Man! Goat don come that good everyday of the year. Plus the games in a teeeeeeeeny weeeeeeeny 'water rapid' near her home. Twas quite a day. We then bunked at our house (14 pple in total) for another two nights. We trans-nighted on The Lord of the Rings (again) The Fellowship of the Ring, but didn't make it through any of the others.