Funny how Christmas feels so different over here. We’ve been so busy getting ready to move into Kovol that it’s snuck up on us! We did manage to take a few days off to have a bit of a Christmas break though – even if there were boxes piled up around us all the while!

I guess this is our new Christmas tradition. Last year we had a meal with the team and the same again this year šŸ™‚ Except this year I think we were all a bit more tired!

Storytime waiting for the food

We look forward to opening our packages that’s for sure. We tend to get them weeks in advance from friends and family and they sit in our house staring at us and tempting our self-control all the while. I managed to spoil the surprise for myself a little bit. The business office emailed me asking me to confirm that we’d pay the fee for a DHL parcel that had arrived for us. “Huh, Parcel?” I thought. I didn’t remember ordering anything, but I needed to check to see what it was. Was it a mistake, was it building supplies we ordered earlier?

I got to work scanning through the DHL document looking for who sent the package and found out it was my mum after I’d skimmed the contents list šŸ˜€ Oops!

And there’s Christmas dinner

We all got some much-appreciated gifts. We have to be so organised with our possessions and supplies that it’s so nice to open a box we haven’t packaged and be surprised by all the goodies. We enjoy the fun things, the personal touches and the little luxury products that we’re too practical to get the rest of the time.
Oscar, of course, gets the best presents and he’s been playing non-stop with his new set of cars. He also got a Duplo set that we’re sure he’ll pretty soon be growing into šŸ™‚

I even managed to surprise Gerdine with a gift of my own, flown especially all the way from Australia. We actually don’t normally buy each other gifts, not for Christmas or birthdays. Having watched Gerdine at work the last months I figured out the perfect gift though… A label maker! Gerdine has been marking all the boxes, and every item in the fridge with the date we opened it in recent months.
She was truly surprised; thinking for some reason that I had bought her a pink pair of trousers?!
I’m pretty sure I’ll be waking up one-day soon to a label on my toothbrush…

Oscar gets the best presents

The team picture also seems to be a tradition for the Kovol team. Being up one baby from last year a new photo was necessary, and it turns out getting a good picture of kids in the tropical sun is…. difficult.

The Stous family seem allergic to sunlight since getting a Nintendo Switch…
Oscar enjoys his favourite teddy in all situations

Another Christmas treat – some computer game time. We’re all into strategy games and so we booted up Supreme Commander and smashed our virtual robot armies against each other whilst the ladies and Children watched Paddington. We’ll be setting up a Local Area Network in Kovol for file sharing and building a Culture and Language file, but who’s to say we can’t play a few games on it as well?

The boys helpfully ruined Rhett’s strategies by commenting out loud constantly

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