Christmas away from home

Celebrating Christmas away from home is always bitter sweet. There's no family to get formally dressed up for and swap stockings with, no daddy to ceremoniously carve the Christmas turkey, no uncle who hugs you a little too hard, none of mamma's delicious apple cake, and no late night board games with sisters who laugh so hard they nearly pee their pants.

But, on the upside, there are other things. Like, for example, the unexpected. All those little unplanned moments that instantly make up for the lack of all of the above.

Yesterday morning we awoke to a gloriously sunshiny day. After the customary cup of Dilmay tea (one sugar, plenty of milk) we proceeded to have one of the yummiest fry ups in recent years. Meredith oven baked some bacon and chopped up a lovely tomato/onion and mango (yes, works beautifully) salad. Dion, meanwhile, created a highly original concoction of scrambled eggs, pesto, crushed cashew nuts and, oddly, generous dollops of wasabi peas. Sami poured a round of strawberry juice and laid the table on the 5th floor balcony.

There we sat, on the 25th of December 2007, overlooking Colombo, sweating profusely in the mid morning sun and stuffing our grinning faces with this random delicious meal. There was no jingle bells, no family Christmas tree and not an inflatable santa in sight. Yet, strangely, after a little while, as we looked at each other, it suddenly felt like Christmas. Aww, bless.

Best wishes to you all.