Well hello there all my delightful little munchkins, and a very merry Christmas to you all!

Karla and I had great fun last night, the kids have been SUPER-psyched all week about Christmas and Santa, – I’ve been fielding the same questions over and over again – “Is Santa REALLY coming?”, “Do you know Santa?”, “What time will he come?” etc.

Of course after hyping it all up, I also had to answer some more difficult questions like “Why hasn’t Santa ever come before?” (“He didn’t know where you lived but I sent him a map and told him you’d all been very good this year”), and “Will he come again next year?” (“Well Santa’s very busy and can’t always get to everybody, but maybe he will.”).

Anyhow, on Sunday night, after the kids all ate their rice, we washed and dried the metal rice bowls and I stuck name stickers on them and we put them all out for Santa.

Sometimes when one of the babies is sleeping they put a bowl of rice to one side for them to have later, and when I saw one in the kitchen I asked who it was for. Jake and Martin (two of the oldest boys at 12 and 13) both turned to me and said rather patronisingly that it was for Santa, obviously.

I hadn’t actually realised until then that even the bigger boys really believed he was coming, which was terribly sweet.

Then after everyone had gone to bed, Karla and I waited until we were sure they were all asleep and crept downstairs. We put up some pictures of the kids on the walls, and filled up the bowls with all sorts of sweets, lollipops, biscuits, chocolate, jellies, oranges and bananas.

It was really fun, and amazingly we didn’t get caught (I even remembered to go and eat the rice for Santa!).

Then in the morning the kids were all really excited and bounced around eating sweets and generally getting the biggest sugar high they’ve probably ever had!

We made a vat of hot chocolate and porridge with raisins and honey, and then dished out presents. I even had a present left anonymously in my room!

Aamaa giggled furiously when I asked if it was from her, and she said it must have been from Santa! It’s a lovely fake pearl necklace that I’ve been wearing all day, and everyone was very happy with all their pressies.

The boys all got watches and pendant necklaces they’ve been eyeing up in the market, and have spent all day telling me what time it is – and arguing about whether it’s 11.05 or 11.06!

The girls oohed and aahed over their rings and nail polish, and we painted all their nails.

Karla as a Christmas present for the kids had gotten three of the maths books my dad sent me photocopied 20 times over and bound, so we’ve got three new maths books for each kid, which is really a present for me rather than them, as I won’t have to plan any maths for a while, but the kids were excited too.

Then we trouped downstairs and played cards and coloured, and then started playing party games like pass the parcel, and musical statues and musical chairs (well, musical bits of paper, but same concept!).

We all danced around and used up our excess energy and sugar, and then went upstairs to watch “Aladdin” to calm down a bit.

After that some of Aamaa’s friends came over and we all ate an ENORMOUS lunch that Aamaa had been working on all morning – it was sooooo delicious – we had Aamaa’s special pilau rice, with coconut, grated carrot, raisins, ghee, dates, cashews, cloves and cardamon – YUM!

We also had chicken (well, I didn’t but the kids did), and cauliflower and potato curry, channa (chick-pea curry) and lovely cabbage and radish achaar.

I’m still stuffed and we ate hours ago!

Then Karita and I got all dressed up and have headed into Thamel, where we’re about to meet up with someother volunteers, exchange gifts and go out drinking!

I’ll probably fill you all in on the rest of the details tomorrow when I (hopefully) upload some pics from todays’ festivities, but for now I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas, as I certainly am!

tons of love and festive cheer

Sugar-High Maya!

xxx