Hallowe'en pictures

Okay, so Hallowe'en was six weeks ago. But I just got my film processed, as the first time I took pictures since Halowe'en was at our Christmas celebration last Sunday. So rather than add them to an old post (since I never did a Halowe'en post) I'll put them here. These show Giggles as a lion with her fancy dancy jack-o-lanters, on our front porch.

The Christmas carol alphabet

Sunday (yesterday) evening we went to the home of some good friends for a Christmas celebration – gift exchange and dessert. To start off the evening we played an alphabet game. The first round consisted of simply thinking of a word related to Christmas for each letter of the alphabet.

The second round spontaneously morphed into singing a carol that contained a word (usually, but not always, in the carol’s title) beginning with each letter of the alphabet. This proved problematic for only two letters: Q and X. You’ll see we didn’t succeed in finding a song containing a word beginning with X, only a first syllable EX. (I said we should learn some Amharic songs, as that would probably solve the X question easily, seeing as “Xavier” means “God”!) And the song for Q also did duty for U. But that was the only duplicate.

Note: this was done entirely without the use of hymnals, songbooks, or aids of any kind. Just our memories. And we sang at least one verse of every song. (Okay, one of two of them had a fair bit of “la la la”ing, but only one or two!)

Giggles did well with the Christmas-related words, but as she doesn’t know that many Christmas carols yet she needed assistance with those. (Actually, for the carol round, whenever the circle got close to her, she’d go sit on someone else’s lap!)

Here is our Christmas carol alphabet (I don’t actually remember ALL the carols we actually came up with last night, but as I’ve found substitutes, you’ll never know which ones those are, will you?!)

A – ANGELS from the realms of glory
B – O little town of BETHLEHEM
C – What CHILD is this?
D – DECK the halls
E – Il est né, le petit ENFANT
F – FROSTY the snowman
G – The angel GABRIEL
H – HARK, the herald angels
I – O come, O come IMMANUEL
J – JOY to the world!
K – We three KINGS
L – LO, how a rose e’er-blooming
M – Go tell it on the MOUNTAIN
N – The first NOEL
O – O Holy Night
P – Little drummer boy (Come, he told me, PA-RUM-PA-PUM-PUM)
Q – Up on the housetop, (QUICK, quick, quick)
R – Once in ROYAL David’s city
S – SILVER bells
T – O Christmas TREE
U – UP on the housetop
V – The VIRGIN Mary had a baby boy
W – Good King WENCESLAS
X – Angels we have heard on high … in EXCELSIUM Deo
Y – YOU better watch out
Z – Daughters of ZION

Can anyone come up with a different Christmas carol alphabet?

"Decision Made"

Thus sayeth the Citizenship and Immigration website. Meaning Poppet's visa has been issued.

Hurray !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The big question is: Will it arrive in Addis in the diplomatic pouch this coming Friday (or Monday)?

I contacted my MP's office this morning (before knowing the Decision had been Made) asking if he could do anything to give the CIC a nudge... Then informed them of the CIC website news, noting that it was no longer a question of "what's the status?" but rather "get that visa in the pouch!!!"

His staffer just called to inform me that they received news that the visa was being printed up today, and they will send an e-mail to the office in Nairobi asking them to ensure it gets in this week's pouch.

So now you know - MPs CAN get things done!

So it seems I may not need to worry about the "not finalizing files as usual" (=slow-down?) at the High Commission.

I won't know for 100% certain that the visa has indeed actually arrived in Addis until after we're there ourselves - but I now am very optimistic that all will work out as it should.

Itinerary

Okay folks, here it is: our itinerary for our month-long stay in Ethiopia. In just seven days we'll be sitting in an airport, waiting to board our flight that will result in another small person joining the family!

Fri 14 Dec

• drive to departure city
• depart on KLM flight to Amsterdam

Sat 15 Dec

• 22:05 - arrive Addis Ababa on flight KL0543 from Amsterdam (via Khartoum)
• transfer to rental house (this will be our home base in Addis for the duration of our stay in Ethiopia)

Sun 16 Dec

• Visit Canadian Humanitarian projects in Addis Ababa

Mon 17 to Sat 22 Dec: tour of Hitstorical Sites with Timeless Ethiopia

• 17 @ 07:10 fly to Bahir Dar to begin north tour, visit Blue Nile falls, city sightseeing
• 18: boat trip on Lake Tana
• 19: drive to Gondar; visit King Fassilidous’s castle & bath, church of Debre Berhan Selassie, & Falasha village
• 20 @ 09:10: fly to Lalibela; visit first group of rock-hewn churches
• 21: a.m. mountain excursion; p.m. visit second and third groups of rock-hewn churches
• 22 @ 12:00: fly to Addis

Sun 23 to Tue 25 Dec

• in Addis Ababa
• visit AHOPE for Children (orphanage for HIV+ children)
• celebrate western Christmas in Ethiopia

Wed 26 to Sun 30 Dec: tour of Rift Valley Lakes with Timeless Ethiopia

• 26: by 4WD to Awassa to begin southern tour via Rift Valley lakes of Ziway, Abiata & Shala
• 27: by road to Arba Minch; visit villages of Sidama, Oromo, Wolayta and Dorzie tribes
• 28: a.m. drive to Nech Sar for game viewing; p.m. boat trip on Lake Chana for hippos, crocs, aquatic birds
• 29: by road to Wondogenet via Shashemene; known for coffee growing, birds, hot springs
• 30: by road to Addis Ababa

Mon 31 Dec to Tue 15 Jan

• in Addis Ababa
• celebrate western New Year's Eve & New Year
• bring Poppet into the family
• local signtseeing
• possible day trips to various places
• celebrate Genna (Ethiopian Orthodox Christmas) on 7 January
• celebrate my birthday on 7 January!

Tue 15 Jan @ 23:30 - depart Addis Ababa with KLM

Wed 16 Jan

• arrive in Canada with the newest member of the family!
• drive home from arrival city

Silly things people do...

In case anyone is wondering where all the pictures went, I think they disappeared because I deleted all the posts from my old blog, "randt-onourway." In doing so, I deleted all the pictures, too, not thinking that the pictures on this blog would have been linked to those same files, rather than new copies having been made.

Ooops! Sorry. I guess I'll have to go back and upload all the pictures again... Some time. Not today. Probably not tomorrow. Maybe not before we go to Addis. We'll see...

Silly me.

Sigh.