The Holiday Party

When you live in a country that doesn't celebrate Christmas, where it's always warm and sunny, and your family is thousands of miles away, it's tough to get into the holiday spirit. But the nature of my job means planning a Christmas party (oh, excuse me....a holiday party), so my coworker and I put one on this past weekend.

The party was at an embassy residence, and the person living there unfortunately has not yet received her household goods, which means she had nothing in the way of decorations. So we put up a tree, some lights and greenery and candles, put holiday tunes on the laptop speakers and some wassail on the stove. Voila, Christmas in Africa. Our guests came and enjoyed brunch, singing carols, a "white elephant" gift game, and of course, the arrival of Santa Claus, who handed out gifts to the kids. Our Santa was exceptionally young and fit and resembled one of our Marines…..

All in all in was a nice party, and a good way to say bon voyage to many of our friends going on vacation for a few weeks.

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