December has been a wild month. Gio' 10th birthdays, final farewells, packing up our house, a quick visit to Nairobi and finally some downtime in Italy for the holidays....
A final visit to our vet in Pretoria: Jagger for hyaluronic acid injections in his elbows and Bruno for a heart scan to check his murmur.
Maria and her class spent a lot of time this month in the school's Maker Space Lab.
Knowing his food is not available in Kenya I bought a year's supply! This will give me time to find an alternative.
Final swim lesson and a farewell hug to her swimming partner and dear friend Sophia who is also leaving SA (back to her native Namibia).
My Delhi Baby is 10!!
We had fun watching him try to blow out relighting candles!
A farewell present for Nomsa!
I was determined to catch Pepper before our movers arrive next week as I was worried they would scare him away for good. It took me three days to finally catch him. This was day 1- after 4 hours of searching he showed up 20 minutes after the kennels closed.
Alaska's final visit to Maria's class. How she loves the attention!
Maria and Alaska helped me blow up our camping beds which we will use next week after our own beds are packed up. (We will also use these in Nairobi until our shipment arrives.)
3 in the bed....
Time for Gio's birthday party. We hosted the 4th grade boys (and a few girls!) at the movie theatre for a showing of "The Grinch". With the party one day before our movers show up at the house I decided to go with an easy party!
Gio had the idea of asking for donations to Guide Dogs instead of presents. Everyone got a stuffed puppy as a party favor and we raised close to $200 for GDA!
Maria was thrilled that her best friend was invited!
Later that day Alaska rolled in something truly vile. Such a Lab! Had to bring out the big guns to tackle the odor.
And then reality hit! Movers, day 1.
I missed her farewell party at school thanks to the movers at home. Maria will treasure this book always- full of so many fond memories and sweet photos.
Maria loved her art class at school so much.
Farewell to a lovely group of children!
Sitting around the house as the packers worked was boring at times. Alaska and I watched a few videos together.
Only the essentials....
Any guesses (label is "very very wrong" according to Maria!)?
On the final day of packing we had to say goodbye to Bruno, Jagger & Salt who were collected by the kennels along with their travel crates (remember that Pepper was put in kennels early).
Bye, boys! See you in Nairobi next month....
Once the packing was finished it was time for the big truck and a day of loading (in 92F/33C heat). Only one old couch did not fit. Not bad!
Just before Alaska was picked up by my dear friend Gaelle who would keep her over the holidays.
A final walk and farewell. This was very hard for me.
And the next morning after a night spent packing and cleaning. 12 bags filled with everything we would need to "camp" in our new house until our shipment arrives- beds, bedding, clothes, plates, cups, silverware, pots, etc...
Rudolph checking in at OR Tambo.
Our official move to Nairobi happened to also be Maria's 100th flight!
Landed for the 100th time!
We were only in Nairobi overnight (flight to Italy the following evening) so we stayed at Paolo's temporary apartment near his office.
Visiting our new house. The owners have not yet moved out but they were kind enough to allow us to leave our luggage in a spare room. We discovered there is a giant banana tree in our new backyard.
And then we were back at the airport...ready for an overnight flight to Germany and then on to Italy. Rudolph ready to travel again!
Germany and a first glimpse of snow!
We awoke our first morning in Italy to a surprise snow storm. Quite a thrill for our African kids!
Cookie time!
Paolo and Gio headed off for two days of skiing. Maria and I enjoyed some girl time and a dinner of our favorite food- artichokes!
Photos sent from the kennels in Pretoria where our animals are staying. Jagger and Bruno playing with Cookie (a former neighbor of ours in Woodhill!).
Maria's first trip through a automatic car wash...
Gio has been quite determined to work on his math review this holiday, even on Christmas Eve. Maria was quite perplexed....
Some scenes from very hot South Africa. Alaska greeting her new holiday home playmate Denver. Love that these two African dogs have USA names!
The following greeting cards were sent from our kennels in Pretoria....
Even from Mr. Grumpy himself!
Christmas Eve dinner.
Christmas Eve present- a Hatchimal!
Treats for Santa & his reindeer. This being Italy, Maria figured a glass of Prosecco would be welcome.
Christmas morning- unicorn hat & slippers. Maria was very pleased with Santa!
Christmas afternoon scooter (Gio too far ahead to capture a shot of him!).
We get nearly daily photos of our boys back in Pretoria. Today Bruno & Jagger were on a walk.
An early evening scooter ride to burn off some energy...
....clearly she did not burn off too much. Always the life of the party!
Fun with Zio Guide (Paolo's brother).
Meet Bianca. She belongs to our neighbors and is a 3-month-old Cane Corso (Italian Mastiff). I am so in love with her!
Out to lunch with friends. Lorenzo is the son of Paolo's best friend Angelo. Maria and Lorenzo adore each other (Paolo and Angelo are hoping for marriage!).
Gio tried to read in the sun. Maria found him though so his peace ended quickly.
Finally she left.
Puppy sitting Bianca on NYE before we headed out to a few neighborhood parties! Happy 2019 to all of you!
