Monday, January 10, 2011

Week 19 – “We always have the rhythm here, in our blood and in our souls…”

Happy New Year from Cape Town!

Today was my first day back at work after the office closing for a very merry Christmas break. For the first time since Toronto, I got to see Sarah and Jessie, my fellow YASCers working in Umtata and Kenya, respectively. They arrived shortly before Christmas and stayed through the New Year; we had plenty of time to explore the city and share stories. It was so much fun to share stories with my fellow YASCers and speculate on where this journey might lead us. It was also pretty darn cool for Amanda and me to be the ones showing Cape Town to someone else on our touristy trips to Boulder Beach, Table Mountain and downtown Cape Town… Our adventures were SO much fun and went by WAY too fast. Let me tell you about the very special holidays we shared together!



New Years' Eve


The first big event of Christmas Eve was trimming our tree! It didn’t look quite the same as the ones we’d have found in the US, but it was ours and it was beautiful and we loved trimming it together, hanging Suzanne’s ornaments on the branches.  As an extra special treat, I received a Christmas care package from my family back home. One of the highlights of the box was definitely the Christmas wreaths my cousins made me; they had a special place of honor on our little evergreen.







For Christmas Eve dinner, we were blessed by an invitation by our friend, and Amanda’s coworker, Mari, who served us an authentic Finnish feast. She is an excellent chef; there are no words for that deliciousness! Over some after dinner champagne and gingerbread people, she also introduced us to the holiday musical stylings of Boney M. I believe it was Jessie who had the moment of clarity that this was surely an occasion for swing dancing, which occurred right there next to the table, between the dining room and the kitchen. I don’t know if it was your typical swing dancing; I think we laughed more. There are some great pictures of this, but I still don’t think they do our joy justice.









It reminded me of dances past. When we were in Toronto for training, our fellow YASCer Steven found a nearby church that had Saturday night contradancing. For those of you who don’t know (and I certainly didn’t when I first heard the term), contradancing is a combination of British line dancing and square dancing. Like every other form of dancing I have ever attempted, it is super fun! From contradancing in Canada to swing dancing in South Africa… I wonder what happy hop New York holds for us YASCers later this year.

Anyway, after our Christmas Eve feast, we went to a PACKED Midnight Mass at St George’s Cathedral. Anywhere in the world, I think this is one of my favorite services of the year: the liturgy, the music, the candlelight. When I went in 2009, I was running late after dinner with my family (Christmas Eve is our big shindig on my mom’s side) and I ended up going by myself… but that didn’t matter. I love it as much as ever. After dinner, I didn’t want to go home yet, so I spent the first hour or so of Christmas Day driving around the area I grew up in listening to my favorite Christmas mix CD and admiring the lights.

Christmas Day was as magical as ever. We spent a lazy morning watching Boney M videos after the swing dancing to their music the night before. Then, before we started our culinary adventures, we followed Jessie’s lead to make monkey bread and drank some mimosas (because on my dad’s side, it’s not Christmas without mimosas).

By the time the monkey bread was done and we were a few mimosas in, it was time to commit some time to the kitchen! I made my first leg of lamb, following my Dad’s recipe. Suzanne made pumpkin pie. Jessie made asparagus, guided through monkey bread, and treated us to her yummy risotto. Amanda repeated her Thanksgiving magic mashed potatoes while Sarah starred as Inspector 29 and let her photography skills shine.

Gathering around the table to eat together – Amanda, Suzanne, Jessie, Sarah and I – there was such… joy. Even far from our families, who were waking to start preparing their meals as we started to eat ours, we were together as our own family with our own Christmas that we had made. It was hard to believe that a year ago we hadn’t even met; we were just finishing our YASC applications. Then, we were sharing a Christmas table, a kitchen, Boney M videos and Love Actually.









It's like this whole town has swallowed some magic...


If you look for it, I have a sneaking suspicion… love actually is all around.

4 comments:

  1. Merry Christmas!

    Happy New Year!

    Love,
    Mom

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anabelle,

    Boney M! Would that be the group of that song Daddy Cool fame? Saw a video of that one once on the... tele (as they say in your neck of the woods). Very high energy... and I've since seen it several times.

    I loved the last line of your post. I know that's the last line of one of our favorite Christmas movies --- and I have a sneaking suspicion that it's true. (I love the beginning and the end of that film!) What a scathingly brilliant idea to use that here [BG]. Also, I think one day that that little jewel will be a holiday classic right up there with A Christmas Story and It's a Wonderful Life.

    'Course that's just my opinion; I could be wrong.

    Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Love,
    Dad

    PS: There's another Boney who's a musical prodigy - a fantastic sax player named Boney James. He's as well known in his genre as Boney M is in his own. His specialty is Smooth Jazz and Cool Jazz - check this video [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ru4QbgnW9QI ]. He's not bad for late nights in front of the fire - on a cold winter's night.

    ReplyDelete
  3. PSS: BTW, I have a scathingly brilliant idea for a film you might enjoy with Suzanne and your friends... if you catch my hint!

    xoxox, Dad

    ReplyDelete
  4. aw ann this is so awesome! :) im so happy to hear ure having such a great time! miss you so much, we need to skype soon!

    ReplyDelete