Holidays!

I could give you the litany of excuses as to why I have not been posting much lately, but let's be honest here, my friend Pam has a full-time job and two-year-old triplets, and she blogs every day. What can I say that's going to top that?

But Malawi-wise, I don't have much to say. We've got petrol again, which is a good thing, but I still get annoyed every time Jorge lets the tank go below half-full. I am still working on analyzing

and writing up the results of that last survey, and I am acting as the No. 2 boss in my office for about a month, so work has been terribly busy.

Also, the political situation here seems to be getting even more bizarre and nonsensical lately, but I think perhaps I won't blog about that, as it would not be pleasant to have my work permit withdrawn.

Instead, I'll take the lazy blogger's way out and post pictures of my ridiculously cute progeny. With pithy comments thrown in for free:

This is the cheap little plastic tree I got from the grocery store. It made me indescribably happy, and is still up in our living room. And ALL the presents are for Milo. Santa didn't come for me or Jorge this year.

Milo trying out his new train set.

It took the kid a while to figure out that the boxes had TOYS in them. But once he did, there was no stopping him.

In his cool new igloo tent!

And since I also failed to blog for New Year's, you get the combo post.

We made it to TWO parties on New Year's Eve this year, not bad! Last year we spent it eating cheese and drinking wine in a hotel room while Milo screamed. So this was an improvement.

With our friend Malene, who threw a fabulous bash, complete with a whole roasted pig.

Then we went to our friends Jessica and Diego's, for a delicious Italian buffet. And plenty of champagne!

The next day we drove to the lake with our friends Mina and Carrie.

Here's Milo with his adorable tousled beach hair look.