Christmas is a much anticipated holiday steeped with traditions; extended family, piles of presents, cheery music, special holiday sweets, and the frezy-like state created from the reminders of the upcoming holiday everywhere you turn.   All these combine to create what our kids know as “Christmas”.  There are many ways to celebrate the holiday but I think there is one universal, no one wants to have a disappointed kid on Christmas.   Yet I was nervous about that ever-present possibility given that we wouldn’t have any of our normal “ingredients” this year.  So I thought why even try to compete with such a longstanding tradition: why not just simply change the playing field entirely?  Choosing to do something completely foreign and totally unforgettable seemed to be a surefire recipe to allow even the most unique of Christmas experiences to be declared a success.   Unfortunately Christmas time is pretty much “high season” everywhere causing prices to soar.  Luckily our first pick, Maji Moto Maasai Cultural Camp in Kenya, maintains standard prices all year round.  A week learning about  the Maasai, a tribe of semi-nomadic people inhabiting Kenya and Tanzania,  including a couple of days of game drives and some warrior training, seemed to fit our needs perfectly.  

The two days of game drives in an pop-topped safari vehicle was a great start.

We felt truly lucky to spot so many animals but seeing as we were accompanied by, Salaton, a Maasai Chief with a lifetime of experience living in the bush,  perhaps it wasn’t a matter of luck at all.  

We had seen many animals in Samburu with Elephant Watch the week prior and Maasai Mara worked out to be the perfect complimentary game drive as we saw an array of different animals and the scenery was taken right out of the The Lion King. 

Its OK ‘cause I was already up since 2AM with a bad travelers belly, the second such occurrence in the last 3 days.

When I woke Zuki she was in a cranky mood.   Its probably the lack of sleep, since our “splurge”  hotel with pool in Bagan, land of the temples, has serious plumbing issues causing our room to sporadically fill with methane gas, the smell of sewage gagging us, which we were trying to alleviate into late last night.  The idea of another long travel day ahead isn’t helping either.  
She sleepily berates me for arranging it, stating that I was blatantly taking advantage of the fact that they (ie the kids) didn’t complain on our last 10 hour bus trip, only 5 days ago.  

Luckily the boat is surprisingly comfortable with working toilets and 3 deck levels with indoor and outdoor seating and only a handful of other passengers because at $40 a ticket the super budget travelers and the locals opt for the bus ($7), whereas the high-end tourists take a flight.  The views of the landscape as the sun rose were spectacular and continues to be as we pass villages, mist covered pagodas, and exotic fishing boats.