Jon and Jody in Jo'burg

Hi everyone -

We hope everyone has had a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Jon and I had the best Christmas present when Jonathan came to visit us for the holidays. After his 16-hour flight from the US, we put him on another plane the next day for 4 hours when we all flew to Mauritius for Christmas. Mauritius is a small island on the eastern side of Madagascar. Click here if you would like to read a little more about the island from a tourism standpoint.

Mauritius has quite a history, beginning in 1638 when it was first colonized by the Dutch. It has since been under French and British rule and has been an independent stable democracy since 1992. You can click here if you would like to read more about the history of the island.

We spent 5 nights in Mauritius in a beautiful resort on the east side of the island, called Belle Mare Plage. It was literally picture postcard beautiful - white sand, crystal water, giant palms. It rained Christmas Eve and Christmas Day but the beach was still beautiful and Jonathan and I, as well as other tourists, flopped on our beach chairs under our tiki shelters and read, listening to the waves crash.

This is the first time I have ever spent a Christmas away on vacation, and while we did thoroughly enjoy ourselves, I am looking forward to being back in the US for Christmas 2013.