Lilmissbelle 12 Days of Christmas
Day 6: Toto Wraps
It’s 5:30am on a Saturday morning. I was in bed by 10:00pm last night and could not wait for dawn. I slept like a toddler on Christmas eve, anxious about what toys I would find under the chimney in the morning. Only that my anxiety had nothing to do with toys but my usual Saturday run.
It’s been about a month since I ran on a Saturday in Kenya, something I have made a ritual since the first Saturday of 2017. I may not have met half my goals and resolutions for the year, but if there’s one thing I did right, it has to be my dedication to running. This has kept me grounded in so many ways, part of the reason why I am able to wake up at 5:30am and ensure that the post I promised to publish at 6:00am today gets pinging in your inbox not a minute later. On that note, I hope you have subscribed to my blog and if not please go ahead and do so.
My giveaway for today has nothing to do with running in the literal sense. The weekend is here and most of you will be running errands probably tagging your babies along. Guess what will come in handy? A Toto Wraps baby carrier.
This is the second time we are giving away one. If you participated last time and did not win, please, try again today. Luck might just be on your side. To win, drop a comment below telling us the one ritual your parents had for your family back in the day that you loved and would love to pass on to your kids. It could be going to church every Sunday with no fail, eating out every Saturday, eating together at the dinner table, travelling over Christmas, reading every night before going to bed, that kind of stuff. You could even tell us about a ritual that you hated like being forced to have seven seas every night until you were twelve (yuck!).
As usual, make sure you are subscribed to this blog, following my instagram account and that of Toto Wraps to win. Best of luck!
I will announce both the winners of Day 5 and Day 6 in Monday’s post. Keep safe and see you here on Monday at 6:00am.
Your stories are so heartwarming and I am definitely borrowing a leaf from most of them. Taking turns to say grace, singing when there’s a blackout , spending uninterrupted time with the kids to know what they are going through and making that trip to the grandfolks a routine. Ngina, your dad is a superstar. I admire men who have no qualms about rolling up their sleeves and helping with household chores. I am curious though, whose chapos were better between mum’s and dad’s? Congratulations, you win a Toto Wraps baby carrier. Get in touch with me on lilmissbelle00@gmail.com
That is pushing dad’s skills. I think his food was tastier because all 5 of us got involved in cooking. Dad is still our superstar. He is amazing.
I don’t know how much of a ritual this was but it happened every time lights when out,which was more often back in the days. It was unspoken routine, whenever lights went out in the evenings, one of us(kids) would go grab a Golden Bells book and in the dim candle lighting, we would sing those hymns till heavens doors open and God would say light therebe LIGHT!! Those were some of my best nights….lights out, TV off, no phones,just us and Mama singing unharmonious without a care in the world. I still know most of the songs off the… Read more »
What a great initiative. I live upcountry and my 1year daughter is 11.5kgs.I use a leso to carry her when doing house chores,going to church and clinic 1 kilometer away.How I pray and wish I get to win this please.Imagine carrying a baby,luggage and holding an umbrella all at once.Awsome pictures Joy…the toto wrap looks really handy.
The family tradition I loved was actually going to shags every holiday. I was a fat kid and I was bullied a lot. Going to shags to my cousins meant freedom because they didn’t bully me, so we could play in the outdoors without a care in the world, we’d climb trees to pick our fruit of choice; April was pears and December holiday was plums and avocados were plentiful throughout. The farm was so big we even did treasure hunts. Then my grandma made the yummiest food and looking back I don’t know how she did it because cooking… Read more »
Theoneritual my mum haf was that every day for 20 minutes we would sit in the living room and talk about our day then pray. Shewould encourage us to tell her about all the things we were going through and then advice us.
One of my parents always cooked for us. Mum served huuuge chapatis. Dad also did it when mum was away. That was back in the 80s. So it was strange for dad to cook. We looked foward to that. It was super cool. It set the bar high for the men in our lives. He ought to be able to do anything for his child. I want my daughter to have that high standard for her future relationships
The ritual my parents always had that I would absolutely love to pass down to my kids is the yearly parties and get togethers we always held at our place . sometimes they’d be twice a year . these parties were always close to my heart because everyone came from aunties to uncles , cousins , family friends e.t.c and for that day we all made merry . especially with how life is people always get busy with work , school and all havinvg everybody coming together always made me happy . I’d love to always keep connection with the… Read more »
Ever since my lil bear turned four months carrying her around is a nightmare mpaka we have nicknamed her pumpum …..sometimes i wish she could accompany me to run errands e.g shopping so am left to just leave her at home with the nanny.
How i wish i could win the toto wrap so as to move around with my cute bear
We always ate dinner together and took turns to say grace. I feel like nowadays we never make time to just to stuff like that. Rat race !
during school holidays, we used to go to my grand parents place, it was a 3 roomed mad house. during bed time my cousins and i used to take turns in sleeping with our grand ma… i would love seeing my baby and her cousins making a timetable to sleep with my mum
Remember having such experiences too, especially during festive season like this. Thanks for that memory journey.
I really admire your discipline and commitment to run every Saturday, congratulations! I grew up in shags and my father worked out of town and would come home very single Saturday evening. That was the designated chapo and chicken/beef day of the week and the day we picked our battery from the shopping centre to power our black and white TV. I really looked forward to that day.
Thank you! It’s tough but I feel so good afterwards. And your Shags story just took me back to Njoro, our black and white TV and the chloride excile battery!!
The ritual that I loved back then and would love to pass to my kids is,during xmas festivities my parents made sure we travelled to shags where we could meet all our cousins and we would always perform a mega cousin choir on xmas day in church.After church we would always have a talent show where we show cased our talents as we savoured various delicacies……
Wow interesting! Was it like “Waititi’s got talent?” 🙂
My mum and her sisters took my cousins and i swimming every Sunday after church… It was something we looked forward to, that brought us very close. We are basically sisters. If there is one thing I would love to pass down, is that togetherness.. no matter what the age differences are, I would love for my kids and their cousin’s to be as close as my cousins and I are…
Awwhhhhh ???. I can already envision how close your family is! I want that too for mine Ndindi.