Page 848 - Belgrave Diaries(N)_Neat

846

1934

Church at the Mission in the morning. I have never seen so many people there before, a good many were Americans
from the camp. Afterwards we went up to the fort & then called on the Russells on our way back. James up for lunch.
We had turkey & plum pudding & crackers. He of course only ate what he is allowed. In the afternoon we had our
usual childrens party, altogether there were five of them, 4 boys and one girl. James lay on the sofa & looked on.
First they had a big tea in the dining room, then played about, and they had a Christmas tree in the nursery, & de
Grenier did Father Chistmas in red robe, white beard etc with a sack of presents on his back. He was really very good.
The tree & the nursery were lit with coloured electric lights & it looked very pretty. All the children enjoyed it very
much, the only grown ups except parents were the de Greniers & Dr & Mrs Holmes. James insisted on having their
dinner party at the Agency, they did it like a Railway train, Russian, but the party flagged rather. They showed the
cinema but most people had seen the films several times before. The dinner was quite good, they had haggis as
usual.

Tuesday 26th [December]

Took the family for a drive in the car. The first time James has been out. A cooler day & a chamaal but still very warm
for the time of year. Dealt out the usual tips to the staff, a large item as there are so many of them. Gardened after
lunch & then tennis at the Mission & tea at Mrs Dames. James went to a party at the Hakhens, not a success as the
two boys behaved so badly & yelled most of the time. Dr Thoms showed some magic lantern slides of Palestine. Mrs
Holmes came back with James & nannie & paid a long call. The oil coy have a man called Dr ... out from America, an
oil expert, a fat oily man but quite interesting to talk to. He is going over to Hassa. The office was closed so I had a
holiday.

Wednesday 27th Dec