xmas eve in Kabul -good food and kids

There's no snow, except on the distant Hindu Kush, it's kind of like spring, which is sad I suppose, if spring can be sad. Dinner with ten (more or less) friends to me is one of the most pleasurable ways to spend an evening-like this Xmas Eve dinner at F and P's, I've talked about them before: he's, French, an NGO doc; F is British, her father created an NGO that treats mine victims that she now runs; they have three lovely teenagers all bilinguaql who school in UK and India. Also present a Maylaysian, an Uzbec, an Italian- lots of different languages flying around the table. P may be a doc at work but at home he's the equivalent of a Cordon Bleu chef: first course must remain unnamed (I've never had it before and I think it may be politically incorrect)- a delicacy directly from Lyon brought by J that is sublime; main course is roast lamb and potatoes au gratin with the sharpest cheese also from Lyon; (it is mentioned that while the French like to eat each dish separately, Saxons prefer to load it all on the plate at once which we do); dessert, two Buche de Noels, a yule log cake rolled in a half ton of chocolate, are quickly devoured. P who prepared them with 14 year old C, apologizes for the missing decoration of " green plastic ivy." After dinner 13 year old F excuses himself to collect floss. There's a slim, delicate pine tree in the corner, minimally and caringly decorated with a modicum of unsplashy packages underneath. C handles each lovingly and longingly. She points out the dog's gift, a squeaky toy, which, she says, though it's wrapped, he always knows and goes right to. This evening the world is right.