We slept in a little bit this morning and after waking up we had porridge. When I think about porridge – I think about oatmeal. However, this morning I was delighted to find a more savory version of porridge (made with chicken). Today was not a day that we had a lot planned – other than visiting friends and family.

When we had visited the Mount Lavinia Hotel I had purchased a sapphire ring that was being custom made for me. We had requested to pick this up in Colombo vs. driving outside of town. We had a little bit of a language barrier when trying to figure out if it was ready – but after the third try we were told it was ready for pick up in their headquarters location.

Sabrina’s mum has caught on quickly to how much I love rings and costume jewelry – so she had recommended another store for us to check out. Sabrina and I both ended up leaving with a ring – this time I found a ruby! When we were in Thailand we had hoped for a lot of rings of different gems – but everything was too expensive. Whereas, in Sri Lanka everything was reasonably priced for both precious and semi-precious stones.

We were going to have our Christmas lunch at Sabrina’s friend’s house. (Annie – who we had met last night during the rain storm). We were originally going to have it at Annie’s house – but at the last minute the location changed to the hotel that Annie’s parents own. It was gorgeous!

We had such a fun time getting to know Sabrina’s friends – and their friends. (And some of their family!) It really felt like we had known some of these people for a while – it might be because I had heard some stories about Sabrina’s friends. But either way – it didn’t feel like we were out of place and we had such a good time.

They were serving mulled wine – which I’ve never had, but throughly enjoyed. They also had other beverages – I think Andy ended up drinking whiskey and I eventually switched to champagne.

There was the large table – and all of the different dishes were served off of this table. There was such a variety of food and I don’t think anyone could have left hungry.

After leaving Annie’s – we went back to Sabrina’s and played games with her aunts and cousins. We had a good time – we played Boys & Girls and Taboo. I forgot how bad I am at Taboo – but we had a great time.

We have to get up early tomorrow – so we will be heading off to bed shortly. We are heading out to Polonnaruwa and Sigiriya for some sight seeing.

Up Next:

• Sigiriya – Lion Rock
• Polonnaruwa