All I Want for Christmas is You, Napoleon

Looks like Santa got my letter!!

A friend and I are in charge of our company's regional Christmas party this year.  In the past we have had about 12 or more families.  But, this year it is going to be a much smaller group of 9 nine families.

It has been fun to get to do something detail-oriented again.  I just love organizing a party!

But, the hard part has been trying to find the things to bring it together.  When you are in charge of something, you sort of get this this vision of how it should be.  Bringing that vision to life in an old (ugly) school with limited resources has been tricky!

But, I finally feel like things are coming together.  It should be a really nice party, and I am excited!

I think I'm even more excited that when it finishes on Saturday it will mark the end of my Christmas responsibilities.  I've got all the presents boxed up and ready.  The ones that need to be sent are in the mail. They will probably be a bit late, but I am ok with that.  I have a sweet friend taking the big boxes for our families to the States to mail on Monday.  Pray that they get there on time!

So... I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

And am looking forward to a few days of chilling out with my family!

Sunday Sneak Peek

Traditions

Although there are many hard things about living in a country that is 99.9% Muslim, there are also a few blessings, too.  Christmastime is sort of weird around here, because although it is one of the most special days of the year for us, it is just an ordinary day for everyone around us.  The kids have school, Justin has work, and hardly anyone even knows about the hustle and bustle of celebrations going on around the world.

So, we get to do everything OUR way.  We celebrate just how we want.  The kids get to play hooky from school.  Justin stays home from work and we have one very special day where it is just us- celebrating Jesus and enjoying each other.

Because there are no social cues here to help make Christmas special we have had to get creative.  For about the last 8 years we've celebrated advent.  It has been a nice way to spread out the Christmas celebration and build up to Christmas Day.  This year we are using Ann Voskamp's Jesse Tree Advent Devotional and love it.

I must confess, I couldn't wait until after Thanksgiving to start the Christmas music.  I was in the kitchen so much preparing for Thanksgiving, and I just couldn't resist turing it on.  It has been on non-stop ever since.  You ought to hear Lucy sing Feliz Navidad!  HA!

We sent an extra little something to our precious Compassion Child, Mohammed.

Last Saturday we put up our [piece of junk IKEA] Christmas tree, while watching Mickey's Christmas.

I used yarn to tie up our stockings to the hand rail.  We put out some red candles, our Little People Nativity, and a few other small decorations.  Just a little- enough to make the flat feel special, but not enough to offend our neighbors.

Sunday night after Justin left for London, but the kids and I had a Family Movie Night.  We watched Elf and had Elf-inspired super ooey-gooey caramel popcorn.  To wash it down I made hot chocolate and even dropped in a few marshmallows from my sacred stash.  It was so fun to cuddle up together and laugh!

For the final two Sundays in Advent we are going to peruse through the Compassion Catalog and pick out something to give as a family to those in need.

A friend and I are planning our company's annual Christmas Party.  We are all really looking forward to that.

I am not sure exactly what we will do for Christmas Eve.  Last year we met as a team, but this year our new team is meeting on Christmas Day.

Other ideas I have are:

Christmas movie night every weekend

Christmas Cookie Decorating Extravaganza (with no fuss from me about the mess) -I got this idea from a sweet comment left on my blog

Playing telephone with phrases from the Christmas Story from Luke 2

reading the Christmas Story in each of the versions and languages of the Bible that we have together at night

taking the kids shopping for their dad and each other

surprising the kids with a late night doughnut run in their jammies

a big Christmas breakfast- Justin is in London and I gave him strict orders to bring back cheddar cheese and some type of breakfast pork for our Christmas breakfast!- and I always make Gorilla Bread (which you absolutely must try!)

Skyping with our family



So... those are our traditions.  Any fun or special ideas you can add to our list?

Şikayet

Şikayet= complaint


Yesterday Noah told me that he loved school.  The reason he loved school is because his teacher had made a complaint box.  Noah proudly announced that he had 9 complaints.


We got to talking about the complaints and he told me that they were against a child in his class who smells bad.  My heart brooke!!


Literally, the night before I had watched an Extreme Makeover: Home Edition on the internet.  The family had lost their son.  He was an 11 year old boy who was teased so badly that he eventually hung himself.


Can you imagine?


I told Noah about the little boy- almost his same age- that people were unkind to.  We talked about how to treat others and how God would want us to act.


It was a great conversation.  In the end he took the complaints that he had written out of his backpack and threw them in the trash instead of putting them in the complaint box.


Tonight, he came into my room and said this,


"Mom, you know that complaint box.  I'm going to ask my teacher if I can sit next to whoever gets the most complaints and help them out."


Yall, this Momma's heart is so, so proud of my boy.  I didn't tell him that he should do that.  In fact the thought never even crossed my mind.  My sweet boy wants to stop sitting next to his best friend and deliberately show kindness to someone who will probably be hard to love.


That is faith in action!




"'And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.'  The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”    Mark 12:30-31

Update

Noah did great on the bus by himself.  He did every thing exactly like we told him to and got home just fine.

We were hosting our team meeting that morning, and we always start off with breakfast.  So when he got home he fixed himself a plate of breakfast and a cup of coffee.  (So I'm told.  I was at swimming lessons with the girls.)

So, I guess he's all grown up and ready to go off to college.

Speaking of all grown up.  Now, Lucy doesn't even need a tiny starter push to get going on the swing.  She can do the whole bit completely by herself.  Everyone at the park marvel at the little white girl flying through the air.

So, I guess she's ready to run off and join the circus.

Noah's Got the Christmas Spirit

Noah came into the kitchen this morning and in all sincerity asked,

"Mom, you know my allowance... Do I get a Christmas bonus?"

Listing

1.  I told my friend today that if I had to have a sister wife I'd choose her.  (Maybe you aren't watching that crazy show about the polygamists and so you don't get this.  That's ok, just move on.)  It's a high compliment!

2. Justin leaves Sunday night to go to London for a week.

3. The kids have FINALLY started sports after months of searching and praying.  Noah is playing basketball and the girls are swimming.  The place that Noah plays at is relatively close to us, so tomorrow he is riding the bus (i.e.- public transport in a huge city) home by himself.

4. YIKES!!  My baby is riding the bus home by himself!

5. Even though Justin will be gone, our weekly babysitter is still coming over.  PTL!  Momma's night out!

6. I feel like the older I get the more of a night-owl I become.  It is really inconvenient!

7. We put up our Christmas tree tonight while watching Mickey's Christmas.  We don't decorate very much, but it is still really fun.  We are also doing Ann Voscamp's Jesse Tree Advent Devotional each night.  That has really been a highlight for me.  She has great insight and relates it really well to kids.  I love the anticipation of the Christmas season, and I love doing things that make it feel really special.

8. Lucy has decided that she wants a Barbie house.  The only Barbie house I can find in this country is stinkin' 400 lira!  So, I'm giving that child some cardboard boxes and markers so she can make one.

9. Do you do anything during the Christmas season to help make it special.  I need ideas!

Let's Choose a Topic to Discuss

So I had my tea the other day.  This week we were at Ayşe's flat on the first floor. 


In three hours time, 8 women all talking at once can really cover a lot of topics!!


We talked about how we met our husbands.  If they were relatives.  And, if we were part of an arranged marriage or if we married for love.  (For the record, no, Justin and I are not related!)


We talked about how the beans and grains that Sultan's dad brought back from the village aren't cooking up very well.


We talked about the pots and pans man's prices.  One of the ladies told the funniest story about how she bought a pot set, but didn't tell her husband.  She had agreed to make weekly payments.  Well, the pot man showed up for one of the payments when her husband happened to be home.  That didn't go so well.


We talked about our ailments.


My downstairs neighbor has a sweet new baby.  So, at one point she asked if she changes her baby's diaper, does it ruin her abdest (Purification by washing the hands, arms, feet, and face before prayer).  The other women had all sorts of answers.  But it basically came down to no, it will not ruin her abdest if she just wipes her hands with an alcohol-based hand wipe afterwards.


Then we got on to discussing wether you can pray the namaz if your baby has spit up on you.  The ladies were talking about what kind of spit-up it was.  If it was just a bit of milk, that was fine.  But, if it was from the stomach or had anything else than just milk then she would need to re-do her abdest.  If it was the latter then you must change your clothes before re-doing the abdest.  With the former you just have to wipe the spot three times.


I tried to interject a bit of wisdom, but mostly I sat back and listened to this very difficult set of rules that they have to live by.  It's an impossible standard.  And even then, if you follow each rule to the the tee, there is no true assurance of it being acceptable.  


Much striving to no avail.


No true peace.


No assurance that anything they do is really going to tip the scales in their favor.


I am so sad for this difficult lifestyle for my sisters.  They are groaning under the requirements of their faith.




Come, Lord Jesus, come!!  




Bring your peace.  


Bring your hope.  


Bring your joy.  


Bring your assurance.


Show your mercy.


Pour out your grace on this land!  

...And Learning Fast

After posting the other day about how Lucy is learning so fast, I couldn't help but to share this, too...

The kids needed a few little things for school so Lucy and I went to the little school supply shop around the corner.  I told the guy what we needed, got my stuff, and told Lucy it was time to go.  But she was frozen solid, stock-still staring at some stickers.  We all sort of laughed and I urged her to come on.

No luck.

Finally the guy asked if she liked the stickers.  Even though she hadn't been able to hear or respond to a word I said to her, miraculously she heard the shopkeeper and nodded her head yes.  Just for effect, she also let her jaw drop.

(I see an Academy Award in this girl's future.)

The shopkeeper gave her the stickers and she instantly came back to life.  Amazing!  We thanked the man and went skipping out the door (her not me!).

As we were walking to school she said, "Mom, you know why I was staring at those stickers?"

"No, dear.  Where you frozen?"

"No.  They were just so sparkley and I really wanted them.  I knew if I looked at them long enough that man would give them to me."

Turns out Lucy has also learned how to bargain this week!