lucy and her friend in our flat.

my turn

the day after christmas my neighbors rang my bell. two came up to see if i was free for tea- here! it was my first time to get to host tea! when i said i was free they went to get two more friends. luckily, i had sweets and snack food in the house since yesterday was christmas! there was plenty to serve. (as a side note, i went to the market the next day and stocked up on packaged sweets and snacks to hide in the back of cabinet for next time!)

these women are my first friends here. they are really sweet and patient with me! they invite me to tea and to their friends' houses for tea. of course, there is so little that we can really communicate, yet. but, it is a blessing to have a few friends!

now that it is winter, it seems like the women are getting together all the time for tea. i have had a lot of time to practice my language, but a little time to learn more! it has been a tricky balance. they usually get together in the afternoon while the kids are at school. i have lucy with me, which everyone loves! she is amazing! she can skip her nap and be happy as a clam. she just toddles around from person to person snuggling and mooching food! she really knows how to work the room!

i laugh and say i am on the book tour. for a while it seemed like there was no social activity in this complex- especially during ramazan. but now, it is cold, and the women are cramped up in their houses. so, they get their knitting and hang out together! i am so thankful that my friend, sue, taught me to knit. maybe i'll post some pictures on the things i've made recently. anyhow, about the book tour.... lately, it seems that i could have a different tea date for each day! people are interested in me. it is so good to get out and spend time with other women. but, i have to be careful. i don't want lucy to drop her afternoon nap, and i need to study on my own sometimes too. so, i am trying to spread out my social commitments! ha! it makes me laugh- with too much or too little- where is the balance? some day....

10 people in a tiny car

the other day a neighbor invited us to her parents' house for brunch. it was sort of weird, but of course we said yes! her brother is studying english and wants to attend university in the u.s. so maybe he wanted to practice with us or he needed help- who knows! probably they are just really nice.
anyhow, at 11 o'clock on saturday 10 of us piled into a car a little smaller than an old model toyota corolla. luckily it was not too far! brunch turned into dinner as well! we got home at 6 o'clock! we were exhausted from trying to control the kids in a flat and from trying to communicate for 7 hours!

if i sent out a picture card...

this is my favorite christmas picture of the kids!

no professional christmas pictures this year! but these are almost as cute. i found new jammies at our outdoor bazaar on thursday. i couldn't resist giving them to the kids, even thought christmas was only a few days away. the kids are so proud of our little tree. it was thier idea to pose with it!

a friend gave us an ornament kit. we did not bring our christmas stuff, so this is just what we needed. the kids were thrilled to make ornaments for our little tree. they used beads and pipe cleaners to make icicles. they were so proud of their creations. i also managed to find "new years" stockings. we just did a few little decorations in our family room. it was fun! i think that keeping things simple helped us to focus on the truth of christmas.

christmas here?

the interesting thing about our country is that they celebrate christmas, they just don't know it!! at the beginning of the month we went to ikea to buy our christmas tree. it is located in the most western looking shopping area that we have been to yet- complete with a gap, apple computer store, and popeye's fried chicken in the food court. it is an outdoor style mall. it was completely decorated for christmas complete with christmas music playing in english. some of the music mentioning the reason for the season! we were shocked! of course hardly anyone understands the words to the music or really seemed to notice it. but we felt like we were in america. they were installing a temporary outdoor ice skating rink and everything. all the decorations, the celebrating, and the gift giving (not nearly as much as in america) look exactly like american christmas minus anything spiritual- which is what american christmas has become. but, they celebrate it as new years- complete with a visit from santa on new year's eve. so interesting! this is a newer way to celebrate our friends tell us. it is catching on quickly. a few of our friends have new years trees in their homes, and our kids even received a little new years gift from our neighbors!





callie on the carosel


noah on the carousel

can't get enough of them

on the mountain

our family looking out over the city.



at the same mountain (see the post before) there is a wonderful assortment of snacks! the kids' favorite is this candy man. he spins several colors and flavors onto the stick and it sort of hardens into a yummy sucker. you can see callie with her nose pressed impatiently against the candy cart!

our city

this is a picture (on a misty day) of our city from the top of a small mountain between the water and our side of the city. if you can't tell from the picture, it is very beautiful. the water is fantastic!

noah and callie looking out over the city. it is so huge! i feel like i have only figured out maybe four blocks surrounding our home, and a few different bus routes! it will take years to get my bearings!!!

i took this picture of the kids to get the family in the background. they are ultra conservative. they dress like this to show their piety. although the clothing throws you off a little, i have found that even "high identity" believers like these are perfectly nice and open to a foreigner like me. it is hard to understand the women when they talk, though, because their mouthes are covered.

a new park

the other day justin had to help our teammates move their office. so, i took the kids to a big new park that i had seen on the bus. this was my first time taking all three on the bus by myself. they did great- they love the bus. the park actually has grass! it also has a turf on the futbol pitch (we used to call it a soccer field- although here most of them look like basketball courts). this picture is of noah and a few other "little guys" after they had been kicked off of the pitch. he is learning the pecking order early!


this is callie doing a show for lucy and i while noah watched the big kids play futbol! she has the best imagination!

night out

we finally convinced noah to get a haircut! he had decided to grow his hair out like his friend in georgia, caleb- much to my dislike!! (no offense caleb!) but, the young boys here are quite clean cut. so, we dragged him to the barber shop. once it was all said and done with, he was so happy. the barber fixed him up just like a t-ish teenager- spikes and all. so, noah thought he was hot stuff!


after the haircut, we were ready for a taste of the west. so, we piled onto the bus and headed for a big new mall not too far from our flat. the kids got mcdonald's sundaes, so they were thrilled. i had subway, so i was thrilled!!

there are quite a few different american fast food restaurants in the malls and more western areas of our city. some of the choices include mcdonald's, burger king, kfc, pizza hut, domino's, subway, starbucks, popeye's fried chicken, arby's, scholtzky's deli, and dunkin doughnuts. we rarely eat american fast food because it is about three times more expensive than any other restaurant! not only that, but few of them really taste the same. so it ends up being more of a disappointment than a taste of home. for example: the first time we went out to the mall, we were so excited to find a pizza hut. so, we order a meat pizza. of course, we know that the meat will be beef, as pork of any type is a strict no-no! when the pizza arrived the meat on it was like small pieces of beef bologna- yuck! i have never had a bologna pizza before... well, until then! it wasn't so bad, actually. it was just different.

so cute

here is our favorite picture of the kids!