Friday, December 26

The day after...clean up and playing and sleeping (except Brian had to go to work)!

Also time to share some of our decorations and gifts from the holiday.

Some of the projects the kids made at school
Our stockings for this year!
We hung the stockings we made on the windows in the dining area
The beautiful vase Brian got for me for Christmas,
from a painter in the castle area
The chess/backgammon board I got for Brian for Christmas,
from Egypt and inlaid with mother of pearl
Brian and I both picked out boxes for each other...
without the other knowing!
The new snowy view out of our dining area window.
With my selective viewing of some of the rare evergreen trees here.
No, not Maren's bedroom...Barbie's!
Santa brought Maren this Barbie bedroom set.
And not our living room...but Barbie's too!
Santa brought Lacey this Barbie living room set,
except the coffee table is a Ferrero Rocher box turned upside down!

Thursday, December 25 Christmas Day
Merry Christmas! The girls were up no earlier than usual (thank goodness!) and we went to check out what Santa left in our stockings at 6:30. They were tickled at the pile of gifts around the tree (we had only put a few out earlier to deter snooping and Aeden disasters). We went through the loot until about 7:00 when Aeden woke up and we decided that it was time to get Brian out of bed.

Santa made some special deliveries to us and we kept ourselves busy opening packages for quite a while. Brian handed out the packages and we agreed that he needed more practice since he was handing presents to the wrong people! Aeden didn't really know what to do at first, but he caught on and ripped off the paper and oohed and aahed on cue after only a few practice runs.






We munched our way through the day and ended up having our planned breakfast of crepes with apples and cream for dinner! After dinner we signed on to iChat with Brian's family gathered at Paige and Rob's house in California. The kids opened their presents together and looked like a Christmas advertisement for Mac!



What a day! It is all done now...whew!

Wednesday, December 24 Christmas Eve
It snowed last night! Before any preparations for dinner could commence, we went outside to play in the snow on our big balcony. The girls donned their polypro layers, scarves, mittens, and new snow boots and were waiting at the door to go out. I bundled up Aeden and out we went. And Brian with his camera... (Warning. Photo below includes some leg, merely to illustrate the crazy photographer!)












And then it all came down to crunch time...
A walk to Carrefour for the first round of ingredients, including some oranges for the cranberry sauce recipe that Brian's making, but using Sour Cherries instead of cranberries. Then a walk to Migros for the rest of the stuff, including whatever roast or turkey I can find. Nothing like the last minute. Walking over to Migros in the snow was not as much fun as I would have liked, though it was nice on our street where I wasn't so close to splashing puddles and sliding cars. I couldn't decide if a taxi ride really would be better or not, since the roads were still pretty slick. I found the stuff I needed and was headed to the checkout line and saw Tim right ahead of me and ended up getting a ride home with him, nice and dry. And I almost cracked up out loud when I was telling him about the stuffing I was going to make with apples and caramelized onions and he told me he might have to pinch that recipe from me.

We had a wonderful dinner with Nancy and Rozetta (from Albania and a teacher at TED High with Brian) in our apartment. The rundown:

• French Onion Soup, with a mix of parmesan and kasar peyniri for the cheese on top
  
• Kaye's Broccoli Casserole, with pastirma instead of bacon, white root vegetable of some kind instead of water chestnuts, and Knorr mushroom soup from a mix instead of canned cream of mushroom soup. It was still recognizable on the table and looked and tasted great!
  
• Mashed potatoes, holiday style with lots of whole milk and butter
  
• Roasted Turkey (first time I've cooked one in an oven instead of the grill!), roasted with veggies inside and upside down for the first two hours. I say it was so great because I flipped the bird; Brian says it was so great because it was a real turkey and not a butterball, genetically engineered monster. It looked all scrawny and stretched out, but it sure did taste good!
  
• Gravy, mmm, mmm, gravy. Nice and dark from the drippings. Mmm. I'm not so scared to make gravy from scratch anymore.
  
• Stuffing with apples and caramelized onions, not my best batch, but not the worst stuffing ever, either.
  
• Dr. Roy's lemon-butter carrots, bright and cheery on the table
  
• "Cranberry Sauce" made from sour cherries, nice and tart, with pineapple and oranges in it too, simmered all day and making our house smell so yummy!
  
• Rye and regular bread with raspberry jam, but we forgot to pass it around!
  

Nancy brought pumpkin pie for dessert, and we also had an Italian cake that Lacey and Brian decorated earlier in the day. And whipped cream. More yum!



I found Christmas crackers at Marks & Spencer and managed to keep them a surprise, even for Brian. So we popped open our crackers, put on our crowns, and shared bad jokes, just like usual.

What food do you get when you cross a snowman and a bear?
A Brr-Grr.

Yep, the jokes were just as bad as usual!





We pressured Brian into a special allowance to open presents with Nancy on Christmas Eve, so we had our gift exchange with her and Rosetta a few hours early. I had gotten Rozetta a votive candle holder with a Christmas Tree on it and wrapped it up with mini Christmas balls and some tinsel as the bow and she liked the wrapping so much she didn't want to open it. So I was secretly beaming inside, that someone appreciated the efforts :-) Even after she opened it ever so carefully, she put it all back together and took it home as if it had not even been opened. We teased her that she had another party to go to tonight and would use the present again at her next party. That never happens, though, right?!

Tuesday, December 23
Christmas shows and a visit from santa at the preschool. Big doin's! I think the pictures are worth more than any description could be, and we're going to try to get the video uploaded to share. We couldn't see Aeden directly for a good chunk of the show, but there's a glimpse. He did a good job of sitting in his chair and watching everything, even if he didn't sing along. The "dog and pony" show of little kids singing Christmas carols and visiting with Santa sure is cute! Even right now if you start to sing Jingle Bells, Aeden will start waving his right hand as if jingling bells for the song (or even if you say "Tinker Bell"). Darn cute.





Lacey and Maren both took a bunch of pictures around the preschool to capture the Christmas decorations...so I'll have them choose the ones they want to post a bit later...

Monday, December 22
Back to preschool for a half-day with the kids. Nothing too exciting, just preparations for the Christmas shows tomorrow, and Lacey and Maren being tired of coming to school with me.

But a big day for me. I called to order water and twenty minutes later our doorbell was ringing and it was the water man! And they brought three, just as I wanted. I can order my own water! The last time I tried I gave up and had Nancy call again as I couldn't piece enough information together to even try to explain our address. We'll see how it goes next time :-)

Sunday, December 21
Solo walk to the market in the rain to pick up a few remaining items for Christmas preparations and some mandarin oranges (mandolina). It was nice. I like the rain, and I had missed it. There was no issue of getting wet on the way to work, having kids getting too cold, or anything like that, just a nice walk in the rain on the way, with the promise of dry clothes at home.

Brian went shopping with Mustafa today. Secret shopping :-)

Aeden brought home the Younger Nursery Diary and stuffed animal, Lucy, for the weekend. Here they are eating breakfast together. He had a bit of a love-hate relationship with Lucy. She makes a weird snoring/baah sound that alternately triggered giggling or crying. Pretty silly.

Saturday, December 20
Family to Bilkent to check on an overcoat for Brian at Real and a Christmas CD from Starbucks inside the Marks & Spencer. Brian didn't believe me when I told him that Aeden insisted on stopping at Starbucks for a muffin last time we had been there, but I'm pretty sure it is true. He's been conditioned to the logo and aroma of Starbucks just as well as I have been. No luck on the CD, as usual I guess I just needed to buy it while I was there the first time.

We were in Yesil looking at shoes and Lacey found a pair of leather boots that we both like (usually only one or the other of us likes any given pair). I sent Brian and the kids home in a taxi so I could pick up a few more Christmas gifts, and went back to Yesil to buy the boots. They were nowhere to be found. I asked a clerk about them, showed him exactly where they had been, what they looked like, size 35, etc. Nothing. Finally, I asked if they had ANY size 35 boots in the store. Nope. I was so frustrated and felt so hopeless. How stupid. You'd think the store clerks might be more interested in helping me spend my money, but sometimes not so much.

Aeden and his ayran, diaper and all.

Friday, December 19

Another half day for us at the preschool, and then a mis-step in choosing the dolmus home, resulting in an extra 45 minutes of traveling, but two nice encounters with people. An Iranian man was glad to hear English and commented that, "nobody speaks English here, and that is a very big problem." And two female students tried out their English on us and asked our names and we chatted a little bit. They were trying to talk with Aeden since he pulled out his flirty eyes for them, and I explained, "no Turkish, no English" and Lacey chimed in, "just baby language" and the two girls just giggled away.

I can't believe how far we've come since having to spend three days coercing Lacey to cross the busy road to walk to Migros and McDonald's (and then Brian having to carry her over the second half of the overpass because it was too loud and we were too close to the traffic). They're still very cautious on the streets and know to watch driveways and to look for cars turning onto side streets as we're crossing them, but they'll lean right out to look for cars now, tell me where our "hole" is so we're all ready, and just cover their ears when a big truck comes by instead of freezing and crying from the noise. And there's Maren, upset when there are enough seats on the dolmus that she has to sit down instead of standing up and being bounced around...
Got home to a red-bordered electricity bill, so I loaded everyone up after lunch to go to the post office and get the account paid up (supposedly handled by TED 2 months ago...). But I didn't want to spend the weekend in the dark if the power company decided that the time was up, and the universal red-border and same 77 YTL total that I've seen before got my attention even if I couldn't read any of the bill. Friday afternoon is apparently not the time to go to pay bills...the line was at the doorway and at least a dozen people long, while the clerks made sure to sip their tea and move at a snail's pace. I was just a little impatient I suppose. I paid the electricity bills and the phone bill, but was told I couldn't mail any letters because that part closed at 2 PM. Hmm. I finished up with that clerk and went to the one at the next window (who had just accepted a letter from another lady and was firing up the meter) and asked her if I could mail them. She helped me, and even asked the original clerk I had spoken to for help, which she gave. I either am learning the Turkish "systems" or have just had my letters filed in the round file instead of mailed to the US. I guess we'll find out sometime in the next few months!

Brian took his camera to school to photograph the frozen fog all around the school grounds. It is growing off of single sides of trees from the wind and cold, and makes things look very odd. There's an apartment complex on my bus route that has a cold cap on it and has frozen fog like this too.

Thursday, December 18

I'm really not feeling so hot, so we left school at lunchtime. But went off to the mall to do last-minute shopping Christmas gift shopping for Nancy's boys since we're having Christmas dinner with them tonight (they're leaving for Italy for holiday so they won't be here for Christmas). We went to the bookstore, and as I was saying, "Aeden, no!" for the ump-teenth time, I see Becky poke her head around the corner and say hello. She and Katherine are there shopping and they've heard me calling after Aeden...how silly. I'm not sure I've been to Armada in the last two months without running into someone I know.

"Christmas" dinner was lovely at Nancy's, complete with Christmas music and a decorated ficus tree. And I found a Mad magazine anniversary book for her 13-year old Chris and a Charlie Small book for her 11-year old Patrick, which will hopefully serve them well on their trip or later on. I asked them to give us a full report on Italy so when we go we could be well-informed. :-) I realized while sitting down to mashed potatoes and gravy, and roasted pumpkin with blackened edges, that I like Turkish food, but it is pretty nice to have our standard favorites, too. (We've been having lunch at the preschool, which is strictly Turkish food brought in by a catering company.) I think I understand why Brian has sometimes been less than thrilled with experimental Turkish recipes for dinner, when he's already having to experiment with foods for all his lunches (strictly Turkish food is served at TED as well.)

Patrick, Lacey, and Maren (and the side of Chris's head in the foreground) with a good old fashioned game of Christmas Twister keeping them busy...

Wednesday, December 17

Second full day, and I have a sore throat. And Lacey is starting to get bored and I'm getting tired of Maren at school with me (too many "Ms. Cortney..." and "Mommy..." inquiries piling up on each other all day long).

Tuesday, December 16

First full day at the preschool, and with Lacey and Maren along for the ride as well. Aeden didn't want to nap and Lacey declared she didn't want to ever try nap time with him again. Probably a good idea anyway, since she's just a distraction for him.

Afternoon duty is cycling through all the children on 15 minute intervals in the computer room, while the other groups of students are doing special activities like art, ceramics, music, drama, etc. with the other teachers. It was exhausting since I don't know any names except in the kindergarten, and there is one computer that one child at a time uses while the others look on. I tried to keep everyone (6-8 students at a time) engaged, but that rarely happened. Maybe I should be glad I don't like the tasks so I won't be tempted to stay full-days and overdo it. My un-practiced eye feels like there could be a much better use of time, and I continue to be puzzled about how to have students learning English be able to interact with the English-speaking students in town so that they can teach each other. It seems like such a wasted resource to have native English speaking children not working with the Turkish children, but I don't know for sure how or what to pitch for some kind of cooperative program and how to make it good for both groups.

It is so cold in the school that I dug out my silk long johns and have been wearing silks, shirt, and sweater then leaving my scarf on all day. As proof that I'm not exaggerating, I offer this little tidbit, which Brian nearly didn't believe: Maren asked to wear her coat inside. Maren doesn't even usually wear a coat outside; Brian's comment was that her idea of a coat was putting on another T-shirt layer. But she was cold. Brrr. It has been about 0 celsius in the mornings, which I understand is not even chilly compared to the weather in western Washington right now. Brian is so jealous of the snow he's been watching the WADOT traffic cams to see it on the highways. We keep hearing about the cold and snow we're due to have here, but have only had a few flurries, and it has only been about 0 celsius, not much colder than that in the daytime. But I will admit I have finally kept windows closed for longer periods, and I love coming home from school to warm slippers to defrost my toes. Our front hall wardrobe is built around the plumbing and is quite warm inside, so our shoes and coats are toasty-warm. That and the radiator-turned-heated-towel-bar in the bathroom are kind of nice perks when it is chilly out.

Monday, December 15

Back to work and school, with Lacey and Maren in tow to the preschool for the week since their school is still on holiday (until January 5). Just a half day today for us, and Lacey was glowing while helping out in Aeden's class, and Maren was tickled to be in "my" class (I'm assisting, not the lead teacher). Maren reported that she is 5 3/4 when asked how old she is. We came home and crashed for naps after all the excitement.

Sunday, December 14

Lacey, Aeden, and I went to the market for fruit and veggies, white yarn, sewing pins, and in search of white fleece or felt. No fleece or felt, but we found everything else we needed. Now Lacey's getting sick, just in time to go to the preschool tomorrow.

Saturday, December 13

Laid low at home and finished up the stockings, watched movies and the X-Files, and relaxed, preparing for the week to come. But I can't forget to mention that Maren, Aeden, and I went to McD's for hotcakes and Migros for more wrapping paper (ONLY place I've found any for sale!). Maren tried the McD's "hotcake syrup" that we've been stockpiling for when our maple syrup runs out, and we discovered that it is VERY thick, and very sweet and caramel-ly. Ingredients: corn syrup and ethylene glycol (otherwise known as antifreeze...to keep it liquid). Yum! Today was the first day we bothered going upstairs to sit down (we've been sitting in the tented outside area). There are 12 inch jazz figurines as part of the decor running down the center of the seating area...complete with dark skin, giant lips, and all the other African American caricature qualities that you don't see displayed in the US anymore. I'm thinking these figurines will not be added to the "McDonald's in a box" new restaurant kits anyday soon, and I was surprised how bothered I was by them.

Brian helped Lacey get started on another sewing project while Maren was sewing up Aeden's stocking. Lacey's working on a santa hat and was graduated from the whip stitch to a running backstitch. While we're sewing both girls talk about how they want to do all these different projects and sew this and sew that. It is pretty entertaining. Maren wanted me to tell her she was doing better than I did at her age and I told her I didn't know, since I did a lot of projects with my mom and my grandma...and then she just repeated, "But I'm doing better than you did at my age, right?!" No competitive spirit in Maren, no, not at all...

Friday, December 12

Aeden and I set out for Real and Praktiker in Bilkent to finish up Christmas shopping. Everyone was out buying Christmas trees at Praktiker. And even here there would be a couple looking at and choosing trees and decorations, with the woman gesturing, "what do you think?" and the man returning a look of, "do I really care?" Or maybe I'm projecting :-) I think I inadvertently hit the "Black Friday" of Turkish holiday shopping now that the bayram is over and energies can be focused on Christmas (or, more likely, the New Year, which is celebrated much like Christmas with Santa, reindeer, decorated evergreens, gifts, garlands, and all that stuff).

Thursday, December 11

Went to Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, Kale area around the castle, and Ulus shopping area. Evidence of the sacrifices earlier this week for the Kurban Bayram were quite obvious, with sheep skins proudly displayed hanging outside of stores and homes, and in the corners along the streets, more remains. It must get pretty stinky when Kurban Bayram falls in the hot months of the year. Photos coming....

OK, here we go with the photos:

Wednesday, December 10

Aeden and Maren are still sick, but we walked to Armada anyway and showed Brian around (he hadn't been there yet!)

We saw maple syrup, "vertmont" brand from Canada, for only 33 YTL per quart at the big Carrefour. We also ran into two sets of Brian's students, and two teachers/parents from Oasis. Huge city, still running into people we know whenever we go out.

Aeden reading at Remzi Kitabevi,
our home-away-from-home bookstore at Armada

Tuesday, December 9

Aeden and Maren still stick, stayed home all day, making Christmas decorations and putting up a few store-bought ones. Here's Aeden "prepping" the gold beads to hang from our stairway. I think he ran around the house trailing beads for almost an hour...