A quiet New Year's Eve 2012

Happy New Year! Last night, we celebrated one of the most quiet New Year’s eves in a long time – it was just right for this tired, pregnant mama. The boys helped me set up a feast with candles and stars decorating the table, Courtney played music, and I made a great dinner:

• Asparagus pate on whole wheat bread with mini pickles and cranberries
• Cocktail salad with freshly fried shrimp and homemade thousand island dressing
• Seared salmon steaks with fresh asparagus, carrots and homemade hollandaise sauce
• Virgin New Year’s punch à la mama (home squeezed tangerine juice, pineapple juice, passion fruit soda and 7 up)
• Homemade cooked eggnog (Thank God for food thermometers!)
• Fruit salad with fresh strawberries, kiwi and grapes

After our late dinner I cleaned up and finished the last laundry of the year, and then we went for a walk along the sea, trying to spot some fireworks. There really wasn’t much this year, but enough to satisfy the little one, who managed to stay awake until we came home right after 12:30 am. The boardwalk was crowded with families and friends celebrating the new year, singing, listening to music, drinking, smoking shisha, and dancing. The sky was clear, and I would even say it was a little chilly – enough to warrant a sweater and/or a windbreaker. I really enjoyed walking with my little family; what a great way to end the old year and bring in the new.

After Christmas rest

The first three weeks of December were really, really crazy, and although most of the activities were enjoyable, and the stress positive, it physically exhausted me this year. I was so tired on Christmas Eve, having stayed up the night before wrapping presents until the wee hours, but with the goal – Christmas day – in sight, I pushed on: ran errands, cooked, prepared. I even managed to put together a Swedish Christmas Eve feast, complete with pickled herring, scalloped potatoes, beet salad, and ham. We lit candles, had mulled wine (which I boiled, to get the alcohol out of it) and homemade ginger snaps in the evening. The kids got to bed late, giving us a late start on putting out the presents, eating the cookies and milk, and enjoying the quiet magic of anticipation, as we do every Christmas Eve. Sometime after 1 am we were done though, and I could finally get some sleep (“some,” being the keyword here, since our kids have this fantastic ability to sleep past nine on any given school day, but somehow manage to wake up very early every Christmas Day morning).

Christmas Day was perfect, but as always, went by in a flash (which is why I enjoy our Advent and Christmas Eve celebrations so much, because they make Christmas something more than just a moment). We got the kids really great gifts this year, just right for their abilities, interests and characters. Abraham jumps off energy at all times of the day on his new trampoline, and can sit for hours with his moon sand. The boys sail around campus with their friends on their new roller blades, and relax with their games at home in the evenings, or work on their Chemistry set with papa.

Christmas Day dinner was probably one of the best ever, with a perfectly cooked turkey, tasty, creamy gravy, mashed potatoes, yams, cranberries, candied carrots and a superb stuffing; pumpkin pie with whipped cream for dessert, and of course the customary candy buffet in the evening. I enjoyed it all thoroughly.

The day after Christmas we still had to run some errands, but after that, my body told me to stop. My hands were swollen, my face puffy (my blood pressure probably way higher than I would like to know), my body tired, and crying out for water, fresh veggies and fruit, vitamins, minerals and fiber. I’ve consequently spent the past few days doing basically nothing, which in my world means housework, some light exercise, and spending time with the kids and helping my husband with his work. I’m still not quite ready to start back up again, but we have no plans for new year’s eve and just a couple of commitments over the next few days, so I will simply continue focusing on just growing a baby, if that’s all right, until I’ve regained some strength.

Merry Christmas 2012

A little creativity

I wanted some kind of Christmas pillows on our couches, so I bought red ribbon and used white IKEA fabric I had left in the closet. I am quite happy with the result. (That's our electrical seven armed Scandinavian Advent candelabra in the background.) So easy, AND pretty, right?

Homeschooling two weeks before Christmas

We’re on the home stretch: I’ve given the boys each a list of work that they have to complete to start their Christmas break, e.g. "Get to Lesson xx in your grammar book," etc. There’s about 5-6 days’ worth of work on their lists; they can study really, really hard for a few days and be done with it, or they can do a bit every day and be done mid next week. I leave it up to them. They'll have to be fairly strict though, since there are a lot of activities and other events scheduled in the next couple of weeks as well.

Alongside the regular subjects, we’re also baking gingerbread cookies, making a gingerbread house, pickling herring and beats, singing Christmas carols, reading books about Christmas, telling stories, listening to Christmas music and watching Christmas movies, and everything else that Advent entails.

Happy festivities

Yesterday was a good day. The partying was fun. Especially Abraham had a great time at the birthday party he attended. The dinner with my husband’s conference buddy (he teaches at a university in Turkey but they hang out at philosophy conferences a few times/year) was great. I made lasagna with Bolognese sauce and bacon, a couple of salads and home baked focaccia. For dessert we had Swedish cinnamon rolls and other little treats. A group of Prof. husband’s colleagues joined us for drinks, and the evening got *very* late but interesting and fun. You might not believe me, but a room full of philosophy professors + drinks + good snacks = a recipe for an evening filled with inspiring ideas, thoughts and laughter. Their geekiness becomes particularly obvious when they, midst an intense existential discussion filled with wisdom and impressive arguments that only decades of serious study of ideas can produce, break out into high-fives over an ontological argument used wittingly in reference to Wittgenstein. (I’m improvising here, of course. It might have been a different argument in reference to another philosopher, or vice versa.)

This morning, I'm a bit tired, but feel good; not drinking sure has its perks. My philosopher - on the other hand - requires a lot of water, aspirin and a horizontal arrangement, but such is the price for this kind of merriment, I guess.

Oh, and yes, if you’re wondering about the argument and what it might have been… you’re so BUSTED! Philosophy geek!

Today I’m keeping my feet up – the boys want to put up the tree, but I’m thinking we might wait until Gaudete; we’ll see - until it’s time for yet another party this afternoon/evening. It’s the kind of party you don’t talk about here, because the people that would throw a party like that are not appreciated by a lot of people here the way they should be, since there is a conflict between this and their country. So, since talking about such a party might cause trouble, I won't. But I'm excited, anticipating fun with good friends and great food (really, you can't go wrong when the common culinary theme is "fried in oil"). Shalom, my friends.

Here we go!

Brace yourself, dear reader. 

Our ‘Advent busy marathon’ starts tomorrow with one job, two parties and a dinner – all in one day.

“Don’t worry,” I said to my OBGYN at my last appointment during which he noticed some slight complications that warrant precaution and extra rest, “I will take it easy and rest a lot. Stay off my feet and drink plenty of water.”

I guess I’ll just have to squeeze that in too, while I’m busy getting through everything else over the next couple of weeks.

The History of Christmas, a summary

I put this together for the boys the other day, mainly because we were discussing Viking traditions and festivals, and because I couldn't find one site that I felt summarized below topics in a satisfactory manner. Some parts of this text are from Wikipedia and/or various other general sites on the history of Christmas, and some are from our History of the World, our Usborne Encyclopedia of the History of the World, and The Story of the World.

Ancient and Pagan mid-winter traditions

Many early cultures held mid-winter celebrations; in Mesopotamia, Persia, Babylon, Ancient Greece and Rome. 

The Romans celebrated a winter feast that entailed masquerades in the streets, big festive meals, visiting friends, and the exchange of gifts called Strenae (lucky fruits). The Romans also “decked their halls” with garlands of laurel and green trees lit with candles.

In Scandinavia, the Vikings celebrated jólablót, or midvinterblot (mid-winter blood), which was a sacrificial feast held on the darkest day of the year (look up: 'solstice'), to honor the return of light – or the rebirth of the sun. In some areas people tied apples to branches of trees to remind themselves that spring and summer would return. According to some traditions, children would during this celebration place their boots, filled with carrots, straw or sugar near the chimney for Odin's 8-legged flying horse, Sleipnir, to eat. Odin would then reward those children for their kindness by replacing Sleipnir's food with gifts or candy. To do this, he would enter homes through chimneys.

The name jól probably comes from Jólner, which was one of Odin’s many names (in Sweden, Christmas is still called jul, remember?).

Christmas as a Christian tradition

The story of Jesus Christ's birth is told in New Testament's gospel of Saint Luke and Saint Matthew, but the actual date - December 25 - is not mentioned anywhere. In 350 AD, Julius I, a bishop of Rome, chose December 25th as the observance of Christmas, and in 354, Liberius the emperor established the holiday. The December date for the holiday probably arose from a desire to provide an alternative to the Roman and pagan mid-winter feast.

Traditionally, Christians would fast seven weeks before Christmas (as before Lent) which meant they were not allowed to eat meat. The Swedish tradition of dipping bread in ham broth on Christmas eve is a remnant of this.

The word Christmas comes from the Old English 'Cristes Mæsse,' meaning the 'mass of Christ.' 

By 1100, Christmas had become the most important religious festival in Europe.

The origin of Saint Nick – Santa Claus

The origin of Santa Claus begins in the 4th century with Nicholas, bishop of Myra (now Turkey). He was known as a generous man, particularly devoted to children. His kindness and reputation for generosity gave rise to claims that he could perform miracles.

According to legend, a nobleman grew despondent over the death of his beloved wife and foolishly squandered his fortune. This left his three young daughters without dowries and thus facing a life of spinsterhood. The generous Nicholas, hearing of the girls' plight, set forth to help. Wishing to remain anonymous, he rode his white horse by the nobleman's house and threw three small pouches of gold coins down the chimney, where they were captured by the stockings the young women had hung by the fireplace to dry.

After his death around 340 AD, St. Nicholas was buried in Myra, but in 1087 Italian sailors stole his remains and removed them to Bari, Italy, which greatly increased St. Nicholas' popularity throughout Europe. Sometime around the 12th century an official church holiday was created in his honor; the feast of St. Nicholas was celebrated December 6 and the day was marked by gift-giving and charity.

After the protestant reformation, celebrations of St. Nicholas faded, but the legend was kept alive in Holland where St. Nicholas - Sint Nikolaas (in Dutch) transformed to Sinterklaas. Dutch children would leave their wooden shoes by the fireplace, and Sinterklaas would reward good children by placing treats in their shoes.

Dutch colonists brought this tradition with them to America in the 17th century and here the name of Santa Claus emerged. 

In 1822 Clement C. Moore composed the poem A Visit From Saint Nicholas, published as The Night Before Christmas as a gift for his children, portraying Santa Claus in a way not quite seen before:

He had a broad face and a little round belly,

That shook when he laughed, like a bowl full of jelly,

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf, …

As the years passed, Moore's description of Santa Claus evolved further in popular culture into the legend we see today.

First of Advent

Swedish cinnamon roll wreath.

Advent crafts with my boys

Today we visited the German Christmas market, walked around town a bit with the boys, and then spent the evening preparing for advent by putting candles out, making Christmas wreaths and crafts. My legs are swollen, but I feel good. Better. It was a good day.

We made this wreath for our window facing the playground.

This is our front door.

Braided hearts. I love these!

Got our candles set up for 1st Advent tomorrow.

Abraham did really well and only needed a little help finishing his stuffed heart.

August mastering the Blanket Stitch.

William was the most industrious, creating two hearts and a teddy bear.

Thanksgiving dinner in Lebanon, v. 2012

Here we go; our Thanksgiving dinner menu, including drinks:

Pre-dinner drinks: Freshly homemade Margaritas, with a virgin alternative for those in a family way

• Peanut soup (Yes, he’s fun like that, my husband; he likes to cook and try new, odd-sounding foods)

Drinks, main course: Peppoli Chianto Classico 2010 for the adults, 7Up for the kids, and water for the pregnant lady

• Roast turkey with bread stuffing and gravy
• Creamy mashed potatoes
• Sweet potato orange casserole
• Succotash
• Derby day asparagus
• Martha Stewart’s Roasted pears and red onion
• Ocean Spray Cranberry sauce (Oh yes, if you lived in a place where finding a can of Ocean Spray tucked away on a shelf is an instant tears-of-joy inducer, you would too!)
• Two types of corn bread (one Halal and one pork infused version)
• Chicken pot pie
• A fresh salad (Yes, we did. And get this: mainly because the kids wanted it. Go figure.)

Dessert drink: Wild Turkey 101 (found by chance in a store near Jeanne D'Arc - I will tell you more about this in a later post)

• Pumpkin pie with freshly whipped cream
• Dark chocolate fudge cake

Welcome back! It's a new year!

A bit of a lapse on the blogging there. First we went crazy with the holiday preparations, with more elaborate recipes, complex food preparation sessions, happier activities, bigger presents and other magnified celebratory undertakings than in the past few years. We also hosted house guests for close to a week, took care of a neighbor’s guinea pigs for over three weeks (never, never again!!) and survived a stomach flu from hell (which we so generously shared with our house guests of course).

And here we are. A little over a week into the new year and I am desperately trying to regain the money spent by taking on more jobs than I can handle. The boys are getting back into their routine with a new schedule (it usually takes us about a week to start following it exactly, and another couple of weeks to completely abandon it again ,but the boys like schedules and lists, so I indulge them), and Abraham is going along with it in his leisurely way. The professor is - as always - in work-mode, with the additional end-of-the-semester exertions disrupting his thought process.

While trying to get over the hump that is January, our post-holiday recovery – pre-spring 2012 interlude, which encompasses mainly dull things like work, diet, and cleaning, I’ve set out to make the best of our daily routine and spice up little moments here and there when possible. (The other day, for example, instead of going to Spinneys in Jnah for our usual weekly shopping excursion, on a whim, we asked the taxi driver to take us to TSCPlus instead as to try something new. The store was really quite horrible and we soon left, however, while trying to figure out how to get to our regular Spinneys and estimating if we could walk, we walked into a different store we had never seen before or even thought of visiting, Monoprix, and boy, oh boy, what a find! More on this in a blog post tomorrow.)

So, if you have any tips or ideas on how to spice up those less exciting parts of life, like grocery shopping, grading, exam proctoring, long hours of translation work, Tuesday night dinner, school-lunches, laundry marathons and hours on the treadmill or around the track, then please, do share!

Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas!

Happy New Year!

May 2012 be filled with blessings and joy. May you prosper and be healthy. May the world be a better place. May I finally have the strength to lose all those extra pounds that are weighing me down, and may all the problems in this part of the world finally be settled and people allowed to move on (why not throw that in there too?).

Busy December

Happy Thanksgiving?! ... 

Happy 3^rd of Advent! 

While I blinked, 1^st, 2^nd AND 3^rd of Advent rushed by, a lot of work, daily choir rehearsals, parties, school activities, arrangements and sicknesses (including *a lot* of sleepless nights) happened all at once. At some point I found myself in the ER holding Abraham's hand while he was getting a chest x-ray, confirming our suspicion that he had pneumonia. The next moment I’m translating some German text into Swedish at 3 am. Then suddenly we’re having dinner with an old friend and colleague from our Cairo days. Continuously I’m kissing the boys good-bye to attend choir rehearsal. And tomorrow is concert day.

Does this post seem confusing and full of random mentionings and events? Then you got it right. That’s what our life has been like for the past three weeks. 

Inhale.

Happy Thanksgiving from Lebanon!

Because American Thanksgiving is not a holiday here, we celebrated this past weekend. We had dinner with friends at our house – a few families coming together – and cooked all the food ourselves (not a given here in Lebanon, I’ve come to learn). Turkey, a Butterball purchased at Spinney's, cooked to perfection, along with all the dressings, and pumpkin pie for dessert. It was great. The food was awesome, the conversation interesting and fun, and I think everyone had a good time. Almost as a holiday-caricature, half-unconscious,  after all the plates had been emptied a couple of times, we all leaned back, patted our full tummies, and moaned, unable to fit another bite, exclaiming, “Happy Holidays!”

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween in Beirut, 2011

Since we are finally getting to know more people here in Beirut, and since we’ve pretty much settled into our apartment, we decided to throw a Halloween party this year. Our invitations went out very late, and it’s a busy time for most, but a nice group of people still came. Courtney made some really nice dishes: lamb curry and chicken curry with rice and mint-yogurt sauce, gravlax, a thai salad, a Turkish carrot and garlic dip; and I made quail eggs, vegetable dip, and Halloween punch with gummy worms and ice blocks the shape of a hand (very popular with the little ones). Courtney also made a lemon meringue pie and a black bottom pie, and people brought cookies, cakes and more sweets than we could ever eat. We had the sliding doors open with tables and chairs on the balcony - it was a perfect temperature outside – and the kids stayed at the playground until it closed. In general, a good first party in our new home!

Later today, the kids get to go on their very first real Trick or Treat. Obviously we never went out in Belgium (trick or treat’ing has just started picking up there over the past few years) or in Cairo. At the yearly Halloween party that the CAC organized in Cairo, the boys would walk through “Trick or Treat Lane” where high school kids would hand out candy to the kids from class room doors, but that is as close to trick or treat’ing as my kids have ever got. Today, AUB has announced an official Trick or Treat time, and the boys will walk around the campus houses (knocking on decorated doors only) wearing their Halloween costumes and bringing Trick or Treat bags.

I'm making lots of lists, and checking them twice...

A whole week has gone by – so quickly – without me being able to write a single blog post. Every day has been filled to the brim with activities, and tonight I’m only sitting here writing by the kitchen table because I sat down to check a recipe on my laptop and now I can’t get up. My feet ache, my eyes are droopy, and my back wants me to rest.

The advent candelabra is lit next to me. All four candles are flickering beautifully, and looking at the light I feel both joy and panic at the same time. Joy, because Christmas is near, and yes, I love Christmas. Panic, because, well - any of you mothers or fathers out there getting ready for Christmas knows why I feel panic: there are still a million things I have to buy, make, or do before this weekend, and there are so few days left.

I am listening to a youtube clip from the AUB Choir and Choral Society Christmas concert earlier this week, and the music is calming. I have added the clip as a separate blog post. Isn’t the music amazing? You can barely see me at all, because I’m standing in the middle, pretty much hidden from the camera by the conductor the entire time, but I can certainly hear my own voice among all the others.

We, the choir, performed on Monday and Tuesday this week. Courtney returned from Belgium about ½ hour before the first concert, exhausted, at the nick of time to take over the boys while I sang. Tuesday and Wednesday were lots-of-work and catching up days, on Thursday we had company for dinner, and on Friday Courtney had to meet with students all day and then we went to a Christmas party. Saturday was as always filled with sports on campus, and while the boys were at their activities, Courtney and I took Abraham with us downtown to get the bulk of our Christmas shopping done. Probably the last year we can bring him like that. In the afternoon we made individual runs, smuggling bags into the house, while the boys played in their room. At the end of the day we were satisfied, although not finished.

Today we went for a walk around town, and when we came home the boys & I made a gingerbread house while Courtney worked. The house looks much nicer this than last year I think, colorful and fairly straight – it might also be the extra details we added at the boys’ request, such as a fence, and lots of sunflowers, pea shooters, doom-shrooms, walnuts, and other characters from their favorite game Plants vs. Zombies. Abraham had fun throwing candy at the roof and watching it stick to the frosting. Then he picked the candy off again and ate it. I just noticed the doorknob is missing as well. Hmmm…

And now I was in the middle of a major clean up/laundry run when I remembered that I should start a shopping list. I want to make some of our Christmas food early this week, in advance, and tomorrow we are going to see friends after school, and things will be generally busy. Of course I’m also doing a million things alongside my writing, laundry, cleaning, and list making. Abraham stirs and I have to help him get settled back to sleep, or August comes out and needs a drink of water, or Courtney wants me to look at a paragraph he’s working on. I’m looking at the piles of books and heaps of toys laying around everywhere, and things keep popping up in my head, things I need to add to my lists; to-do, to-buy, to-make. Oh, and now William wants me to find him a pair of socks in the pile of unfolded laundry that is covering my bed. He says his feet are so cold he can’t go to sleep. I need to get him socks for Christmas. We haven’t had to wear them for years, and the boys don’t have any that fit them. And I should send our friends that are visiting for Christmas and warn them about the cold, and really, really take care of that laundry pile. And…

Midweek reflections - Beginning of November 2010

…on the weather

I’ve actually grabbed my (very light cotton) sweater on my way out of the house a couple of times, although I have yet to end up wearing it. It’s still too hot in Beirut for it to be cold, but too cold for it to be hot. Makes sense, right? Because it gets hot inside, we keep turning the A/C on, but then we have to turn it off because it gets too cold. It may sound frustrating, but I like it. It’s perfect.

…on the city

I was very much looking forward to venturing out of the city this weekend on a hike with the university faculty services, but then we found out it was only for adults, and obviously we can’t leave the kids at home. I was so disappointed now I’m looking into renting a car for a day or so to find the cedars by myself. I’d love to see some leaves this time of the year, and it would be nice to get out of town.

At the same time; I went to a lunch yesterday at the Movenpick hotel, and I couldn’t help but continuously commenting on how pretty the view was. From my seat by the window I could see the sea and the southern parts of Beirut with the large sandy beach in the front, and it was simply stunning. It is a beautiful city.

…on the people

The boys spent Halloween with friends, and I’m so happy to see they are more confident in their social relationships than when we arrived in Beirut in September. The first time we went to the playground after we first got here, they hung around me like they were physically attached to me, and didn’t even dare to say “hi” to the other kids. If you know my boys, you’ll agree that this is not like them at all. (It seems that four months of traveling with only immediate family can make any otherwise very social boy shy.) Now they’re back to their old selves though, and I’m relieved!

…on our home

Our Halloween decorations were very sparse but made our new apartment feel a little more like home. Today William and I picked up a pumpkin as well that I will let the boys carve before I cook it to make mashed pumpkin for Thanksgiving pie. As there is no canned pumpkin here either, I will continue doing what I’ve done every year for the past oh, ten - or so - years; bake a pumpkin, puree it, and then freeze batches of 1 ½ cups (which is what my Fanny Farmer’s pumpkin pie recipe calls for).

…on family

Courtney will be traveling at the end of this month, and since I have some obligations, by then I will have to have found a helper or a baby sitter that we can employ. These are times that I really miss having our extended family around. I’m sure there are perfectly great baby sitters out there, but really, grandma or uncle Michael would just have been the best. I read my childhood friends’ posts on Facebook where they describe romantic get-aways with their husbands while their kids spend the weekend at Grandma’s, and I feel really sorry that we are not close to our family. I know, I know, we are doing all these amazing things, bla, bla, bla, but sometimes, you know, I’m allowed to wonder why we’ve made it so hard for ourselves.

…on education

Let me just say this: the laser printer is the best invention ever! Timetables practice sheets? Print! Halloween theme pages? Print! Spelling tests? Print! Kids’ chore charts in extra large fonts? Print! A never-ending stream of Sesame Street coloring pages to keep the toddler happy while I explain the concept of Energy to the older boys? PRINT! Add the laminator, and our homeschool has all the resources a mother could ask for.

People that don’t homeschool but that are interested in finding out how I do it, often comment after I’ve explained “That sounds like SO MUCH WORK!” and well, yes, there’s research and thought process and material selection involved, but you know what? I think dealing with lunch boxes, gym clothes, silly-band trades during recess, principal’s office visits, report cards, parent volunteering, PTA meetings, kids left out, and all the other issues - not to mention getting up in the wee hours of the morning to take your tired child to school in any weather every day - sounds like a lot of work.

…on the past

Courtney is doing very well right now with a book coming out, another book contract on the way, and a third just starting up, articles published, his new job, and conference invitations. I am so happy for him for us, realizing that what we are enjoying at this moment is the result of ten years of very hard work. When we first met we were poor students; it’s a lot of work studying when you don’t have money for food. Then I got a nice job and Courtney could go through to graduate school. He studied hard and I worked hard to build my career. Then I got pregnant once and then again, and Courtney had to go through graduate school AND work, while I worked part time. Having kids while working, studying, and living away from family is hard!

Courtney has worked and worked and worked so hard on his research over these past few years, while I have worked just as hard taking care of everything else, and I mean *everything*. The funny thing is that while we were in the middle of it all, we didn’t think our life was exceptionally hard; we lead such a happy life. And now I’m happy we’re able to look back and enjoy the harvest!

…on the future

Courtney is traveling to Turkey this month and Belgium at the beginning of next month, and I’m worried about finding a competent and reliable helper/baby sitter. I’m actually thinking about buying a plane ticket for my mom to come for a couple of weeks, and not get a baby sitter. It’s not a permanent solution – we’ll need a sitter at some other point in the future too – but it would be so great. Can you tell I miss my family?

At the same time, while I’m dreading Courtney’s trips, I’m also looking forward to them, because once he’s back, all deadlines for this year will have been reached (for now at least) and we finally –after years really! – get a bit of a breather.

Midweek reflections - October 2010

…on the weather (always my favorite subject!)

It has cooled down a bit since last week, although it’s still definitely shorts & t-shirt weather, as well as humid. Courtney doesn’t come home from work drenched in sweat any more though. I keep wondering how cold it will get in the winter. When we lived in Cairo our neighbors kept telling us “Oh, you just wait! It will get COLD!!” and then it never did. (Only later did we realize that they were from California, and probably had a different perception of what signifies cold weather.) Here I’ve noticed they’re selling winter coats at H&M, and boots, hats, mitts and scarves in the stores, which seems to indicate that it will get cold. I guess I’m about to find out.

…on the city

I’ve been venturing out a bit more with the kids. If I want to go into any stores I’ve learned not to bring the stroller. All grocery stores have several floors without a lift, and in most other stores there’s simply not enough room for a stroller. Since we’re close to most stores though, it’s all right for Abraham to walk. The sidewalks are good (enough), and if we’re going to campus, we’ll take the stroller. We’ve discovered that we can walk through the Medical Center and avoid the busy traffic on Souraty street. Campus makes for a nice green haven, and the boys love going there.

…on the people

I’m still trying to figure out the Lebanese people. Some are so friendly and generous, but then we run into others, such as the taxi driver the other day, who thinks it’s perfectly all right to steal from us. The other day Courtney went to buy roasted chestnuts from the man on the corner, having watched many a Lebanese men and women do it before, and had estimated the price from having watched several prior transactions. The man gave Courtney a small bag with obviously some of his less nice chestnuts, and asked for an amount that tripled that of the regular. And it wasn’t that playful beginning-price you would start off with in Cairo at the souk (to bargain around); it was obviously what the man thought Courtney should pay. Why did he think that it was OK for him to rip Courtney off? Honesty was such an important feature in the Muslim society in Cairo (I'm not saying Christians are thieves, but there's something to notice in Egypt; be it terror or whatever that keeps crime away); although everyone enjoyed a long and sometimes feisty argument over a price, there was never a feeling of dishonesty or mistrust. Is it the class system? Is there a difference between the religious groups? Is it cultural?

…on our home

Because our house is so big it’s hard to keep clean. By the time I’ve managed to get through the entire house tidying, cleaning the floors, or finishing the laundry, I have to start all over again. I’ve been thinking about making daily chore lists, but Courtney is so busy right now with finishing his book, working on his classes, and preparing for his trips this fall, that I don’t want to burden his mind any further. I know he wants to help, but the way his brain works, even when we have ‘cleaning time’ he ends up following me around the house talking, while I work. The boys will work under direct threat or with an extraordinary and instant reward awaiting them. People keep telling me to get a maid, but we have this idea of privacy that is not quite compatible with a stranger spending hours on end in our home. I’m open to solutions!

…on family

We’ve been spending a lot of time together since, well, pretty much since the beginning of the summer, and with very few friends right now, we end up spending practically all our time together, doing whatever needs or wants to be done as a family; grocery shopping, errands, playing, going to the movies, sports, etc. Luckily it hasn’t worn us out, and the boys still play really well together (as do Courtney and I, ha, ha). We miss our extended family though, of course.

…towards an education

The boys started learning French this week with a real, native speaker tutor. I am excited to have them learn something well without having to be the only one there to teach them. Not that I don’t enjoy teaching them other things – I love homeschooling - but after Math, English, Science, Music, Art, History, Geography, Latin and everything else we do that has to be done, I’m glad that someone else, competent, is able to inspire the boys for a while.

…on the past

We miss our friends and family, probably more now that the holidays are approaching; we think of parties we threw or went to in the past, and the yearly traditions we developed first in Belgium, and then in Egypt. When moving to a new country I find we always have to create new traditions and rituals, and for some reason this does not quite seem to compute with the idea of a holiday; isn’t it supposed to be ALL about friends, family, and tradition? Well; no, I’ve concluded, because we always find the spirit to create new customs with different people and strange foods in a new place, regardless, and I’m confident we will this time around as well. Still, I always get a little sentimental this time of the year: I loved the Halloween festival at CAC in Cairo and I’m sad we won’t be there this year. I remember our last Thanksgiving in Leuven so well; we had dinner with our good friends, as every Thanksgiving for the past five or so years. We toasted to the words “This is probably our last Thanksgiving together here in Leuven,” knowing that, as our studies were coming to an end, we were all getting ready to move on, away from Belgium. I will always think back with joy at Sinterklaas celebrations at Sancta Maria and in Alma. I wish I could visit the Kerstmarkt in Leuven, and there’s nothing more awesome than standing in a dark, open, moon-lit, crisp freezing, snow covered field in the middle of nowhere somewhere in Sweden, nostrils freezing, and hear the faint ringing of church bells in the distance, along with fireworks, marking the beginning of a New Year. Should old acquaintance be forgot? Oh dear, I had better stop here.

…on the future

On the same note, we’re excited to celebrate the upcoming holidays for the first time in our new home country. We don’t know yet what we will do this weekend, but hopefully we can get the boys together with other children and do something fun. We decorated our house today, and Abraham enjoyed playing with all the little “mon-yuh” [monsters] the boys put out. Whatever we do we’ll still dress up. The boys have been more excited to come up with a costume for Abraham this year than for themselves. At first they seemed to assume that he would be a skeleton again this year as last, but since I pointed out that he has way grown out of that baby suit, they’ve been plotting Abraham’s costume. Especially the idea of his little body wrapped in a robe, topped off with a Yoda mask, light saber in hand, is really amusing to them. We’ll see what we can find.