MERRY CHRISTMAS!
We Hope Your Day Was Filled With Joy
of Knowing the One Who
was Born This Christmas Day
and Love Surrounded by Family and Friends!
We Love and Miss You All!!
Franklin, Rachel and Alex
Monday, December 14, 2009
A Meal Fit For A King
Well, a meal fit for an African anyway...
We've talked about this favorite local dish before... fool and falafel. It has become a regular around our dinner table as well. It is so cheap and easy to make and can you believe it... yummy!
Well, the fool is; but for the falafel fans out there... eat your heart out!
Throw in some vegetables with ranch dip and you can basically feed a family of three for less than a dollar! Unbelievable, I know! So, now you know what you'll be having for dinner at our house when you come to visit!
We've talked about this favorite local dish before... fool and falafel. It has become a regular around our dinner table as well. It is so cheap and easy to make and can you believe it... yummy!
Well, the fool is; but for the falafel fans out there... eat your heart out!
The fool is on the left... a bean mixture that you mash up and eat with pita bread. You can fix it any way you want to; but our favorite is with tomato and onions. Good, southern, comfort food :o)
The falafel comes from the same person. They already have it cooked for you. It's ground chick peas, deep fried with various seasonings. They look like large meatballs. Brown on the outside and green on the inside! The thought of eating those will make me turn green... but Franklin and Alex sure do love them!!
Throw in some vegetables with ranch dip and you can basically feed a family of three for less than a dollar! Unbelievable, I know! So, now you know what you'll be having for dinner at our house when you come to visit!
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Getting Wild at Little Caesars
Alex was invited to his first African birthday party here in the city... he was so excited! So, off to Little Caesars we go...
The invitation said that it started at 6 pm, so we should have known better than to be on time or even worry about being a few minutes late! The birthday boy wasn't even there yet and didn't come with his family until closer to 7:00. There were two other foreigners besides Alex there... probably the only three that go to his school, and we decided that was possibly the only reason we were invited in the first place. We didn't quite "blend" into the crowd :o) Apparently, to know foreigners, much less have three come to your birthday party, is a really big deal here. Who knew we were so popular??
Anyway, the party finally got started and I couldn't believe all that took place over the next four hours... yes, I said FOUR hours! Really late and on a school night! First, they had hired a DJ to play really loud American dance mix music... something from the 80's because I knew most of the words :o) Not really something I would have played for a group of children!
After we had all been deafened, a magician showed up to do a few magic tricks. You would have thought he would have the kids help him; but instead, he was apparently interested in one mother in particular! Thankfully, it wasn't me! It was so funny and we even moved a few times to get out of his direct stare; however it didn't help much.
The next thing I knew, I had this bright light in my face... a lot!! They had actually paid someone to videotape this entire birthday party... for a seven year old! However, most of the time he spent taping the three of us and our children! Who wants four hours of video footage of strange foreigners?? We laughed at the fact that we tape about thirty minutes of our weddings that we hardly watch, much less a birthday party for our children once you get past the time they turn one! Well, the music continued to be extremely loud, and by now all the locals had started smoking up a storm, so it was beginning to get more than just a little uncomfortable for us!
After the magic show had ended, they had hired some poor, pitiful soul to dress up in various silly costumes and dance with the children! I think at one point they were supposed to be Mickey and Minnie Mouse; but they had really strange eyes :o)
This went on for about another hour or so and we couldn't figure out why they hadn't fed the children yet? One of the other mothers and I finally realized that they had all come home from school, took a nap, ate dinner... all before coming to this party. So, not eating again until 10:00 or so would be normal to them... I am beginning to understand that our cultures are on vastly different schedules. It's all in what you are raised in and get used to, I guess... Well, we were starving! I was feeding our three kids chewing gum to fight off the hunger pains :o) Note to Self: Eat next time before leaving or bring snacks!
We wondered if they were ever going to get around to eating and cut the cake so we could go home. I had just talked to the birthday boy's mother and she said the person who was bringing the candles hadn't gotten there yet. I wish I had known... I'm sure we could find her a few candles to throw on that birthday cake. However, once I saw the theatrics behind lighting the cake, I realized that what we do to blow out the candles wouldn't have even compared to what was about to take place! After all they had done already, I wasn't sure how they were going to make this cake the center of attention... but they found a way! The owner of the Little Caesars had put the cake on this huge table because the cake was huge! They had placed four, big sparkler tubes on each corner of the cake and once those were lit, they started shooting straight up into the air! They had turned out all the lights, so when the cake got surrounded by smaller sparkler sticks... it was truly amazing! Then, all of a sudden, a large amount of confetti fell from the ceiling... all over this cake I was about to have to eat :o) For the finale, they covered everything in silly string to finish up the presentation of this cake. However, I thought I was going to roll in the floor laughing when I finally got a glimpse of this cake! They have a few party themes around here to choose from for a seven year old boy... Spiderman, Transformers... but do you know who was on the center of that cake?? A huge decoration of a scene from the Tom and Jerry cartoon!! I knew now that I had finally seen it all...
Finally, it was time to eat and I laughed at the fact that they were going to feed these children pizza, soft drinks, and chocolate cake at 10:30 at night! We were ready to go home and go to bed :o) Even Alex had said he'd had enough and that's never like him! So, once we noticed a few people starting to leave after the cake had been cut, we decided it was time to make a quick exit!
What a night! It was interesting to see how different cultures celebrate a child's birthday. I couldn't help but think just how disappointed they will be if they ever came to one of Alex's birthday parties :o) We're just not that much fun!
The invitation said that it started at 6 pm, so we should have known better than to be on time or even worry about being a few minutes late! The birthday boy wasn't even there yet and didn't come with his family until closer to 7:00. There were two other foreigners besides Alex there... probably the only three that go to his school, and we decided that was possibly the only reason we were invited in the first place. We didn't quite "blend" into the crowd :o) Apparently, to know foreigners, much less have three come to your birthday party, is a really big deal here. Who knew we were so popular??
Anyway, the party finally got started and I couldn't believe all that took place over the next four hours... yes, I said FOUR hours! Really late and on a school night! First, they had hired a DJ to play really loud American dance mix music... something from the 80's because I knew most of the words :o) Not really something I would have played for a group of children!
After we had all been deafened, a magician showed up to do a few magic tricks. You would have thought he would have the kids help him; but instead, he was apparently interested in one mother in particular! Thankfully, it wasn't me! It was so funny and we even moved a few times to get out of his direct stare; however it didn't help much.
The next thing I knew, I had this bright light in my face... a lot!! They had actually paid someone to videotape this entire birthday party... for a seven year old! However, most of the time he spent taping the three of us and our children! Who wants four hours of video footage of strange foreigners?? We laughed at the fact that we tape about thirty minutes of our weddings that we hardly watch, much less a birthday party for our children once you get past the time they turn one! Well, the music continued to be extremely loud, and by now all the locals had started smoking up a storm, so it was beginning to get more than just a little uncomfortable for us!
After the magic show had ended, they had hired some poor, pitiful soul to dress up in various silly costumes and dance with the children! I think at one point they were supposed to be Mickey and Minnie Mouse; but they had really strange eyes :o)
Maybe Minnie Mouse... Not Sure??
We wondered if they were ever going to get around to eating and cut the cake so we could go home. I had just talked to the birthday boy's mother and she said the person who was bringing the candles hadn't gotten there yet. I wish I had known... I'm sure we could find her a few candles to throw on that birthday cake. However, once I saw the theatrics behind lighting the cake, I realized that what we do to blow out the candles wouldn't have even compared to what was about to take place! After all they had done already, I wasn't sure how they were going to make this cake the center of attention... but they found a way! The owner of the Little Caesars had put the cake on this huge table because the cake was huge! They had placed four, big sparkler tubes on each corner of the cake and once those were lit, they started shooting straight up into the air! They had turned out all the lights, so when the cake got surrounded by smaller sparkler sticks... it was truly amazing! Then, all of a sudden, a large amount of confetti fell from the ceiling... all over this cake I was about to have to eat :o) For the finale, they covered everything in silly string to finish up the presentation of this cake. However, I thought I was going to roll in the floor laughing when I finally got a glimpse of this cake! They have a few party themes around here to choose from for a seven year old boy... Spiderman, Transformers... but do you know who was on the center of that cake?? A huge decoration of a scene from the Tom and Jerry cartoon!! I knew now that I had finally seen it all...
The Fireworks Display!!
Finally, it was time to eat and I laughed at the fact that they were going to feed these children pizza, soft drinks, and chocolate cake at 10:30 at night! We were ready to go home and go to bed :o) Even Alex had said he'd had enough and that's never like him! So, once we noticed a few people starting to leave after the cake had been cut, we decided it was time to make a quick exit!
What a night! It was interesting to see how different cultures celebrate a child's birthday. I couldn't help but think just how disappointed they will be if they ever came to one of Alex's birthday parties :o) We're just not that much fun!
Do We Look Tired??
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
The Zoo Has Winter Hours
Well, Alex went back to school on Sunday...
We're still not sure why... after everyone had made such a big deal over the schools being closed; and of course, in Africa, no one had called or emailed us to let us know that school would be back in session... a bus just showed up downstairs very early on Sunday morning!! There was a wild frenzy around here for about five minutes while Franklin ran down to ask them to wait in his best Arabic... while I tried digging out Alex's uniform and books to go with him. Thankfully, Alex had already gotten up because waking him up in the mornings is a challenge and he can be a grumpy, little bear about the whole thing :o) The chaos definitely resembled feeding time at the zoo... CRAZY!!
Alex loves school so he is very excited to be back this week. He had missed his friends and teachers very much... apparently, I'm not that exciting to spend all day with anymore :o) So, as far as we know, he's going back on a "normal" schedule; which I have decided doesn't exist around here... EVER!!
We're still not sure why... after everyone had made such a big deal over the schools being closed; and of course, in Africa, no one had called or emailed us to let us know that school would be back in session... a bus just showed up downstairs very early on Sunday morning!! There was a wild frenzy around here for about five minutes while Franklin ran down to ask them to wait in his best Arabic... while I tried digging out Alex's uniform and books to go with him. Thankfully, Alex had already gotten up because waking him up in the mornings is a challenge and he can be a grumpy, little bear about the whole thing :o) The chaos definitely resembled feeding time at the zoo... CRAZY!!
Alex loves school so he is very excited to be back this week. He had missed his friends and teachers very much... apparently, I'm not that exciting to spend all day with anymore :o) So, as far as we know, he's going back on a "normal" schedule; which I have decided doesn't exist around here... EVER!!
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Ornament Fun
OK... I'm just not the Martha Stewart type :o) Everyone who knows me, knows this is true! However, with Alex out of school, we are in great need of finding fun and easy projects for us to do together. Now that we live overseas, we don't stay as busy as we once did. I'm not going to store after store trying to find that "perfect" gift, which by the way... doesn't exist :o) We don't have a lot of Christmas parties to go to or even church events we would normally attend this time of year. Now, don't get me wrong... I dearly miss the fellowship that came with all of these things; well... not the gift hunt! But things are just going to be a little slower for us this year...
So, by not having a crafty bone in my body... I was getting teased by a very, sweet dear friend (you know who you are ~ G) and was told by this same caring friend that there are these Christmas ornaments you can make. They are supposed to be really easy... even for the "make-it-yourself impaired" like me; but I still thought this would be a big project for one child.
However, those of us who are challenged in this area have been blessed with friends who are not... so when one of the other girls decided she wanted to make the ornaments and have the kids over to decorate them, I was so happy and excited! Alex had a lot more fun with his friends than having to do this little project alone with me... and I was thankful to have a new friend who could "handle" putting all of this together for me! I knew what would happen, which did anyway... Alex, the little boy that he is, threw about two different colors on his ornaments just to give it a little variation and then he was finished; while the girls painted endlessly on their ornaments! It's funny to see how different the two really are...
We had a fun morning and they turned out really cute and look good on our little tree!!
So, by not having a crafty bone in my body... I was getting teased by a very, sweet dear friend (you know who you are ~ G) and was told by this same caring friend that there are these Christmas ornaments you can make. They are supposed to be really easy... even for the "make-it-yourself impaired" like me; but I still thought this would be a big project for one child.
However, those of us who are challenged in this area have been blessed with friends who are not... so when one of the other girls decided she wanted to make the ornaments and have the kids over to decorate them, I was so happy and excited! Alex had a lot more fun with his friends than having to do this little project alone with me... and I was thankful to have a new friend who could "handle" putting all of this together for me! I knew what would happen, which did anyway... Alex, the little boy that he is, threw about two different colors on his ornaments just to give it a little variation and then he was finished; while the girls painted endlessly on their ornaments! It's funny to see how different the two really are...
We had a fun morning and they turned out really cute and look good on our little tree!!
Alex... painting his one of two colors :o)
Alex... already finished!!
Doing what Alex does best... Being Silly :o)
Alex's Finished Project
I thought...
"Why should the kids have all the fun?"
Alex Coming Back to Help...
Our Finished Ornaments!!
Friday, December 4, 2009
How to Kill a Fly 101
Things You Will Need to Kill a Fly:
1. Weapon
2. Patience...
3. More Patience!!
We have lots of flies around here! I guess from all the dirt and trash just lying around... in the streets, not our apartment :o) So, one day, a friend of ours had this electric fly swatter and gave it to Alex. Yes... I would agree... giving anything openly electric to a six year old is probably not a good idea. However, when the six year old's father wants to act like a big kid and get in on the act of actually trying to kill the fly with a super~charged tennis racket... it makes for an interesting evening on my part :o) I just popped a bag of popcorn and let the entertainment begin!!
1. Weapon
2. Patience...
3. More Patience!!
We have lots of flies around here! I guess from all the dirt and trash just lying around... in the streets, not our apartment :o) So, one day, a friend of ours had this electric fly swatter and gave it to Alex. Yes... I would agree... giving anything openly electric to a six year old is probably not a good idea. However, when the six year old's father wants to act like a big kid and get in on the act of actually trying to kill the fly with a super~charged tennis racket... it makes for an interesting evening on my part :o) I just popped a bag of popcorn and let the entertainment begin!!
Waiting patiently for the fly to go by...
it's all about position and agility :o)
Get 'em Franklin!!
I caught the frustration on Franklin's face...
apparently the fly is getting the upper hand on him!!
We told Alex to be really careful;
but he wanted to get in on the action!
Guess who finally won??
Victory!!
I don't understand... must be a guy thing!!
You can't see it;
but all that's left of the fly is an eyeball...
it obliterated the thing!
Alex thought it was very cool!!
Never a dull moment around here :o)
Maybe It Just Needs a Little Love
This week, we went in search of a Christmas tree...
We weren't sure where we would be able to find one, so we went to the market and got lost a few times. It's alley upon alley of vendors selling Dollar Tree kind of stuff... anything from makeup to clothes to toys. We finally made our way down one alley and saw a table size Christmas tree sitting on the sidewalk! Had we found what we were looking for? Surely there had to be a bigger one! Well, there was ~ about two feet bigger :o)
We were too excited to find any tree that we didn't care how big it was... as Charlie Brown would say "I think this tree needs us!" So, no matter what was falling off of it... we took it home, wrapped a blanket around the tree and showed it some love! After elevating the tree on a box to make it "appear" bigger, adding a few blinking, colored lights, and some decorations... it has turned out to be the perfect, little tree for our family this year!
It didn't take long for this little tree to become Alex's very own and he had a great time putting the decorations on the tree. It's just his size! Because I live with Mr. Scrooge, I am always getting stuck with putting up the tree and decorating most of it, so it was actually nice to be able to put the lights on it yourself and not need any help... I can reach over the tree to get around it this year :o)
We weren't sure where we would be able to find one, so we went to the market and got lost a few times. It's alley upon alley of vendors selling Dollar Tree kind of stuff... anything from makeup to clothes to toys. We finally made our way down one alley and saw a table size Christmas tree sitting on the sidewalk! Had we found what we were looking for? Surely there had to be a bigger one! Well, there was ~ about two feet bigger :o)
We were too excited to find any tree that we didn't care how big it was... as Charlie Brown would say "I think this tree needs us!" So, no matter what was falling off of it... we took it home, wrapped a blanket around the tree and showed it some love! After elevating the tree on a box to make it "appear" bigger, adding a few blinking, colored lights, and some decorations... it has turned out to be the perfect, little tree for our family this year!
It didn't take long for this little tree to become Alex's very own and he had a great time putting the decorations on the tree. It's just his size! Because I live with Mr. Scrooge, I am always getting stuck with putting up the tree and decorating most of it, so it was actually nice to be able to put the lights on it yourself and not need any help... I can reach over the tree to get around it this year :o)
Once we were all finished... it was fun and Alex turned to me and said "Mommy, this is going to be the greatest Christmas ever!" I laughed; but reminded him that this Christmas will be as great, even though we are far from home, because we know the Baby Who was born on that dark and cold night two thousand years ago and this little tree will be a reminder of the Muslim man who sold it to us who doesn't know Jesus.
Alex putting on his snowman bell ornament.
What Fun!!!
Wanting the cross to be in just the right place...
wonder where he gets that from??
It took us all about five minutes to decorate this tree;
but it was so much fun to find one!
It's funny how a simple thing to us
can bring such a smile on a six year old's face!
Having a tree up has definitely put everyone
in the Christmas spirit around here...
even Mr. Scrooge :o)
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