Angry Mom

Athena brought this picture home she drew at school and told me it is me! Oh, and I'm angry. Not sure how I should take that...

New Years heart balloons

Balloon sellers with huge heart-shaped 'bouquets' of balloons are everywhere in Ankara this weekend. Maybe it's a New Years tradition?

The Mouse/Koala Family is Moving

Fun with new Christmas presents. 

New pajama pants made from towels.

Ewww, raw meat

Leila and I went on a search for New Years supplies and on our outing we went to MACRO, Turkey's version of Costco. Leila was not impressed by the enormous slabs of raw, frozen meat for sale. 

Lest you think we are too fancy...

Going to the symphony was fabulous, but last night's cultural experience was less fancy. I went to see A Bad Moms Christmas with some friends. It was hardly a cultural work of art but we had some good laughs!

Done!

Legos from Uncle Ian assembled and ready to play with. It's a super cool set with lots of working parts on the helicopter. 

Symphony!

Leila got me tickets for the two of us to go to a symphony concert for Christmas. The Presidential Symphony Orchestra's New Years concert did not disappoint. We both loved it!

Our Christmas Greeters

Waiting for Santa and Watching it Snow

Christmas Eve

The girls left Rice Krispie treats and 7-Up for Santa because they figured he had enough decorated cookies from everyone else. Leila also left a note questioning his Xmas eve acts and demanding answers. I think he responded pretty well. 

Sledding

The hill was tiny but enough to give us a taste of sledding today. Leila's friends met us out and the girls did sledding, built (mini) forts and threw lots of snowballs at each other's faces. 

First day of snow and sledding!

Mevlana Festival

Jason stayed home with the kids while I took an impromptu trip to Konya for the annual Mevlana Festival. It is the anniversary of the death of Rumi, a mystic philosopher from the 13th century, and December 17 is considered his wedding day to Allah. The religion isn't really practiced anymore, but the traditional dance of the whirling dervishes continues, and the culmination of the week-long festival is on December 17 every year.

The ceremony begins with the dervishes greeting the master three times.

After the greeting, the dervishes drop their black robes (signifying shedding their worldly attachments) and one by one pass by the master and begin to whirl.

 The dancing was beautifully smooth and trance-like. As they spin individually, the whole group rotates almost imperceptibly. 

They reach their right hand up to the sky to receive blessings from Allah, and their left hands to the ground to pass those blessings to earth.

Every few minutes, they paused to regroup, and then began the dance again.

Finally, they put their black robes on again and left the hall.

There was an orchestra and choir singing traditional chants and playing traditional music.

The welcome sign at the entrance to the cultural center.

Monday morning

Today is Christmas colors day at school today so Leila is decked out in the perfect sweater. Poor Athena is sound asleep on my lap with a fever. Considering that every family we know has had some kind of bug for the past 2 months, I am impressed that it took us this long to catch something. 

New Christmas Outfits

Star Wars!!!

Hugging Their Old Friend

The kids put Santa up in the window so all the kids in the neighborhood could see him. 

Painting Nails at Breakfast (on the Table)

Rainy day project

It's raining, the house is quiet, and I am only on page 79 (of 620) in my book for tomorrow's book club. What else to do besides curl up in my pajamas with my new blanket and a latte to get reading. To-do list will be for later. (Side note: I am not totally lazy, I did go to work for 2 hours this morning...)

Athena’s field trip

Athena went on a field trip to Anit Kabir with her school today. She sings songs about Ataturk and points out his image every time we see it (which is a lot in Turkey), so the field trip was only fitting. The pictures her teacher sent me either show the kids squinting into the sun, or the kids totally uninspired by what they are seeing. You be the judge!

Christmas Trees

The kids decided that their dolls needed their own Christmas tree so they built this one. That's a soccer trophy on the top.

Thanksgiving 2017

Just realized we never captured our Thanksgiving this year. We got together on Thanksgiving with a couple of families to have a wonderful and way too filling meal. Then we did it again on Saturday with a larger group from the Embassy.

Athena watching a Charlie Brown show in a food coma after dinner.

Big Embassy Thanksgiving.

Athena and the swag she collected from the craft table at the Embassy party.  Yes, she wore cat ears, a pink monkey shirt, stars and stripes skirt, and ruby slippers.