Livin' the Good Life

Friday, February 25, 2022

Morning, Noon, and Night

Blog Post About December 2021

The day after the fancy holiday party at the hotel, Keira and Karis performed at another fancy hotel.

This time, there wasn't a big party, but one of the ballrooms was set up where vendors could come to advertise and sell their wares.

Keira performed with her ballet group, and Karis and Keira's teacher (below) performed a duet.

Karis and Keira's teacher performed a duet.

I've never embedded a video before, so I don't know if this will work.

That afternoon, we returned to the hotel again for Keira to perform a gymnastics routine.

This picture makes me laugh because Keira is the only one with her legs crossed.

December 10, 2021

Wednesday, February 23, 2022

A Christmas, A Birthday, and a Holiday Party

Blog Post About December 2021

Yes, this is what my friends here like to do.

They love to take pictures with different filters.

I usually don't post things like this, but it keeps their anonymity and provides a little fun for you.

At the beginning of December, knowing things were going to be busy for the month, we decided to get together for breakfast. We met at my friend's house who doesn't believe in the truths of Christmas, but she loves to decorate for all holidays.

December 8, 2021

It's good that we took that day to be together, because even though I have seen one of the friends several times since then, my other friend has a fear of Omicron, her mother came to visit, and she has been busy with other things, so we still have yet to meet face to face again.

The next day, I was invited by Doug to join a birthday celebration at the language school that Doug oversees. I was a little late, and Doug called to tell me that 25+ people were all waiting on me to start (maybe because I'm the boss' wife)!

I begged him to tell them to start, and thankfully they did.

The food was amazing, as you can see, but the best part of this story is that the gentleman who was throwing this party for himself, gave the bill to his boss, another American in the building.

He had done it the year before as well.

I don't know why I get such a kick out of that story, but it really makes me smile.

December 9, 2021

That night, Karis, Keira, and I went to a local, fancy hotel to see some of Keira's friends sing in a Christmas performance.

I visited with many people and had such a good time, but I was in awe of the trays of wine, smoothies, hot cider, appetizers, and other array of things that came out of the kitchen continually that night.

I had never seen certain items served like this in this country, and it caught me off-guard.

It made me aware that there is another whole side of this city I have never seen.

Santa and his elves also made an appearance and gave every child in the hotel lobby a gift.

It shows you how much of the world's culture has crept in here, because the reasons we celebrate Christmas are almost certainly foreign to them.

December 9, 2021

Monday, February 21, 2022

Christmas Tree Day

Blog Post About December 2021

You've seen this before (in the link, you can see how little all the kids were when we moved here).

This is how Christmas starts out for us every year.

Doug got the pole and stand out on November 30, ready for our tree decorating day on December 1st.

I prepped all the junk food (plus ordered falafel and hummus).

Keira made labels for all the food

Doug hung the stockings and set up the advent calendar with candles.

And the kids started putting the boards in place.

My language helper came over after work to help hang ornaments,

Kylie called in by video and hung out with us,

and Doug had such good help from the kids, as you can see below 😂

The tree always turns out amazing and all I take care of is the food :)

Saturday, February 19, 2022

Thankful for Tex Mex

We started having Mexican food for Thanksgiving after we moved here for several reasons. Our community in Africa that really went all-in for Thanksgiving was gone; we weren't in America where Doug's mom made the most divine Thanksgiving feasts; and my kids not growing up with regular access to typical Thanksgiving food meant that it wasn't a big deal for them.

This year we invited three extra people for our Tex Mex Thanksgiving feast, two of which were Americans. We all enjoyed the food, played games, and had a restful day.

The morning started with Doug, Karis, and Caleb joining 20+ Americans for a friendly game of flag football. Keira was at school, and I was cooking. Keira gets out of school at 1pm on Thursdays (our last day of the week), and so we were able to start lunch around 2pm.

After our guests left, our family played a few games of Catan and had a great day all-around.

I also forgot to mention a story from the beginning of November.

During my time with Covid, we were having some problems with our power. Doug contacted the neighborhood generator man, but he would never come. However, when a neighbor down the street had his fuse affected by our fuse, the generator man got another phone call, and he came right out.

The neighbor didn't understand why his house and our house were having power issues at the same time until they saw that our fuses had melted together. I'm just glad someone caught it in time. It could have burned up the entire fuse box for quite a few houses. Our power was much better after that until....a month later, and the fuse box inside our house started smoking! 😟

Tuesday, February 15, 2022

Tourism Business

Blog Post About November 2021

Doug's tourism business had some customers from America in November. They stayed in the city for a few days, but they also took a five day bus tour out and around the country seeing some incredible places.

I have never been to most of these places, but Doug toured with them, and the men shared some of their photos with me.

I do know one thing. These guys were treated like celebrities wherever they went.

Locals would stop them to talk, ask where they were from, engage them in conversation, serve them tea, and sometimes offer food along with incredible hospitality the people here are known for.

This is an ancient aqueduct from the time of King Sennacherib, who reigned the Assyrian empire 700 years before Christ

This is ancient cuneiform writing from this same time period

The guys also got to go in places I probably wouldn't be allowed.

This is a Yazidi temple. You might have read about this people group in the news in the last few years.

This is the site where Nahum's tomb is.

Days after this photo was taken, the grand opening ceremony for it took place. We have been here twice in the last four years, and it's been constantly under construction. It will be nice to see it all finished when we return.

We climbed up to this cave about 5 years ago.

We traveled deep into it, and it seemed to go forever.

The guys were short on time, so they couldn't do much exploring inside, but you can see from the picture how vast it is.

They also traveled to one of the monasteries that we have been to a few times.

I wrote about it Here and Here.

I thought this was a pretty picture, and even though I see these spices in markets all the time, I forget what a novelty they are for some people who don't live on this side of the world.

I want to point out the black spheres on the left. Those are dried lemons, and I have had some really good dishes and drinks made with them. I just haven't learned how to use them myself.

This picture was taken in Halabja. If you don't know the story of why that city is significant, you should probably google it.

The men had a tour guide who lost 45 family members on that fateful March day in 1988. He miraculously survived in the cab of a truck, but he did lose his sight for 6 months. He and the girl he married are still suffering affects of the chemical warfare attack today. Every child they have had has died an early death.

Thousands died that day and the days after.