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 

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 :)

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! 😟

Scottish Warrior Princess: AOIFE

Blog Post from March 2021

Caleb heard some "mewing" through his vents that connect to the roof, and when he went to investigate, he found this mama cat

and four new babies she'd given birth to in a tarp on our roof.

That was March 27, and Caleb kept making regular trips to the roof to feed the mama cat.

At one point, he realized that one of the kittens didn't make it.

The mama got nervous and took the remaining three somewhere else, and we couldn't find them.

On April 7th, Doug heard crying in an empty lot when he came home one evening.

One of the kittens was by herself, abandoned, with one of her eyes sealed shut from an infection, and she was just crying.

We brought her in, put her on a hot water bottle covered by a towel and let her sleep in a box.

This is the beginning of an ongoing story about a cat named Aoife.

Doug and Caleb went to a pet store and bought powdered milk and a bottle, and the feedings began.

April 8, 2021

Doug put Neosporin on her eye, and we waited for it to heal.

'

April 10, 2021

And the feeding continued...

April 12, 2021

April 17, 2021

And when no one was around, even I fed the cat.

I am not a fan of indoor cats, but I'm learning to adjust.

April 27, 2021

Kylie even got bonding time with the cat when she came home for her April/May break.

April 28, 2021

We decided to call her Aoife /E-fah/, which. means Scottish Warrior Princess, and we were hoping she would stay a loving, calm cat...

HA!

If you would like to follow her on instagram, she can be found at @aoifetaylorrr

Things I See (Vol 15)

Welcome to "Things I See. If you want to see the previous installments, you can click on:

Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3, Volume 4, Volume 5, Volume 6, Volume 7, Volume 8, 

Volume 9,  Volume 10, Volume 11, Volume 12, Volume 13 (US Version), Volume 14

You would think that a perfectly good cinderblock building could be remodeled, but not here.

Anytime a new business wants to open, they tear down the present building all the way down to the foundation and start over.

This bulldozer is tearing down a building between a mall and another office building, and then they will haul away all the debris.

This happens often.

I'm actually excited about this particular building because we found out recently that our favorite hamburger joint that closed down last year is re-opening here!

This is a tahin machine. 

Inside that top funnel are sesame seeds.

They are ground down to a liquid the people here call tahin.

It's sometimes added to hummus, people dip bread in it, people add honey to it and use it as a dipping sauce, and the people here (including myself) must love it because these machines are in several major grocery stores around town, and they are constantly filling jars.

This is a major highway, and there are sheep grazing along the edge.

I don't know how the shepherds keep them all alive.

This is the entrance into our neighborhood. 

More sheep.

Some days we have a beautiful sun set view

But at least we don't have to see sheep looking like this going into our neighborhood all the time.

I see brains here, too, but what do you think that large mound is on the right???

And at least I don't have to eat "ser u pe" (head and foot) every day.  

To be honest, some people do eat this, but thankfully, I have not been offered this delicacy yet.

Too Much Food and Loud Noises

Blog Post About March 2021

A friend of mine wanted me to come over for lunch, and again, I realized what a horrible host I am in this culture. 

They make sure that they cover surfaces with all types of food. It might be something small, but I just wouldn't think of doing it.

Later that night, a couple invited Doug and I to eat with them at a hotel the man owns.

The food was incredible, and it JUST. KEPT. COMING! Our host said, "Do you want steak or seafood?" When we said it didn't matter to us, he ordered both plus SO many other things on the menu.

I basically consumed too much of that raw meat from Italy on the plate behind the nuts.

More of that story later.

Closer to midnight, our host told Doug and I to go sing with his lounge singer (think Kenny Rogers, John Denver).

My friend took videos that I grabbed these shots off of, but you can kind of see the guitar singer on the left, me in the middle, and Doug on the right.

Our host wanted to join in the fun so he went to the piano and played beautifully by ear, matching the guitar player. I think we sang 4 or 5 songs, and then I politely declined to sing anymore. 

Thankfully, only one couple was left in the restaurant that close to midnight!

When I got home, I did not feel so well. I got rid of most of what I had eaten that night (and I'll spare you the details) and I was sick for TWO days. Doug was also a little sluggish.

Every time I see them they say they want to go out again, but this time I will be a little more discretionary about what I eat :)

Three days after this dinner,  this is a message we received on our phones.

It made me smile that they were actually informing the city. 

We have heard bombs explode near the airport about 4 times this year, so I guess the powers that be know they need to let us know when a loud "pop" is actually supposed to happen.

A Christmas Whirlwind

Blog Post About Winter 2020

The cards you all sent made the best decorations in 2020! It was such a blessing to be remembered by so many and our plain-looking tree thanks you :)

We went to church for Christmas Eve, and then we came home and Kylie and Karis treated us to our own "food board." We weren't able to have all of our overseas friends come by for the Christmas story and some American food, and they were missed.

On Christmas morning, Keira read us the Messiah's birth story from Luke 2.

I don't have a picture of Caleb because I think I missed him opening the few he had. He had decided to forego most gifts so that he could buy parts for and build his own computer. 

That evening (on the 25th), we all loaded in the car to drive 2.5 hours to my parents' house to celebrate Christmas with them and other family member that could make it.

Kylie and my sister-in-law put this "board" together. In reality, these are the kinds of foods we have always eaten and snacked on at Christmas and other times with family...for years. 

I was just thinking the term charcuterie board was something new invented to describe what we had been doing for years. Nope.

The French came up with this in the 15th century. "Chair" means "flesh" and "Cuit" means "cooked." It basically translates as "pork-butcher shop." Their shops also included the pig's internal organs, which I'm thankful has gotten removed from our boards in America.

In French, the one preparing the meat is called a Charcutier.

So just like Solomon in his great wisdom reminds us, "There is nothing new under the sun."

The cousins that were able to make it sat at the "kids' table" for dinner. 

Who doesn't love sitting at the kids' table, right?

Things like this happen at the kids' table :)

This is my son on the right and his cousin (12 days older) on the left.

They decided to try some hot sauce called "Da' Bomb" my dad had around the house.

The sweating, moaning, and pain continued for quite some time (and probably later, if you know what I mean).

When Kylie returned back to college, she found a youtube video showing that the hot sauce these boys tried was the third hottest in this particular hot wing contest.

Yes, these are things that happen at the "kids' table." :)

We only stayed two nights with my parents because we needed to go see the other grandparents and more cousins on the 27th. 

One of the many benefits of the grandparents living in Waco is that we can go see the Chip and Joanna Gaines empire almost anytime we want. We hadn't gone in few years so we drove over to see all of the new additions like this chapel. The crowds were really low because of Christmas, plus there was rain in the forecast.

We also took advantage of other "Waco-things" like the store near the Dr. Pepper museum.

S'mores by the fire was a nice ending to the day.

And the next morning, a few of us got up and went running/walking downtown.

Covid + Christmas made for a very quiet, enjoyable morning.

We knew it was important to see both sides of the family because we are rarely, if ever, in America during Christmas anymore. So even though this was a whirlwind of a trip, it was good!