Christmas Recap

We survived, perhaps even thrived, this Christmas holiday. With all of the anxiety built around the holidays coming and going without a family member in sight, it was amazing to see that we can, in fact, be adults and celebrate the holidays on our own. Of course, we missed our families immensely and had we an easy alternative, would have been making our annual trek between Charlotte and Texas with glee, but given our circumstances, we did pretty great (insert pat-on-back here).

Here's a quick recap of the Christmas festivities that surrounded our weekend:

December 23

· Perogi Party at our Polish friend's home.

December 24

· Linner with 13 others at a coworkers home

· Mass and caroling at the Embassy of the Vatican

· Long chat with Mark's family via Skype

December 25

· Opening presents (Ryan banked! He scored an REI fleece vest, Smart Wool bootie socks, Lion-themed bibs, baseball socks, a set of cardboard Dr. Seuss books, and a giant sock monkey. Lots of thanks and love to both sets of grandparents and cousins Kohen, Charleigh, Reagan and Maya for their gifts!)

· Church service at the International Evangelical Church - this is our "home church" in Addis.

· Brunch at the Sheraton with a few coworkers

· Cooking at home (including mashed potatoes with bacon and cheddar cheese! yum!)

· Long chats with the Taylors and my mom and dad

· Fancy Christmas dinner at a friend's home with three other couples

· An all too short chat with Meghan. It was about midnight our time and I was so tired I was slurring my speech! I'll have to call again this week to really catch up (and remember!) how her Christmas was!

December 26 (The Embassy had Monday off)

· Hiking Entoto Mountain

Take the word "hiking" lightly. We intended to hike the mountain, but this is Ethiopia so it's not like the trail was marked. Next time we’ll bring someone experienced with us to help us find our way. We ended up driving near the top and walking the road between one large historical church and another. Entoto is the largest mountain in Addis and it sits at the north end of the city. On the top of the mountain (about 10,000 feet above sea level) rests a small village. We arrived as school was letting out for lunch and made far too many friends along the way! The kids wanted pens for school and one little boy needed new shoes, we unfortunately didn't have any money on us (we were anticipating a quiet hiking trail, not an afternoon with shoeless children!) and Mark feels strongly that we should give to parents and the school rather than the children themselves. So we'll be returning to the top of Mount Entoto shortly. Along the way we captured a few pictures - they love the camera and wanted desperately to see pictures of themselves with their friends. We were happy to oblige, though the fight to view the digital proofs was kind of intense. Men here are generally smaller than most – blame a lack of adequate nutrition not a lack of physical labor - and their muscle mass tends to be very lean (remember, this is a land of runners. Long, stringy muscles abound.) so the little boys kept trying to punch Mark in the arm. They were in awe of his muscle mass. You can imagine how ego-boosting humbling of an experience that was for him.

NOTE: Blogger isn't letting me upload pics right now. Mark will try to do this from work tomorrow. Sorry for the tease!