The 12 Ways of Christmas... (Sneaking back into our Christmas-less country)

We knew when we moved here that living in a Muslim country would mean missing out on many traditions and customs that we count on as Americans.  Where would we be without Santa at the mall, fake snow on every window sill, twinkling icicle lights, animatronic and blow-up reindeer, the freaking Chipmunks singing "All I want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth"?  I mean... would we make it?!?! Being a common Grinch, all I could think about was how lucky I was to be escaping the magic madness. But as the holidays approached and all of our friends and families started to email, and Facebook about winter break, and Christmas cookies, wrapping presents, and midnight mass, I found my little heart growing.  (Or something from that Grinch movie that I refuse to watch because I am not a child anymore, and I don't like movies that depict me and my kind in an unfavorable light.) I was even missing Christmas music... I had the urge to go CHRISTMAS CAROLING! This might be normal for Alan, and for most of you reading this, but I've been out of the Christmas spirit for so long that I don't remember what "jolly" feels like any more. (It feels kinda good. Weird. But good.) I missed the smell of Christmas I guess.  I missed people wishing each other "Happy Holidays," or even being aware that is was the holidays.  Turkish people don't celebrate Christmas, so we worked a regular day on Friday, and will again on Monday.  Alan had to put his foot down when they asked him to work on Saturday ("But that's Christmas," almost didn't work). Most of all we are both missing the family, friends, hugs, and general shared love that come with the season. 
So we worked together with a few fellow ex-pats to bring Christmas back to Who-ville. (Sorry if I'm totally butchering the Grinch story.) I present to you "The 12 Ways of Christmas" in no particular order.

1. Christmas Pageants: The city of Alanya held it's first annual International Christmas Bazaar. All of the schools in the area were invited to come preform Christmas songs.  We got to hear all the classics: Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bells, We Will Rock You, and The Lion Sleeps Tonight, sung by Turkish children who may have memorized what the words sound like, but have NO CLUE what they are really singing.  So sweet.  I saw many an older Eastern European crying. Either the children REALLY butchered the German songs, or they were genuinely touched to hear some traditional Christmas songs here.  I'm leaning towards the second one.

2. Christmas Candy: Alan's family tradition made it all the way here! He slaved away on some DElish Peanut-butter balls dipped in chocolate. So good he has been challenged to a Tatlı-off. Or a dessert making competition. What the challenger doesn't know is that his family has been grooming him for the "big dance" since he was old enough to roll a ball out of dough-like substances. He's sure to win.

3.  Spending time with Family: OK so they weren't our family members.  But they were someone's family.  And while we are in Turkey Jan and Adnan are our stand in parents; Sonya, Zeynep our stand in sisters, Kamil and Burak our stand in brothers, and Suzanne, Nicole, and Kenan our stand in cousins. We even got to celebrate with pretend distant relatives: some awesome Dutch people who had us over for international cocktail hour.

4. Christmas music: Alan brought his Uke and Nicole played her guitar so we could have a good-old Christmas sing-along.  Rudolf and Frosty were in attendance, along with Silent Night and many other classics.

5. Christmas Crafting:  Being that I LOVE crafting, I couldn't let being in Turkey take away my tradition of making some sort of ridiculous Christmas gift.  With no sewing machine, no yarn or needles, no craft stores in Alanya, and no time for anything elaborate, I settled on baked clay ornaments.  They turned out just as silly as expected. Perfect.

6. Trimming the Tree: with said ornaments.  "The Tree" was a house plant, and the ornaments only stayed long enough to snap the picture, but it was trimmed, and it was beautiful.  So there.

7.  Christmas Movie #1: ELF.  God bless Buddy the Elf and his syrup loving, long burping, hilariousness.

8. Christmas Movie #2: Love Actually.  Never fails to make me cry.  It even works on Alan. Sap.

9. Dressing Festively: I'm not sure I've owned a Christmas sweater since I was 5, so of course none made the cut when deciding what we could fit into our Turkish lives. So a bright read sweater and a bright green scarf would have to do.



10. More Christmas Music: N'Sync Christmas.  NEVER GETS OLD.

11. Our REAL families: We are oh-so-lucky to have skype and facebook to provide the gift of seeing our families faces even when they are thousands of miles away.  We miss you guys like crazy.  Can't wait for Google or Apple to invent the hug app.

12. Snuggling in PJs and slippers all day.  Nothing makes me feel more jolly than warm jammies, and a cozy nap.  Especially when I get to share those things with the guy I love. 



So to wrap up, MERRY CHRISTMAS! From the birthplace of both Christianity and Santa, and from the bottom of our hearts.

I Never Could Get Out of the Scissor Hold

Today I will write a blog not to inform everyone about a new experience in Turkey but to honor a man who meant so much to me and my family. My Grandpa D was a loving, caring strong man who set a high standard to live up to when it comes to being a "family man." He lost his battle to cancer this week and our world is left without Grandpa's hugs and smiles.

Of course we will all miss those hugs and smiles but there are plenty of things Grandpa left us with to remember him by. First and foremost Grandpa taught us that game night, while occasionally leading to hurt feelings, was more than just killing time. Whether it was Monopoly or Farkle, black jack or canasta, scrabble or golf, we built our characters in those games and Grandpa was always there to help guide us, unless we were showing him our cards at which point he would look and choose accordingly.

I will also remember the bike rides we would take to the beach. To this day I love riding bikes and I often remember the feeling of riding through the narrow tunnel near Hueneme Beach, a little fear that someone might be there and the joy of getting to the spot where we could just watch the ducks, where cousins later would take bread for feeding. Then we would get to the pier where we would have a hot drink and rest before making the trip home. While I don't remember having great discussions about important topics in those times I do know that spending that time with Grandpa was important. I looked forward to those trips, and I still remember them fondly.

My last memory for today is of the wrestling matches that the cousins and I would have with Grandpa in his younger days. Of course it would always happen in the evenings while we were all in the living room watching Tv. Grandpa would get down on the floor with us amidst the constant reminders of "Watch out for the Coffee Table". None of us cousins were impervious to the infamous "Scissors Hold." A hold seemingly so simple to avoid yet it never failed to keep us trapped and calling for mercy. Perhaps as I have witnessed children do, we intentionally put ourselves in harms way because we liked the challenge and we liked the game. I know even to this day the scissor move lives on during wrestling matches and tickle fights. Grandpa's move was an effective one.

If you look at what a typical family structure is in America today the legacy of the "typical American family" has been replaced by divorce, distance and disputes. The Demuth family has remained a strong unit through all of these year, no doubt a testament to the loving leadership of Grandma and Grandpa D. I will miss Grandpa's hugs and strong competitive spirit, but I know "Gene-o" will continue to be a part of game nights, bike rides, tickle fights and most of all my family.

Turkish Thanksgiving

First of all, sorry we have neglected the blog for the past few weeks, it has been a little bit of a whirlwind lately between lost internet connections and extra hours at work. But we're back.

So we finally got to make it happen. Ever since we left America it was our plan to share our Thanksgiving traditions with our new friends. The challenge about doing this in a country that doesn’t celebrate it is that they tend to make plans without knowing it would conflict with the holiday. On Thanksgiving we had our weekly staff meeting that lasted until 6:30 so we planned to have dinner on Saturday. Turns out the school was having a dinner to celebrate Teacher’s Day on Saturday, so postponed, Sunday was a fund-raising brunch to buy a wheelchair for someone in the community. Moved to Monday, the school planned a Foreign Languages (our department) seminar although we didn’t have to attend many of our colleagues did. Finally we said Tuesday it is, not ideal since that meant cooking on Monday night and reheating on Tuesday, but it needed to happen before December rolled around.

We went for it, all the fixins. 2 Large Chickens (Turkey wasn’t possible here we only found one that was severely freezer burnt) Stuffing, Cranberry sauce from the can (Thanks D & B, it was a hit with the locals) Pumpkin pies from an actual pumpkin, Mashed Potatoes and Gravy. Almost everything was delicious and the Turkish people were delighted to try things they had never tried. Turkish people have never been introduced to the delights of gravy! So they got to taste what Erin described as “Meat Pudding.” They continuously asked Erin how she made the Cranberry Jelly.

Cranberry Jelly, can rings and all

You may be wondering what wasn’t delicious. Well it turns out that when you are looking to buy chickens you don’t want to get the largest ones you can find. When you can’t read Turkish it is so easy to accidentally purchase the type of chicken (possibly a rooster) that people use for stewing and dumplings. So except for the breasts that were edible, most of the chickens were jerky. Some of it could be saved for soup for the next day, but mostly it was disappointing. Last night though redemption was had when I tried again and roasted a delightfully tasty chicken with crispy skin and juicy breasts. I couldn’t let that bad chicken be on my reputation for too long.

All in all it was a great opportunity to share a holiday of thankfulness with our new friends and a different culture. We definitely are thankful for having met such a great group of people here in Turkey. The transition to a new culture, language and job much easier.