Happy Christmas 2014!

I've been so busy catching up on travel that I've neglected Christmas a bit.  That is no indication of how much we wait for and soak in this season.  We are overwhelmed with gratitude and joy in Jesus and all the blessings His gospel gives us.

I'll have more little snippets of our festivities to share later, but for this Christmas Eve I wanted to share our yearly update.

We are so lucky to have such talented friends--now on both sides of the globe!  Our friend Shelby made this video of us in our final weeks of Belmont life.  I think it captures our joy in living there totally.  I cry every time I see it.  Our friend Sheena took this year's family picture at the V&A Museum (then I used a little clicky-click to create the artsy image that made all the males in my family raise their eyebrows and go, "but you can't see our faces!"). 

We are so blessed with all our friends and family--we love you all!

Piraeus, Greece

Collin went to work for his client and the rest of us went back and forth between playing and sick.  We had a lovely hotel room (the size of our flat, minus the kitchen.  Ha!).  We escaped the illness for a couple shining hours at the beach.  It was a junkyard beach--that's really what the kids called it--with trash everywhere.  But the view was amazing and the kids loved searching for "good trash" (shovel and pail, kid toys, drift wood, etc.).  I'm so glad we caught sunset on a Greek beach.  I'd love to redo that bucket list check-off someday.  Maybe on a clean Greek island beach in early fall . . .

An old Greek man was out swimming in the water.  He came within earshot of us and started speaking in Greek.  I called out, "English?" and he laughed and asked if anyone wanted to join in the water.  After the gentleman had swum away Davy suddenly got brave (and forgot it was December) and went out in his unmentionables.  I think he had a lot of fun.  I also think it probably wasn't the smartest idea ever, seeing him shiver after coming out and knowing we had sick germs flying all around.  But maybe the sea water did him good after all.

Kids spent a lot of time in the generous tub.  Both from necessity (being sick isn't the cleanest activity) and to enjoy the luxury of as much warm water whenever we wanted.

Don't know who thought glass doors on a bathroom were a good idea . . .
We had some good times, even sick and stuck close to the hotel room.
Eliza was very clear when it was time for us to go home.
Davy took over my Kindle and read Gooney Bird books (by Lois Lowery--so good!) into the wee hours.  No flashlight necessary.
Making origami boats out of newspapers found at the plaza.  Where do all the Greek children play?  We found one broken down playground.
The kids were photo-ed out, which was a bummer for me because there was this fantastic Greek Orthodox church just around the corner with the most beautiful stairs.  I need some new victims.  I mean subjects.

Athens, continued

We were able to take Athens at a pleasant pace.  Slow and spontaneous.  We ended up fitting in more than I had thought to plan.  Just the way we like it!  We saw these huge columns from the top of the Acropolis.  Sunday right after church we were able to cross the street (a thrill of its own, when the streets are wide and busy and traffic signals are not always followed!) and come up close to the remnant of the Temple of Zeus.  Those columns are so immense.  There are only about fifteen of them left standing, but enough to overwhelm you with the feeling of what used to be.  I appreciated the view of the Parthenon from the Temple of Zeus.  Cool that father and daughter were connected that way.

Our little travelers are so game.  My favorite quotes of the trip were from Eddy.

Collin asked if he was ready to go see some more things.  Too busy picking up olives from a tree, Eddy said, "No thanks, I'll just keep picking olives."

Looking at the map he insisted on carrying around, "Which line do we take now, Dad?"

Sneaking a bite of the gummy candy he found on the ground of the metro: "But it was good!  I couldn't taste the germs at all."

The brand new Acropolis Museum was pretty spectacular.  They didn't allow pictures in the galleries, apparently.  I was reminded of this after I'd already taken a few.  But anyway, the tickets were cool and a good smattering of what we saw. 

Church was totally in a different language.  I mean, duh.  But neither Collin nor I had the smallest background in Greek (much to my eternal regret that I didn't study it in college when I had a great chance).  I understood one word of one hymn:  "sofia" in How Great the Wisdom and the Love.  I'm glad we went, though, as always.  Our sickness cycle started with Eddy dealing with a cough that wouldn't quit.  It spiraled from there, Eliza getting the cough, then one by one all falling to some stomach bug.  It was only a 24 hour thing, but times five and overlapping.  We all tried to be kind to each other but it's hard to be sick away from home.

One of the highlights for me was buying two runner-size kilim rugs.  I love how their color and pattern bring the sunshine into our house and the tight wool weave brings warmth to our little flat.  The pattern in the red one is "eyes of wisdom and philosophy" and makes an excellent hopscotch mat down our hallway!

Athens, Greece: Parthenon

First, our travel getting to Greece was a reminder of all the reasons not to travel with children--or at all.   It was riddled with inconvenience all the way.  First our plane was delayed due to a technical failure.  I caught Davy happily reading and wished we could stow Eliza in the overhead compartment.

Once finally boarded, our plane sat on the tarmac for a couple hours because the main control tower for the London airports (there are multiple) had a power outage.  It was a horror.  We'd planned for a three hour flight, not for a five or six hour thing.  Funnily, though, the whole plane became friends in the chaos and our iPhones got news updates faster than the pilot gave them to us.  My children became screen-time zombies until I tore them away and then they made airplanes out of the barf bags.  Ha!

At last we did make it out of London and got to our hotel (after a rip-off taxi ride from a driver who got lost) very late at night.  But after a good night's sleep we were all refreshed and ready to enjoy our weekend vacation!

We took it slow and casual, planning only the Parthenon for our Saturday.  We started with a walk through the old streets of the Plaka, winding up to reach the base of the Acropolis at last.  The kids picked olives off the ground and the low-hanging branches of the trees and threw them with great excitement.  The boys climbed the little olive trees.  We had an absolutely spectacular time on Mars Hill.  This is where Paul taught the Athenians the sermon of the Unknown God.  The rocks are treacherous and I would not venture there on a drizzly day, but on our sunshine filled day the children clambered around with the agility of mountain goats.  They found themselves a good "slide" and would have continued all day with that had we not herded them towards the Parthenon itself.

Somewhere in an old scrapbook in storage I have a picture of me and a friend from college posing like the Caryatid columns.  Thanks, family, for humoring me on this one!

The Acropolis was crowded, as I think it is any day, any time.  But we were able to plunk down in a few spots to just relax and enjoy being just us.  My favorite moment of the morning, luckily caught-on-tape, was the dancing lesson from Collin in a quiet corner of the Erechtheion.  So good.

I recall that when I was at the Acropolis ten years ago, the Temple of Nike was under re-construction with ugly scaffolding all around.  I was amazed this time at its small and simple beauty.  I can't wait to see the Nike sculpture in Paris and "collect" an image of that to go along with this one, putting them back together at least for me.

Davy and Eddy wanted more and more stories of Greek myths.  I told them the child-appropriate ones I could remember off the top of my head.  The gift of Athena's tree was good.  The one about Hercules cleaning all the horse poop by diverting a river to run through the barn was better.  Anything with bathroom humor is so universal . . .

 

Then hungry, we wandered through the modern city in search of food and found the most delicious gyros.  Sadly, I think that was our last good, truly Greek meal.  (More details on the horrendous stomach bug coming later.  Not the really gory ones, don't worry.)

Realizing we still had so much day and early-evening left before we wanted to return to the hotel and all crash, we headed back up the hill to the Acropolis to see the structures all lit up.  Another of those time-warp moments that get slowed down and seared into memory happened just then.  The gates were locked and there was no one else around, so we plopped own in the middle of the cobble stone road and Collin told story after story of his childhood.  We marveled at the lovely lights of the Acropolis, knowing that the ancients would never have seen their temples that way.  The lights of the city from Mars Hill were gorgeous, all twinkly in their valley.  But then we looked up at the sky to share a constellation story and I teared up at how washed out the stars are when viewed in big cities.  I told my children how my parents had woken us up in the middle of the night in the middle of no where on a family road trip to show us children the milky way.  My children have never seen the sky like that.  I promised myself that they will.  Soon enough, I hope we will be in a place where our sky will be big enough to hold all our dreams.  City skies are just too small for me.  I love visiting cities--they are so exciting, so varied in their offering.  I'm just a country (or at least a outskirt suburban) kinda girl, I guess.

Greece in a Glance

I will get to our still photos of our recent tag-along trip to Greece (while Collin was working on a client down there).  I am still processing some of our experiences and memories.  I did throw together our video snippets right away, though.  I was so excited about the mood of the moving pictures so they came first this time.  Eliza, especially, has loved watching it the past couple days.

Davy's Birthday

Davy turned six yesterday.  He's been six times fully round the sun on this earth.  Ever since arriving in this world he has lit it up.  He is bright and sensitive.  He is thoughtful and observant.  He is a most excellent biggest brother.  Our family is so much the better for him being with us.

He was obliging enough to tear himself away from his Lego Big Ben set (a gift from Grandma) to let me take a few photos to commemorate his day.  He spent most of the time trying to make Eliza--standing behind me--laugh with silly faces but I think I got a few that capture him.  His pensive, thinking side.  His spunky, joking side.  His sweet smile side.  His super silly, newly six-year-old side.  I like all of him wrapped together into the one and only Davy Lambourne.

We celebrated simply, with licking the stirring spoon after making the cake in the morning, an extra watching-a-show afternoon, special FaceTime calls with family, pancakes for dinner, and a Lego brick cake for dessert.  He lit his own match and candle with all the confidence and poise of his six years.  Then blew it out with a wish.

Happy Birthday, dear boy.