Christmas 2022

 Merry Christmas from Ankara, Turkey! We had a low-key Christmas Eve and Christmas and it was very enjoyable. We got back from the hotel on Christmas Eve late morning, so instead of cooking Christmas Eve dinner, we opted to order Chinese food and I cooked on Christmas Day. On Christmas Eve, we decorated cookies, the kids played outside, we watched Christmas Eve service online while eating dinner, gave the kids their annual Christmas PJs, and watched the Christmas Story. Three kiddos excited for Christmas the next day!

They all love sleep masks, so this year we got them each a new mask to go with their PJs. They also love being goofy :).

This year we built a Christmas village for the advent calendar. Each day of the month we would read from the Bible, then afterwards the kids would build part of the village. Here’s the final product, the kids did a great job and enjoyed it.

Everyone is asleep and we are ready for Christmas morning.

This year we got the kids each a small rug from Turkey, as a memory from our time here. 

Reading Christmas books to his sister while waiting for breakfast.

On Christmas morning, our tradition is to have Nathan’s mom’s sausage, egg, and cheese casserole, cinnamon rolls, bacon, and fruit for breakfast, read the Bible together, then open gifts. 

The kids open their stockings first, then we all take turns playing Santa and handing out gifts. They laughed at all the random things in their stocking this year, from the normal toothbrushes and pens, to giant chocolate coins and chocolate money, to axe body spray that the boys have been stealing from Nathan and now have their own, and new combs and brushes.

The kids received many nice gifts from family and say thank you very much!

The kids enjoy gifting each other during the holidays, it is sweet. Caleb got Eliza a dentist playdoh set she wanted.

The boys got each other the final books of the ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ series that they both like, and Eliza got Benjamin new colored pencils for drawing.

Eliza got Caleb a lego set.

I had a painting made for Nathan of a photo he took in the forest across the street from our house, where he likes to go hiking and take walks. Nathan always gets me nice jewelry for Christmas and this year got me a pretty necklace and Eliza and I bracelets, and he gave me some much needed shirts.

Eliza got her own kindle and kitty head phones.

After opening gifts, Nathan and I took a little snooze on the couch while the kids played.

Eliza like to dress up and was excited to get a set of shoes, crown, and some jewelry, and some new clothes.

She really enjoys arts and crafts and did a great job making this stained glass sticker butterfly 

Caleb loves to read, especially comic books. My good friend introduced me to this educational and funny comic called ‘The Awkard Yeti,’ which Caleb loves. The characters are personified body organs, and Caleb thinks the comics are hilarious. We got him a calendar and comic book and he loves it.

He also had been asking for virtual reality googles for a long time, and he was excited to get them for Christmas, with a Zelda game that he can play with the googles. It is pretty neat, and funny to watch him use them.

Benjamin has been interested in learning how to carpet weave, after visiting a carpet weaving school on a recent trip to Van. We got him a starter kit with a basketball pattern and he loves it and has spent time each day working on it. We will show the final product when he is done.

The kids are also enjoying their new game, Just Dance. Benjamin especially loves dancing to this song and let me video him :).

Nathan hung the picture in our kitchen where he can see it from where he sits at the table :)

For Christmas dinner, we had our traditional ham, sweet mashed potatoes, green beans, stuffing, and rolls. I made a pumpkin pie, but we were so full we skipped dessert. We at for the first time on our new dishes we bought last year on our trip of Western Turkey, from a town called Iznik, which is famous for their handmade ceramics.

I fell asleep very early that evening and the kids and Nathan watched Home Alone 3, another Christmas favorite. This month we enjoyed reading about the coming of Christ and his birth, family time together, and another year of memories. We even had snow flurries throughout Christmas day. It didn’t stick, but guess technically we had a white Christmas. Merry Christmas to our family and friends around the world!