Celebrating the Winter Holiday in Turkey

(Joni) As I mentioned in my previous post, the vast majority of Turks don't celebrate Christmas. However, many of them do celebrate the New Year, and they do it very similarly to the way Americans celebrate Christmas - tree with lights and decorations, giving presents, even Santa (Noel Baba, which means Father Christmas in Turkish) comes on New Year's Eve here! This is why I said Winter Holiday in my post title... Even though in our house, we were very much celebrating Christmas, a lot of the lights/decorations/festivities we are seeing around us are because of New Year!

Karum Mall in the town center has some beautiful star/snowflake decorations.

Since we believe in celebrating Christmas as the birth of Christ and not just a winter holiday, we tried to maintain our family traditions that would help us keep that in mind. So we did our Advent Tree (where we read a short Bible story and put up an ornament every day of December) again this year, and we enjoyed that a lot!

Elias next to our tree in his Phineas & Ferb Christmas jammies that Grandma & Grandpa brought when they visited in the Fall. It's Christmas Eve, so there's only one spot left at the top of the tree for the Christmas Day ornament!

We also threw our own little birthday party for Jesus on Christmas Day, which I unfortunately didn't take any pictures of. But we had a yummy dinner and birthday cake!

Since the postal system between the US and Turkey is expensive and unreliable, rather than mailing gifts to us, our family just gave us money and we did our own shopping for gifts... Elias got so many trains - he's a happy camper! We also had one gift that Grandma & Grandpa had brought when they were here, and it had been sitting in my closet since September! So that was fun for Elias to finally open it!

It was the Toy Story movie and some Toy Story figures. He loved them!

Since Elias had so many days off school, I tried to fill them with fun Christmas-y things like watching Christmas movies (His favorite is the old claymation Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer!) and making Christmas cookies!

My favorite Christmas cookies - peanut butter blossoms! Elias liked the melted Kisses more than the cookie part - he definitely comes by his love of chocolate honestly. :)

We were also able to Skype with our families on Christmas, which was a blessing. Thanks to modern technology, we were able to watch all of them open the Turkish gifts we had sent, which was so much fun! :) So we had a nice first Christmas in Turkey, and we get to keep celebrating since the holiday the Turks are celebrating is yet to come! We're looking forward to seeing how they celebrate the New Year!

Preschool Christmas Party

(Joni) As a general rule, people in Turkey don't celebrate Christmas. Because of this, we've been surprised and pleased to learn that Elias' international preschool in fact makes a HUGE deal of Christmas! They've been learning Christmas songs all month, doing Christmas crafts, having one day when everyone wore red and green, and then Friday was their huge Christmas party. (It was the same format as the one they threw for Halloween.)

Unfortunately, Justin had to work, but I was able to attend the Christmas presentation from Elias' class. The class filed in wearing adorable Rudolph hats they had made from their handprints.

Then they sang a series of songs in English. We had been hearing Elias sing them at home for weeks, so I knew he knew the words, but he must just not like performing with a group because he just sat in his chair rather than participating in the singing. Here are a few of the songs (Elias is seated on the far left.):
Then the highlight of the party was that Santa came!! He made his big entrance, and then one by one each child sat on his lap and answered the questions "What is your name? How old are you? What do you want from Santa?" The kids had varying levels of proficiency in English, but I could see a great improvement in the ability of the kids to answer those questions since the Halloween party. Elias still wouldn't answer them even though he obviously knows English. :) Here is Santa's entrance and Elias on Santa's lap. The lady helping him is Ms. Olga, the school's phonics teacher. Elias LOVES her, and you can see him answer her questions (He said "Yeah." to all her questions.) rather than Santa's.
One funny note about his class is that the boys in his class almost all said they wanted Angry Birds from Santa! Who knew Angry Birds was so popular among 4- & 5-year-olds in Turkey?! Although Santa asked them what they wanted, he gave them all the same gift, which was a small Santa that dances and sings Jingle Bells. (See it pictured below.)

Then they had a spread of Christmas cookies, which Elias enjoyed immensely.

And they sent him home with a huge bag of fun things.

Clockwise from top: Paper bag with wreath craft, dancing Santa, cookie on a stick, bag of cookies/candy from his teacher, stocking craft with bag of popcorn/cookie/candy/winter rubber duckie, and gingerbread man/Christmas tree/snowman crafts.

So it was a fun Christmas celebration! And now Elias is off school for 10 days, which is practically unheard-of in Turkey. Since they don't celebrate Christmas, they don't have a school holiday. But I'm sure the International Preschool teachers enjoy the break! :)

Celebrating Thanksgiving

(Joni) Holidays can be a difficult time of year for people who live far from their families, so we weren't sure exactly what to expect from Thanksgiving this year. However, we were blessed with lots of opportunities to celebrate with dear friends, so we didn't have much opportunity to be too homesick. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures at any of our gatherings, so I'll just have to tell you about them instead.

Since Turkey doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving, Justin had school that day, so he didn't get to celebrate as much as the rest of us. Elias and I, however, went over to some friends' house at noon and had a very enjoyable lunch! There were 4 American families and 1 Canadian couple there, and one of the highlights for me was that my Turkish tutor also came and brought her sister! For both of these Turkish girls, it was the first time eating American food, and they were bowled over at all of it! They said, "This is delicious, but I'm going to be so fat after it's over!" I told them that was how it was supposed to be. :) Elias was SO EXCITED about getting pumpkin pie... He is his father's son in that regard!

Then we went home and Elias got a rest while I baked some dishes for our evening party! I was so pleased that a friend had given me some cream of mushroom soup and fried onions (neither of which are available locally) so I could make green bean casserole - a necessity of Thanksgiving in my book. We can't get canned green beans here either, but I found this Paula Deen recipe that used fresh ones, and it was delicious. I doubled the recipe, and there were no leftovers! I also baked my old standby macaroni & cheese recipe, and that was a hit as well. After Justin got off work, we went to another friend's house with 6 American families, and we had a great time celebrating with them as well. One of them thought to bring the game Catch Phrase, and it was fun enjoying a game together! (Although we did have to make the rule "No Turkish Allowed!" - some spoke better than others!) Elias got another piece of pumpkin pie, so he was happy.

Then Elias had a THIRD Thanksgiving party at preschool on Friday! They had been working all week to make adorable costumes:

Elias was so proud of his turkey costume and his feathered headdress!

Then they had a somewhat American lunch: turkey sandwiches, popcorn, pumpkin pie, and apple juice! What's really hilarious is that Elias absolutely refuses to eat school food, but he chowed down on this Thanksgiving feast! He apparently ate not just one turkey sandwich, but two! His (American) teacher laughed and said now we know it's just that he doesn't like the Turkish food they usually serve for lunch!

So we are incredibly thankful for the friends (who feel like family) we have here that allowed us to have a very enjoyable Thanksgiving, and for the precious school that gives Elias such great experiences! Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Bayram Vacation, Part 2: FOOD!

(Read Part 1.)

As I said in the previous post, the food at Aqua Fantasy was all-you-can-eat-and-drink. The buffets were incredible! Besides traditional Turkish food, they also offered more Western-style food than I had ever seen in Turkey before: things like fried chicken fingers, cheesy garlic bread, Italian pastas, rich desserts, and they even served sweet potatoes one day! This is the buffet room:

The four islands in the center were for Turkish salads, fresh veggies, soups/breads, and hot dishes. Then along the left side was a series of cooks making fresh items (like omelets for breakfast), and along the right side was a ridiculous dessert buffet.

They really worked hard to make the displays both beautiful and tasty!

I took this picture on Friday, the day they celebrated Kurban Bayram (the Sacrifice Holiday), and they had this whole roasted lamb there on the counter, and the guy was serving lamb meat there. I said it looked like "roast beast!"

Justin was exceptionally happy to be able to find foods he loved that I would never cook at home. I took this picture of him with the plate below on Friday, the day they served the Bayram lamb.

On his plate are rice pilaf, roast lamb, fried crab meat, sardines, and fried chicken livers. Hey, he was happy!

Then as if all the savory dishes weren't enough, we discovered a guy making fried ice cream for dessert!!

So in addition to the ridiculous buffets for three meals a day, there were also snack bars near all of the pools that were open in the afternoons. Every day for Elias' afternoon snack, we went to the one right outside our room and he got waffles with honey!

That is one happy, sticky boy. :)

This snack bar also served the best pizza I've ever had in Turkey, so I always enjoyed a slice of that for afternoon snack! So thankful for being provided this complimentary week of great food!!

Click to read more: Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

Kid Project: Cheese Fondue

(Joni) I thought that since some of our blogging audience is people who live in Turkey (or other international places), I would post things like recipes and fun kid projects - things that might be helpful for other expat mamas like me! So I'll include not only what we did, but also the Turkish names of things in order to help other mamas that might be trying to reproduce the activity here. Even if you don't live in Turkey, though, it might still be an idea for you!

My 4-year-old son doesn't like crafts, so it's sometimes a challenge to find fun projects to do with him. However, one thing he and I share is a love for cooking! So I try to do things in the kitchen that he can help with, and we have fun together. One kids' magazine we subscribe to and love is Highlights High Five (Huge thanks to my in-laws for receiving it and mailing it to us over here!), and each month they have a kid-friendly recipe. Elias and I have made a few of these (see one here), which are always fun and tasty too!

This Cheese Fondue recipe is actually from the September 2011 issue. Elias has been asking for months if we could make it, but we can't buy apple cider here, so I didn't think we could. However, the inspiration struck me that I bet we could make something from apple juice that would work, so I searched for a recipe. I took my inspiration from this recipe (by an expat in Germany!), but ended up pretty much making it up. I only needed 3/4 c. of cider, so I ended up just using 1 cup of apple juice and 1/2 tsp. of pumpkin pie spice (which I had brought from the US). I didn't want the cider to be grainy from the spices, so I emptied out a tea bag, put the spice in, and then folded and sealed it with a staple.

That ended up working VERY well to let the flavor of the spice into the cider without the spice chunks. (A coffee filter would work as well, but we use a French press for coffee and therefore don't have coffee filters on hand.) I simmered it with the lid on for only about 10 minutes, but it still evaporated quite a bit. I ended up adding more juice to have enough to make the fondue with. It was tasty, though!

So now that we have our "cider," here is the recipe. My comments are in italics:

Ingredients

• bread (I used 4 slices whole wheat bread. We also used some little cracker sticks - kepekli çıtır çubuk - for dipping too, which ended up being Elias' favorite part.)
• vegetables (I used 1 large cucumber, 2 small green peppers, and about 1/4 small head of cauliflower.)
• fruit (I used 2 large apples)
• apple cider
• grated cheese (This would be stellar with mild cheddar cheese, but we can't get that here. I used 1 c./2 slices Turkish Cheddar and 2 c. kaşar. The melted texture was a little weird, but it tasted great. If any of you Turkish folks try this recipe and find a cheese that works well, let me know!)
• cornstarch (mısır nişastası)

Directions
Before you begin: Adult: Make some toast.
1. Cut the toast, vegetables, and fruit into long, thin pieces. (We had brought with us Elias' Pampered Chef My Safe Cutter, and this was the first time he used it! He helped me slice the toast, cucumbers, and cauliflower with his own cutter!)
2. Pour 3/4 c. apple cider into a pot.

Elias mixing the cheese and cornstarch. You can see our beautiful plates of chopped items ready for dipping!

3. Mix together 3 c. of grated cheese and 1 tbsp. cornstarch. Adult: Bring the cider to a boil. Add the cheese mixture and stir over medium-low heat until the cheese melts. Pour the mixture into a small slow-cooker or fondue pot.(We don't have a slow cooker or fondue pot, so I just poured it into individual bowls and that worked fine. It ended up being the perfect amount for the 3 of us to have for lunch.)

Dip in!

Mom & Dad's Visit, Part 1

(Joni) My parents came in from Kentucky for their first visit to Turkey, and we had a STELLAR time with them! Rather than doing a huge blog series with all the pictures, I thought I'd just do a 2-part overview of the highlights.

We gave them a great overview of life in Turkey, including the delicious Turkish food!

We had dinner at our favorite restaurant in our neighborhood, just around the corner from our house. They got the full treatment with several courses and delicious food!

Dad is a coffee-lover, so Justin took him to try Turkish coffee. Wow, that stuff is strong! I think Dad enjoyed the home-brewed coffee from our French press more.

Trying Turkish maraş ice cream. Yum! Elias definitely comes by his love of ice cream honestly... from Grandma!

We even discovered a new dessert while they were here! We thought we were ordering plain ice cream, but instead we got Dondurmali Irmik Helvasi. Once we adjusted our expectations, it was tasty!

And public transportation!

They were troopers to stand in the overcrowded mini-buses!

When we all squeezed into a taxi, Elias always wanted to sit on Grandma's lap!

My Turkish language tutor and a friend of hers offered to take us on a tour of the city's castle and adjoining Anatolian Civilizations Museum. Those things were neat, but we had the most fun just visiting with the two Turkish girls!

After the tour, we stopped at a cafe, and we had the best time just hanging out together!

Click here to read Part 2!

A Picnic in the Woods

(Justin) If you live in Çankaya and don't have a car you can easily visit lots of neat parks, but it seems like actual wild nature is discouragingly out-of-reach. But luckily we live on the edge of town where a steep valley with walking trails, a woods with a couple of springs, and a great view of the valley and lake below is just a short walk from our apartment. One of the entrances is just outside Elias' Turkish preschool so I explored it a bit before today, but then decided to bring the whole family on a picnic to the woods. It's nice because even though the city is just a couple hundred yards away you can't hear it and you can breathe plenty of fresh air and the smell of pine trees.

View from up on the road. The tall trees in the middle are where our picnic was.

The city has made it a picnic/camping area by piping up some of the springs

Elias splashing in the spring water.

Elias thinks peanut butter & jelly sandwiches are great no matter where we are.

There are lots of quartz rocks to find, and plenty of turtles on the roads.

The roads have been dug and grated for cars, but it's not clear where there's any entrance or exit for them. Some of the roads are just dead ends on the side of the cliff. This is a view of the lake below. On the other side of the valley you can see shepherds tending sheep. It's quite steep.

Unfortunately, some of the nicer spots are littered with trash, part of life here. But there are plenty of green trees, fresh air, and wild flowers.

Not terribly far by taxi there is another larger woods and lake that's more touristy that we hope to explore next week when Joni's parents come for a visit.

Celebrating Our Anniversary

Our 7th wedding anniversary was last Monday, but being so busy and tired with VBS, we decided to wait until this weekend to celebrate. We got a babysitter for Elias; this was the first time we'd done that since coming to Turkey, but Elias did great with Miss Brooke. :) Then we went out for an afternoon adventure and dinner. We took the bus out to a district on the northeast side of Ankara called Keçiören. Justin had been out there a couple times, but Joni never had. Like the rest of Ankara, it is a very hilly district, but they have a really neat section where they built amazing waterfalls in the cliffs lining the roadside. It was gorgeous! (In the picture you can make out five different wedding parties getting their pictures made.)

 

Then directly across the street from the waterfalls is this cool building that houses a Turkish history museum and an authentic Ottoman restaurant. The museum is free and houses cool Ottoman artifacts.

Although this isn't a historic building, it was built to look like an ancient Ottoman fortress. Yes, those are stairs going up from the street, and yes, we climbed them all.

 

Behind this building was another series of ethnic restaurants including Turkmen, Uzbek, and Kyrgyz. We decided to try the Uzbek place, and it was cool! Very reasonably priced, Justin had a sampler platter and Joni had chicken kebab. Both were fantastic and served fast, we highly recommend it.

The restaurant is made to look like an Uzbek tent. Most of the tables were on platforms so you're seated on the floor Uzbek style - we wanted the full experience so we sat that way too!

After our delicious dinner, including the best künefe we've ever had, we decided to ride the cable car that crosses over the district. (You can see it going along the top left of the photo with the white building above.)

 

Looking down on the restaurant where we ate dinner (left side)

Looking down on the same waterfall pictured above

So we had a really neat time exploring a new district, and we were so thankful to find a great babysitter for Elias! Happy anniversary to us!

VBS Week

(Joni) This week Elias and I, along with 80+ other kids, participated in a VBS hosted by the U.S. Chaplain's office here. The program they did was called Sky, and we had a lot of fun learning about how everything is possible with God! Elias was in the Preschool class, and I was a "Flight Crew Leader" for a group of 1st & 2nd graders - my group was all girls! They were talkative and giggly, but we had fun anyway. :) I was too busy to take pictures most of the week, but I did snap a couple shots of Elias having fun.

Elias' preschool class

He was so excited!

As a Crew Leader, I got to wear a propeller beanie, which Elias called my "Helicopter Hat." Although he doesn't look like it in this picture (It was a little too early in the morning yet.), he thought the hat was hilarious!

While we were on the compound, we also took advantage of the American Cafe they have there... Real pizza and Baskin Robbins ice cream!!! That was a special treat!!!

The pizza had real pork sausage - impossible to find anywhere else but here!

So we're exhausted but it sure was fun to have that special week!

Vacation, Part 9: Boat Tour & Fish Dinner

Here is the ninth and final installment of our vacation blogs. I hope you've enjoyed seeing so much of Turkey and learning about our experience! To see the first 8 blogs in the series, click here and here.

Since we only had 1 day in Amasra, we kind of wanted to get an overall tour, so we decided to take a tour boat around the whole area.

This wasn't our boat, but ours looked pretty much like this.

We had to wait around on the pier quite a while before the boat left (Like many other forms of Turkish transportation, the boat didn't have a specific departure time - they just wait until they feel like they have "enough" passengers.), but we enjoyed sitting in the shade and watching the people.

There was a lot of activity along the shore with food vendors, swimmers, and fishing boats going in and out!

The boat left from the side of the peninsula that has the free beach, and our jaws dropped at how PACKED it was! We were so thankful to have discovered the less-crowded beach first!

It did have the cool floating slide and trampoline park, though. I'm sure Elias would've loved to check that out!

Then the boat just toured around the whole peninsula, and we really enjoyed seeing the beautiful sights!

Then we went to the restaurant across from our hotel for one of Amasra's famous fish dinners. Justin and Elias split some fried calamari and fried catfish, which they both found delicious. I'm trying to eat a little healthier, so I got a salad,

Fancy!

And broiled fish.

Um, yeah, that's a whole fish with skin, bones, & all. This is pretty much the only way to get non-fried fish here, so if you're squeamish (like me), you just have to get over it.

So we really enjoyed our day in Amasra, and we're thankful to have seen such a beautiful place! In the morning, our bus left before any of the restaurants were open for breakfast, so we packed a picnic breakfast and ate overlooking the beach.

We're so thankful to have had this opportunity to rest, refresh, and see more of Turkey!