Merry Christmas! 2015

If My Birthday Was October 2, I would never get to do this

My birthday is December 23.

For most of my childhood I wondered what it would be like to have a birthday in July.  Or August, or really any other time of the year for that matter.

Some years the day just felt busy -- pre-occupied with Christmas preparations or family gatherings. 

At least I never had to go to school (except half a day, my senior year of high school and that was pretty fun -- my best friends serenaded me over the intercom after morning announcements).

At some point though, my feelings shifted, and all of a sudden it felt like I had a free pass to REALLY enjoy Christmas week.  Added to that, there is a special sense of anticipation in the air on December 23 that you just don't feel on say, April 16 (unless, maybe if you're a CPA).

No doubt that's why my friends were given permission to sing to me over the loud speaker.  It was the last day of school for the calendar year and everyone in the administration office was pretty much in a good mood!

Yes, come December 23, almost everyone is in a good mood.

_____________________________

Now I'm officially middle-aged and while the birthdays seem to come more rapidly, I'm still enjoying them and their proximity to the most important birthday of all.

Because if my birthday was October 2, I WOULD NEVER GET TO DO THIS!

Following Genti to a little village, just behind the foothills where we live.  I was in awe of the tranquility, so close to us, yet feeling so much further away.

We visited two kindergartens to deliver shoe boxes of Christmas love.

It was a family affair.

Ellie said "Gezuar Krishtlindjet" with each box she delivered.  I was so proud of her!

 Receiving their thanks felt ill-deserved.  We pass those on to those of you who have ever filled a box with special gifts for a child overseas...

I really don't think they knew what was happening, or what awaited them inside their boxes.

I'm pretty sure it was the first gift-wrapped present a lot of these children had ever received.  You see, last year we didn't have enough boxes to gift the Kopeshts...

 Then I think this kid got it.

They didn't open their boxes in front of us, which was probably just as well.  I can only imagine what it was like in their homes that afternoon!

Nope.  Not a bad way to spend my birthday at all.

Village Knits | A Follow Up

Wednesday night after Bible study I had the pleasure of giving the women their earnings from their sales this fall!  While two of the women had a dip in their earnings as compared to last year, the third saw an increase.  

The decline in earnings didn't come as a huge surprise. 

• It hasn't been as cold in the States.  
• My network of connections is already pretty saturated with knitted goods. 
• We didn't accurately predict the interest in new products (leg warmers and hats) and sold out of most of those.

So we will retool for 2016.  I will give some stronger, more specific advice on (successful) models to replicate and which models not to repeat, while affirming their creativity and skill.  We will continue to work to expand our domestic market so we are not so dependent on sales from overseas.

Each knitter received a print out of their products which sold and the corresponding price.  Their I-owe-you's were torn up after deducted from their revenues and each lady took home a sizeable envelope of cash.

Yeah, you might just see my interest in stats and hard numbers on the marker board behind me, below.  I wanted to try to break down the numbers and see what kind of information we could glean. Those were the highlights. I'm geeky like that.

As they left the center and walked up the street, they were hugging each other and smiling.

Thank you, everyone, who bought something this year.  We are grateful!

Christmas Traditions, part 4 | Shoeboxes!!

They came a bit earlier this year, so they're sitting downstairs in our center, carefully stacked and taped shut!

Roughly 500 boxes for kids in our zone.  

We will distribute them at five separate events December 21st, 22nd and 24th.  

 

Christmas Traditions, Part 3 | A Cultural Exchange

One of the joys of cross-cultural living is sharing traditions.

Sunday afternoon is our new youth Bible study meeting time. Last Sunday after ironing out their part in the upcoming Christmas program, we asked if they would like to make some Christmas cookies for church.  

They looked at us kind of blankly. So out came the dough, rolling pin, flour, sprinkles, and cookie cutters. While everyone washed up I turned on the Christmas tunes.

They're not fancy, but they were fun to make!  Luli, in particular, took over the sprinkles.  We made up a batch to serve after church and then they asked if we can do it all again next week.

Sure, because life and conversation flow when standing around the kitchen island, humming and singing along to Pandora, talking about the wonder and joy of Christmas.

Since the session above we set out to make another batch of cookie dough and stumbled upon a fantastic recipe -- it emulates a shortbread in taste, and keeps super crisp edges (because it doesn't contain a leavening agent so the cookies don't 'puff and spread' while baking).  Because it incorporates corn starch, it's not sticky, nor do you have to use a 'flour-ed' surface. In short, we were extremely happy.  Visit here for the recipe:
http://bakingamoment.com/how-to-bake-easy-and-delicious-cutout-cookies-with-neat-edges/

You're welcome. ;-)

Christmas Traditions, Part 2

How many times does something need to repeat for it to become a tradition?  I don't know the technical answer, but I do know that for the second year in a row, the Bensons have traveled from Vermont to assist with the annual Holiday Bazaar.  And for me, two times already feels like a tradition!

This year they brought their friends, the Smiths!  This is technically the Smith's second visit to Albania, but their first visit happened before our arrival!  In 2012 they came to help prepare our apartment for us to live in.

This year they lent a hand in a number of different ways!  Here's a brief recap in photos.

The room that used to serve as the kids' homeschool class room was in dire need of a new coat of paint (I'm not sure if that room has been painted since PSF bought the apartment 15 years ago!).  Moisture from the ground below had seeped up into the lower walls and so the walls had to be scraped and re-plastered before a fresh coat of paint could be applied.

Phil spackles holes in the wall

In addition to painting that room in Tirana, they spent an afternoon in the village and while the ladies did home visits, the men installed a motion sensor in our stairwell, caulked our windows to keep out cold air and moisture, repaired a sink leak, installed a light fixture where a bare wire had been hanging for years, hung some pictures in the center, etc. -- basically they tackled my 'honey do' list from this fall (which has been on 'hold' while we've delved back into language study).

Camera phone pic after the first day of painting.  Poor Phil had the ladder collapse under him.  I just had to explain that his painting skills supercede his appearance.

On December 6 we participated in the annual Christmas Bazaar at the Sheraton Hotel in Tirana.  I love that this event supports many causes dear to my heart.  The first is the Organization in Support of Albanian's Abandoned Babies (all of the table fees go to their charity).  They care for relinquished babies in the maternity hospital where our Ellie lived for the first 7 weeks of her life.  They do a super job of taking care of babies in a difficult situation and it comforts us to know that Ellie was likely held on a regular basis by their volunteers and that her physical needs were met with the best care possible.

Secondly, we get to promote the women's knitting project through sales at our table.  Since the event is primarily attended by the Expat community, I get to connect with friends engaged in other ministries as well as share about our work with others in attendance from the diplomatic and NGO communities.  They like to 'shop with a purpose' for their Christmas gift-giving, while giving something from their home abroad.  It's a joy to hear the women's work appreciated for its uniqueness.  The event lasts several hours and there is no way that I could do it by myself!  I'm pictured below with Lynne who manned the table with me.  But more than that, she has been around since the inception of the women's project and has more years of craft shows under her belt than I!

The Benson's visit serves another purpose -- those from the States who purchased scarves got them transported back in Lynne's luggage and shipped promptly the day after her return in time for Christmas gift-giving.  It wouldn't be feasible for us otherwise!  Without those sales to the States, the women's profits would be cut by at least half!

And since I didn't have another photo of this blessing 'in action', I'm posting this one below -- Ellie LOVED Ms. Pat.  Right off the bat she announced she had 'granny' hair and that she would be Ellie's "Grandma #3".

Because our van was in the shop for an extended period of time due to a collision (another blog post), we stayed in Tirana for several days where we could walk to classes and be closer to our guests and the action of the craft show while we were without transportation.  While we were in class, Phil and Pat watched the kids in lieu of our regular child care plans in the village.  They probably had no idea that 'babysitting' would be part of their ministry to us, but it was so kind of them!  Pat also made a super big batch of sugar cookie dough that we've been using at a couple of youth events.  I am NOT a baker so this was not only a time-saver during a busy time, but made it possible to share some of our traditions from the States (cookie decorating) with our village friends (post coming up).

So all that to say, we love the Christmas tradition of having Vermonters come in early December!  They love us and our neighbors so well and help us feel like we've had a visit from family when family is oh so far away.

Christmas Traditions

It's hard to believe this is our THIRD Christmas in Albania since moving here in 2013.  One of our favorite traditions is a Christmas party at the Hope Center.

And one of the traditional elements is a photo booth!

I'll just share a few pics of our family in front of the tree...

We love it when Eda can join us for our visits!

You can always count on Nathan for a good photobomb

We had games, but my camera was smokin' from so many photo booth pictures, so I just got a few.  Here is Nathan explaining the rules of a "Yankee Swap" Christmas gift game (the gifts were all from us -- but this was how we thought we would distribute them, thus no cries of 'unfairness').  Interestingly, no one stole from anyone until it got back to the very first person.  I think they were all enamored with opening gift wrap and the allure of the 'unknown'!

Our kids insist on being included in everything now, and of course, had to be included in the game that involved presents.

Thanks to Pat Smith (I'll blog about our visitors in a later post), we had lots of sugar cookies to decorate!  Most like our American icing, but for others, it's just too sweet!
Also, I learned that this is no Albanian word for icing.

Sometimes Reni gets overwhelmed by all the love and attention he gets from the youth, but we've been trying to help him understand that they maybe miss their younger siblings or wish they had younger siblings and so all Reni has to do to show love is to be with them, and Mom and Dad will always be within eyesight if it gets too much!  I was proud of this moment where he received help with icing his cookie.

And finally, dancing to Jingle Bell Rock with what Ellie calls, "The Robot Santa."