Thanksgiving 2008

This year we hosted Thanksgiving at our home...we had one friend from church, le grand parents and great grandparents. First they all watched the game (I was cooking)...which I don't know if it ended in a satisfying way for Stephen (Cowboy fan) After the game we hang around since I was still cooking and then we had dinner. Our menu was: turkey, greek stuffing, green beans alla grek, sweet potatoes and apples casserole, spanakopita (spinach pie), bread and cornbread. For dessert we had banana and pumpkin bread, pumpkin cheesecake, sweet potatoe pie and oatmeal cookies...talking about a full tummy when all was said and done. Before our dinner everyone shared what they were thankful for this year...there were some tears of joy knowing that two of our loved ones went to be with the Lord this year. And we rejoiced at the new life in so many areas one of which being our precious angel Gabriela Zoe. I thank God that I enjoy being a mommy sooooo much! Hope your Thanksgiving was good too!!!

About town

One of the things I really enjoy is taking scenic walks, whether it is in our little community or our beautiful outdoor mall and this little new manmade pond close to our home. I get to appreciate them even more if I have spend some extra time inside the house. Above are pictures from our different outings the last couple of weeks.

Our Standing, Walking, Crawling in funny places...PRINCESS

Gabriela Zoe now is able to crawl around with great agility and that in now how she ends up in weird places....like inside/underneath the exersaucer. Praise God we put gates on top of all the stairs to prevent the unthinkable should we not watch for one minute. She is amazing about entertaining herself...even though after some time she requests my attention rather strongly :-) Moreover, since October 25th she has been pulling herself up to standing and the last few weeks she has been experimenting with letting go (which also has made her an expert bottom lander (-: ) On Thanksgiving day I was picking some stuff up from the room adjasent to her and she was playing in her room. Since she had been quiet for a while I popped my head in to see what she was up to...ta da!!! She was standing pushing her cube and taking steps behind it and pushing and walking. I started laughing which startled her and caused another bottom landing. We are having fun!!!

yukies up your nose

When we got back from Greece I had a cold and decided that it was not good to be alone suffering...so I gave it to Gabriela Zoe and Stephen. We are all done with our colds but there is still buggers up our nose. I am having such a hard time cleaning out Gabriela Zoe's nose it is beyond me. I have to literally pin her down to be able to get them out and every time I pray to God to help me because no matter how hard I try she moves and screams so much I do not get to all of it. Plus I heard that I can hurt her little capillaries with the nose suck thing (since I am a chronic nose bleeder, I don't want my daughter to have sensitivity to that also). I have to clean her nose because for one it bothers her when she is sleeping and nursing and secondly if I leave them in there that could cause an infection and then things would be worse. Since I have been doing that every day, several times a day for the past 2-3 weeks I have started to have thoughts on it. How much like us is little Gabriela Zoe, we will hold on to things that are not good, actually even bothersome to us sometimes, just because the process of removing those things is painful or uncomfortable. Then if we do not let God remove those things they can become an infection in our lives that will take long to heal. I pray that I let God take the yukies out of my nose when I need it and not freak out...because me...unlike my sweet baby, I am an adult and I know that God wants the best for me. Thus my thoughts on this issue...by the way do you know of a good way to clean the nose that might be more pleasant for my daughter?

The Return Trip

I promised earlier that I would say why it was worth it to go through all the trouble we went to, meaning the extra long trip. The time has come....we got to see our dear friends Sofia and Johan...as well as little Anna Catherina. Since they live in the Netherlands and we live in America...and both Sofia's and my family live in Greece...when we go on vacation we go there. It does not leave much money to visit each other's countries of dwelling. So we decided that we would get KLM with a longer lay over in Amsterdam so that we can meet up with our friends. At first we were going to go to their house but in the end we decided that since the time of day was rush hour it was best that they made the trip. It was ssooooo good to see little Anna in person, she is such an adorable baby!!!!! We realized that most of our conversation revolved around babies...I think it bothered the men more than it bothered us moms. Truth be told it is so important to keep reading and getting involved with things that have no babies in them so that there are other topics of conversation when in the presence of other adults...especially ones that do not have babies.
The time went by so fast and soon we had to say goodbye. We all look forward to the time that we all get to meet in person again...Gabriela Zoe and Anna are probably going to be walking by then!!!! We love you guys!!

Vacation Dates

us with the endless stairs as backdrop :-)
view from our table
our beautiful overcrowded Athens
indoor pool fun

October 22 date night
the view from our room
the story of this picture is below :-)

One of the things that Stephen and I looked forward to while we were on vacation was the opportunity we had, since we were so close to family :-), to go on dates. Well, thank God, we were able to have one. It was supposed to be two but the little getaway close to the beach ended up including Gabriela Zoe. So we celebrated our 4 year anniversary from the time Stephen called my parents to ask for permission to date me...with the intention of marriage. Our little getaway was at a beautiful hotel...I think we could jump into the water from our balcony. Even though it was cold outside and windy, inside the A/C was not working but that allowed it for us to open the window and enjoy a night sleep hearing the crashing waves....ahhhh.
So on our actual date we went to Lykavitos (it is currently and has been for several decades, the highest point in the city of Athens) . I wanted to walk up to the top but we decided against that idea, so we took a little tram that does the climbing for you :-) Up there somehow my Greek brain guard was down and my american naivete was up so when this old man told us to stand to take a picture...we stood. It was a polaroid and we did not like it so we did not want to buy it...but its true its not like in America that they are digital which doesn't really cost anything. Anyhow so we had to buy it , in Greece if they take the picture you gotta buy it, and for 7 euro :-( We took some pictures of our own that we liked a lot better, ate delicious food and once we were down that hill we walked down the endless stairs to the main street where we took the bus to our return home. We loved it!!!

Visits

Since our time was limited we did not have the time to see people one of one..thus my idea of having a party and having people come but that did not work out...it was a crazy two weeks. So we actually got to see only few of our friends one on one. One family of them being Marianna, Filippos, Dimosthenis and boubou. Boubou and Gabriela Zoe are only a few weeks apart to it was so neat to see them interact...even though Gabriela Zoe who had the whole crawling down was running after Dimostheni...don't we all admire more those who can do more than we can? We had a lot of fun talking mostly baby things of coarse, it was almost like we had hung out the month before...so nice to have friends like that :-) Our next visit was one of the last nights we were in Athens and after we put Gabriela Zoe to bed (9:30) we went to another friend's home the Oikonomakides but really the idea started with christina. Last time we were there she had a things for crepes, so she kept saying we had to go eat crapes...well like usuall we did not get around to it so I promised her that next time we would make it a point to go out for crepes. Well being late and all we ordered a delivery and hang around the house. I listened to my sister because since I gave birth I like chocholate a lot more...but man they put soooooo much chocholate on that crape it was sticking to the roof of my mouth and then it was sooooooo big that I felt embarased I ordered and something else....I don't even remember what it was because my brain is filled with crapes. I am pretty sure that it will be a while before I have another one ;-) Nonetheless we laughed about my naivity and all and had a fun time reminising of times of old. Poor Stephen he had to keep nudging me to translate..I don't know why but this trip I kept forgeting to translate. I think that is partly because there is a part of me that thinks that Stephen knows enough to understand and yet I forget that we talk to darn fast!!!!