Merry Christmas, everyone! I hope you all had a pleasant, stress-free holiday. This is the first time I haven’t been home for Christmas. It’s strange to know that our usual family activities are still going on while I’m on the other side of the world. However, we’ve had our own family activities here. I’d love to share some of them with you!
Preparation…
Preparation…
Like I said in my last post, we’ve been reading daily Advent passages to prepare for Christmas. It’s built anticipation. We also began another tradition to further highten our Christmas spirit. December 20th was the monumental day in which we began our Christmas movie marathon. It was only fair to start with National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. The rest of the schedule is below. Today was the first time I had seen It’s a Wonderful Life. I know. It’s a good thing I’m across the globe so you can’t throw things at me. It was such an incredible movie. Why have I never watched it before???
Home-School Program
We were asked to help out with a Christmas program presented by a large collection of home-schooled American kids here in Istanbul. The kids sang songs, played instruments, put on short dramas, and danced. Quite adorable. Cheesy, but adorable. After the program, it was our job to take the kids downstairs in the church to eat dinner. The parents had their own thing to do, so we were responsible for keeping the kids entertained for the next couple of hours. I was with the 4th-7th graders. I immediately kicked into camp mode. We sang camp songs, folk danced, and played camp games. Boogaloo. Star-Trekkin. Boom chicka boom. Ships and Sailors. It made my night.
Chistmas Eve
The first half of the day was reserved for the girls. Chelsea and I (plus six other girls from the other two teams) started by heading to Starbucks. We then found a Turkish Bath. I can’t even put this experience into words. It was It was refreshing, relaxing, rejuvinating, and hilarious. If we hadn’t gone to the bath, I probably would have had a nervous breakdown. I discovered that morning that my wallet was missing. The compartment I keep it in was unzipped, which was not normal. My best guess is that it got swiped while we were walking down a ridiculously busy street the previous day. Inside was my debit card, credit card, the team card, some team cash, my cash, my license…you get the picture. Luckily, the day was redeemed. We basically hiked a mountain in order to get to a Chile’s that we discovered. I got chicken crispers. By far, the best meal we’ve had in the last five months. We ended the night by watching A Christmas Story.
Christmas Day
We woke up bright and early and ate a wonderful breakfast. After finishing up our Advent readings, it was time to open our Secret Santa gifts. Last week we decorated inside-out McDonalds bags as stockings. We each got stocking stuffers and we were allowed to spend 10 lira on our Secret Santa. Anthony was my Secret Santa and I was his, ironically enough. My favorite thing was a poem Ant wrote for part of his gift. Incase you can’t read the picture below, it says this: “Halley Power, girl of the hour. You’re so cute you deserve a flower. (Look in the fridge).” Inside the fridge was a can of coke with a flower taped to it. Adorable. Chelsea got me a cute litte ABC Spanish book because it’s my new goal to learn Spanish. I can now name one word for every letter of the alphabet.
We woke up bright and early and ate a wonderful breakfast. After finishing up our Advent readings, it was time to open our Secret Santa gifts. Last week we decorated inside-out McDonalds bags as stockings. We each got stocking stuffers and we were allowed to spend 10 lira on our Secret Santa. Anthony was my Secret Santa and I was his, ironically enough. My favorite thing was a poem Ant wrote for part of his gift. Incase you can’t read the picture below, it says this: “Halley Power, girl of the hour. You’re so cute you deserve a flower. (Look in the fridge).” Inside the fridge was a can of coke with a flower taped to it. Adorable. Chelsea got me a cute litte ABC Spanish book because it’s my new goal to learn Spanish. I can now name one word for every letter of the alphabet.
After changing out of jammies, we went ice-skating! It was a perfect Christmas activity. After leaving the rink, we each got to choose our own Christmas dinner splurge. Chelsea and I chose McDonalds and the other four went with Pizza Hut. Good stuff.
We finally got to read our ornaments today. They’ve been piling up over the last couple of weeks, so I was excited to take them down. Incase you don’t remember, we wrote encouragement, verses, and “words of life” on paper ornaments and stuck them to each others’ trees. I loved reading all the beautiful things from my teammates. They rock.
After watching It’s a Wonderful Life, we had skype dates with family. I got to sit in on my family dinner, as well as talk to my BFF Meagan. I wasn’t too homesick until tonight, but it was worth it. I miss everyone terribly, but I’m having the adventure of a lifetime. Before I go, I’d like to send a special shout-out to my little cousin (and best bud) Nathan. I heard you were a trooper through your surgery and I’m so proud of you. I miss you so much and love you bunches!
