What a Christmas!

So much has been going on since the last episode I hardly know where to start. Why don't I ever learn to keep up with this blog?

When we left off we had just spent a week or so doing the town with Evan and were on our way to Chios to renew our visas. We have to leave the country every three months for long enough to turn around and go back in again, paying €45 for the privilege. In September and again this month we've taken the opportunity to go to the Greek island of Chios, a couple of km off the Turkish coast, where we can get things like peanut butter and sherry. This one was a whirlwind trip - the boats run only Tuesday-Sunday evenings and Wednesday-Monday mornings, and we had to be in İstanbul Wednesday afternoon to meet Rachel. So we took the bus to the gorgeous port town of Çeşme Tuesday afternoon, got on the boat, arrived in Chios half an hour later, shopped, ate a pizza in our chilly room, slept, jumped out of bed, and arrived back in İzmir in time to pack and catch a taxi to the airport. Our plane landed in İstanbul about the same time as Rachel got in from New York via London, so everything worked out extremely smoothly.

Begüm's parents Hülya and İskender rearranged their lives and household for us again, putting us up for a couple of nights while we glimpsed a few of the sights. It was a little frustrating not being able to spend more than an hour or so at Aya Sofya and the Grand Bazaar, and just being able to glimpse Topkapı through the gates. I hope it whetted their appetites, anyway.

Then back to İzmir by plane in time to tuck Rachel into bed.

The next day was Christmas Eve. Even though I'm retired I still needed to do some church stuff - get the bulletins ready for three services and prepare for the evening one. I was privileged to celebrate at the 8 p.m. service at St. John's. It's a popular place to go on Christmas Eve in Izmir; we had maybe 30 people receive communion but a whole lot more were in the congregation to watch the show!

Christmas Day was a bit of a rush. We had our traditional ketchup sandwiches for breakfast, thanks to Evan who brought some bacon from Canada. Then I needed to rush off to Bornova to get ready for the service there (someday I'll take the time to tell you about the Church of St. Mary Magdalene, Bornova). We actually had 35 people there - more than 3 times the previous high. After the service we were invited back to the amazing home of some of the descendants of the builder of the church for sherry and conversation - then home quickly to open presents and prepare for dinner.

I can't honestly say we've ever had a Christmas dinner like that before. We had four guests: Adolfo, a young man from Mozambique who showed up at the church a couple of months ago; Numan, a Turkish friend of his (a serious Muslim); Ayser, another friend of his, Palestinian born in the United Arab Emirates; and Andreas, a Swiss pastor making a pilgrimage around the seven churches of Revelation, whom I met at the church bazaar at the beginning of the month. Andreas recorded the event in his blog (http://www.johannesoffenbarung.ch/arbeitsjournal/Izmir_weihnachten.php) in a very clear and readable German. Scroll down quite far to see pictures of our Christmas Eve service and our dinner party.
One thing that stands out for me from the dinner was Numan excusing himself and borrowing our bedroom to do his evening prayers. I'm glad he felt free to do that, although our bedroom was an incredible disaster area and I'm not sure it was a fitting place. And then, after he was done, we popped our Christmas crackers and discovered they each contained a numbered whistle (more or less tuned) and a silly hat with music on it. Evan discovered a baton and instruction sheet containing the scores for several Christmas carols & other ditties. Good thing there were 8 of us, because that's exactly what we needed to play Joy to the World and Frosty the Snowman. Too silly. And when our guests left to make their way home on the bus and subway they were still wearing their hats and carrying their whistles.

Gotta take a break now. You've been reading long enough. I hope I'll catch up completely tomorrow.

Please note that I'm moving my photo album to Flickr - it's more flexible and more fun than Yahoo. Click on the link to the left to see it.

We'd also like to map where all our friends and family are. Click on the Frapr link to the left to add yourself to our map.