Month: December 2017

This past Sunday we hosted a December birthday (Demetri and Papou) and name day (Anna and me) party with our whole family — 15 of us.  We did a traditional “American” Christmas meal: a rib roast, Gma’s patrician potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, salad and veggies. Desserts were traditional Greek cookies: kourabiedes (tea cookies covered in powdered sugar) and melomakarona (honey cookies with cinnamon, cloves and walnuts) … plus a lemon souffle from Papou, a galaktoboureko (custard wrapped in layers of kataifi dough) thanks to Katerina, and a Revani (cake with walnuts) compliments of Mina’s mom.  Greece is a dessert lover’s dream come true.

We had the same sort of party in November for birthdays (Thodoris and Michael) and name days (Katerina and Katerina). For that one, I made a tacos carnitas spread, which was Michael’s idea.  Much to my my delight I was able to find all the Mexican ingredients I needed except for fresh jalapenos.

School for the kids and Greek school for us is winding down this week for a nice, long, two-week break. The homework has been a little lighter this week for Michael which has allowed us to go do holiday stuff. Last night we went to Glyfada (the next town over) with Papou to its Christmas fair.  The boys and I ice skated for an hour, then they jumped and flipped on these big trampolines and played a little air hockey.  Peter was a total trooper skating, he fell the entire time but giggled and got back up.  There was a guy on duty there who must have picked him up 20 times.  We had dinner at an awesome place with all kinds of games and activities for the kids and lots of tables for eating. It was chic and modern but also warm and cozy and a place like this would kill it in the US.   Greece is wonderful for letting kids be kids.

Demetri’s homework is still pretty tough; this week he’s moved into present perfect continuous and past perfect continuous verb conjugations. His comprehension leaves me in the dust. I still only know verbs in present tense, which is probably some sort of cosmic advice about living for right now instead of worrying about the past or micromanaging the future … so I’m embracing it.

We found a super botanical garden on the west side of Athens thanks to our friends the Staals. It’s the largest arboretum in all of Europe and has a rare selection of plants from around the world.  Demetri was excited to see a deciduous cedar tree. There are great trails for hiking and walking and lots of really neat gardens and ponds.  And of course there’s a playground near the entrance for the kids.  The back of the gardens leads into some huge open space and we hiked as high as we could to get a view of the city — and we could see the Acropolis way out in the distance.  Michael said he thinks Greece is perfect … you can hike in December and not be cold.  The only other thing he says he needs are his friends from home.

Tomorrow night we are heading to Budapest for a proper Christmas market (we missed them by a few days in Belgium) and then onto Italy.  We are determined to find the statue of Perseus holding Medusa’s head and to our surprise, it’s housed in Florence instead of Athens.

Kales giortes  = happy holidays. 

Christmas has arrived.  The pageantry is by far our most favorite part of the holiday season and Athens is more decorated than we expected in light of the financial problems.  We’ve watched the crews hang lights all over Voula and Vouliagmeni during our morning runs by the sea.  It does seem kind of odd to have Christmas lights on palm trees, but that’s likely just a lack of exposure (mine). They still look festive.

Last Friday (8 Dec), there was a celebration in the Voula square  — games and bubble tricks for the kids, a local choir singing carols in Greek and then the lighting of the square’s Christmas tree followed by … fireworks right over our heads! The square is very festive looking and lots of fun.  The boys found a friend from basketball and ran around with him for an hour or more.

In downtown Athens, the Attica department store has its windows decorated for the holidays, lights are strung across the streets and the tree in Syntagma square was lit this week.  We took the metro into Athens last weekend to get our city holiday on, and ended with a hot chocolate in the gorgeous lobby of the Grand Bretagne hotel.

It is full-on Christmas here — not ‘holidays’.  98% of the Greek population is Christian Orthodox, and even though the Greek State and the Orthodox Church are technically separated, the separation is not regulated and the Church has a lot of power in Greek society.  Greece spent hundreds of years occupied and controlled by Turks or Venetians or others and during those times, orthodoxy was something that defined Greek nationality. The church made great efforts to preserve Greek language, culture, traditions and the Orthodox faith. By preserving the faith, they also preserved the religious conscience and the feeling of affiliation.  So while it’s odd for Americans to see religious symbols in public buildings, schools, subway signs, the history behind it makes it more understandable.

The remaining 2%? More than half are Muslim and the rest are Catholics, Jews and Jehovah’s Witnesses. The Catholics are largely populated on Syros (it was the only Cycladic island never inhabited by the Turks — the Venetians had it), and there is a significant Jewish population in Thessaloniki, Greece’s 2nd largest city.

Greek orthodoxy celebrates Christmas a bit differently. Midnight mass on Christmas Eve and then Christmas Day is usually a family dinner of some sort.  The Greek version of Santa, Agios Vasilis/St. Basil the Great, brings gifts on New Year’s Eve.  This makes the boys’ heads spin.  Will Santa find them on Christmas or will Ag. Vasilis come instead a week later?  Frankie, our elf, managed to find us. Complicating the matter is that we will not be in Greece for Christmas or St. Vasilis Day, so what does THAT mean?  We’ll just have to see what happens….

Our school held their Christmas Bazaar last night, 15 December.  There was an entire classroom for cookies and sweets, and the upper school was walking around auctioning off dozens of full cakes and loaves of tsoureki.  Each class was in the gym selling their Christmas crafts. We came home with little goodies which is terrific as we don’t have many decorations.

The Nipiagogeio (kindergarten) held a play titled “Who Kidnapped Agios Vasillis?” about, you guessed it, the kidnapping of Santa.  Over the years, Agios Vasillis has morphed into “the Greek Santa,” likely out of commercialization.  In reality, Agios Vasillis is a tallish, skinnyish fellow with a long beard who comes from the east.  His story is similar to that of St. Nicholas, who helped the poor and needy.  He died on January 1, 379 AD and the orthodox church celebrates his name day then.

The play was hilarious. The kidnappers, the head elf, and Santa were all played by teachers. Peter had two roles, one as a kid affected by the kidnapping, and one as an evil scientist who was on a team of interrogators with Santa in captivity.  He had 4-5 speaking parts, all but one in Greek.  We all cracked up when he asked Santa just exactly how he gets down the chimney.  (“πωσ περνασ μεσα απο ‘κι καμιναδεσ?”) Sounded like a native speaker. And he winked at us a few times from the stage.

In other Peter news, we went to the doctor one evening this week for coughs and pink eye.  The next day, Demetri got a call from Peter’s teacher asking if Peter indeed went to the doctor because he swallowed a fly and it laid eggs in his throat.  Demetri assured her that only the first part of the story was true and explained how we are really working on our imaginations in our nighttime storytelling.

We absolutely love all the cards we’re getting from our friends and family. Thank you all so much for thinking of us and sending them all the way to Greece.

Kala Christouyenna! Kales Giortes!