Christmas! and such Holiday things

Wow. It has been a long time since we posted on here! Sorry about that! There's been a ton happening and going on. We've been learning and growing a lot, and we've been enjoying the adventure!
I guess we should start with Christmas. Which, by the way, all of our students believe is tomorrow. It has been so strange to be in a country that doesn't celebrate Christmas! Our students kept telling us we were confused because we thought Christmas was last week. They just combine the Christmas idea with New Year's and so don't understand our excitement or traditions. But, we had a good Christmas nonetheless. We made do with a few things we could find for decorations. We got a shrubbish kind of evergreeny tree and found some lights and balls to put on it. We couldn't find stockings, though, so I got a new pair of slipper boots to substitute for our missing stockings. We enjoyed Christmas eve with movies and food, and I woke up at 7:00 on Christmas morning, all excited like I was still a little kid or something!
But, we had a fun time giving presents to each other, even though some of them are stuck in Istanbul in customs at the moment. Later on in the morning we went to meet a friend at the mall and watch some girls from our University help in making the biggest ebru (a type of marbling art) ever. It was an attempt for us to get in the Guinness World Book of Records even! After that, we headed home and talked to our families for a while. It was a wonderful weekend for us to relax and celebrate Christmas and remember why we have Christmas in the first place. We sure did miss our families, but we are thankful to have each other while we are here. Tonight we'll be celebrating the New Year, and as tempting as it is to wake up at 7:00 and celebrate it with the East Coast again, I am looking forward to sleeping in. :-)
Aside from the holidays, we've been working our way through another semester. This one has been challenging because Jeremy and I both have repeat students - those whose grades were not good enough to go to level B. So, they work well sometimes, when they come to class, and feel like it, but many days it is a struggle to motivate them.
We've also started working on the language more fervently by buying the Pimsleur program. It has been fun to go out and work on our Turkish with people we meet. We still have a long way to go, but it has been fun. Thanks so much for all of you who are thinking of us and missing us. We miss all of you and are thankful for your love and encouragement!

Happy New Year!!

Thanksgiving! (sorta Turkey style)

Well, it seems that the holiday season as fully hit in the states. Though both of us have been away from our families on Thanksgiving before this year was definitely a lot different than any other one. It was somewhat difficult to watch friends at school counting down the days till they got to leave school to go spend a long weekend with families. Or to see the pictures of families getting together for the holiday. But we are very grateful for where we are and what we are doing.

We did not get Thursday off here so had planned to celebrate on Saturday. Last year we started a few traditions that we hoped we would be able to continue wherever we were in the world. Partly because neither of us are huge fans of turkey, and cause we were hoping to travel, our thanksgiving meal is non-traditional. We made three different kinds of meat this year: lamb meatballs, cubed beef, and chicken fingers. Then we each scoured the internet to find dipping sauces to make. We've discovered that we are both really big fans of mayonnaise based sauces. So we had two very similar mayonnaise and ketchup sauces (but both had some special ingredients to give them a unique twist!). Then Kylie made a pepper tarter sauce. I made a honey mustard. Then we had a repeat from last year with our alabama white bbq sauce. Then we also had some really good mashed potato balls, cabbage, and a baked, kinda breaded onion (that one needs some work still!). For dessert we had really gooey brownies.

We both finished the meal quite stuffed! We were also very grateful that the power came back on. We had just put the first of the meats on to cook when the power went off. Sometimes when that happens it is a few hours before it works again. This time it was just 15 minutes or so.

Another thing we had started last year was to set out all of our post-it notes. Then throughout the day as we think of things from the last year that we are grateful for we write them down and stick them on the wall. It is a lot of fun to think back on all the incredible things we have been given over the last year.

Thanksgiving wouldn't be completely right without some football though. So we went out in the evening and played together. It was good to burn off some of the calories from the meal!

While it was definitely not the same as most traditional thanksgiving celebrations, we still had a great time. We really do miss our family and friends. We are so grateful for how all of you have stayed involved in our lives. God has blessed us so much in allowing us to know and be influenced by each of you. So while we are far away from you we are grateful for you. We are also so grateful for the ways that we have been able to grow to feel more at home where we are now. It is a huge gift to be really happy and excited about where we are now. We are grateful for the many new friendships and experiences that we have had over the past few months here. We have lots to be thankful for!

More pictures: http://on.fb.me/hG3hNg