Breakfasts, Neighbors and MUNers

I've been very busy lately; that's my excuse for not posting in quite a while. :) Our Charlie Brown Christmas tree turned out pretty well. Turks decorate trees here for New Year’s, not for Christmas. There are more decorations this year, definitely more than last year.

We had the staff over for breakfast last Sunday to celebrate Christmas. Every other month we have house churches, so we thought that would be a good time for people to come over for breakfast, especially since it was the only day something wasn’t going on! We had lots of wonderful food. I saved my sausage and cheddar cheese to make sausage-egg casserole for everyone. I also had ham that I got in Prague. I shared my cranberries so Hannah-Lee could make a cranberry-orange loaf. It was a real treat. We listened to Christmas music, sang some carols, and then watched “Charlie Brown Christmas.”

Our neighbor came up to complain about our signing being too noisy. She accused us having church in our home, which is illegal. We were watching the movie at that point, we invited her in, but she declined. This is the same neighbor we had all the water problems with last year. She likes to complain. And the fact that we are foreigners makes that easier to do. But we had a great time regardless.

Currently I am at the Turkish International Model United Nations Conference. I brought 11 students to Istanbul for a four day conference. We have two delegations, Uganda and Ireland. The students are divided into committees where they have been busy passing resolutions on their various topics. I’m very proud of them. We had a lot of fun last night. We went to dinner at TGIF’s. Yes, they have not one, but two in Istanbul. I had a very scrumptious chicken fingers platter. The kids are great. We’ve had a lot of fun and they have been very well behaved.

All the days leading up to the Christmas holiday are packed. This coming week we have the winter recital, two student Christmas parties, and the faculty Christmas party. I leave on the 20th for America. I’m very excited about spending Christmas with my family and getting to see so many of my friends. I’m counting down the days!

PS - Lots of new pics on photobucket including Thanksgiving, Model UN, basketball tournament and Christmas brunch. http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y145/CDeLong/