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| The face you all come to see. My witty remarks are all just filler, I know. |
...Happy New Year...Happy St. Valentine's?
Ok yes, I've been gone for a long time. The new semester involved, quite unexpectedly, a lot more work than I had anticipated, mainly with applying for graduation (finally!) and applying to grad school. Especially with a school that takes joy in screwing around with student's records, this has been rather involved.
So the last time we saw each other we were about to celebrate Nativity. Here's a guide to Nativity in Ortho-house. Y'all saw our tree n' such, I believe, so we'll start with Christmas Eve. Our tradition, for as long as we've been Orthodox, is to spread some hay on our table and cover it with a white table cloth. This reminds us of Christ's being born in a stable and His swaddling clothes. We leave the straw on the table for all 12 Days of Christmas.
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| I know what you're thinking and yes, hay does become the decoration that will endure past pine needles in your home. Everywhere. Including in your child's mouth. |
Then we set the table with an extra table setting, symbolically for those who've died in the past year and as an available seat for any unexpected guests. We have 12 dishes every Christmas Eve too, to honor the 12 Apostles.
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| It's been a while since we ate. If I remember right we had a veggie broth soup, apples, snow peas, beet salad, koliva, salmon, sparkling cider, crackers, garlic, salt, honey, and...maybe water? I can't recall. |
The garlic is one of the worst possible things ever. We dip a raw garlic clove in honey and then you have to crush it with your teeth. It represents the bitter parts of life being bearable because of the sweetness of God's grace. It's the first thing you eat, and if that's your bitter part of life then your bitter is pretty bad. It burns.
Then we head to Church for Vespers. It's decorated with poinsettias.
The next day we head back to Church for Divine Liturgy, and then our parish has a pot luck. We brought bread pudding.
After the pot luck we come home to presents!
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| If you look closely you can see where Daddy mislabeled a gift because he wrapped them all quickly on Christmas Eve... |
The Spawn received, in the red package:
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| A little wooden train! |
In the white package (from a friend of mine):
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| Wood blocks with the periodic table painted on the sides! |
And, in the blue:
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| A sword, which he was REALLY excited about for a bit. |
Since then we've not had a lot happening. Athanasius is walking now. When these photos were taken it wasn't very well, but now he's using walking as his primary transport.
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| Which does make it even harder to get a clear shot. |
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| His rash seems to be clearing up, for now. Eczema. |
We had a Christmas party just before Theophany. Some friends came over for ham, gravlax, cheese, chutney, cider, mulled wine, crackers, and a host of other things I can't recall now.
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| Oh and mince pies which I found gross. |
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| Though I do love Christmas crackers. |
Spawn also turned 10 months old in this period:
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| The party tuckered him out. |
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| Temporarily. |
But that doesn't keep him from his hobbies.
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| Which he's taken to with relish since we've expanded his range. |
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| Eating solid foods is still something we're working on. |
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| And he's heading to Sochi, aiming for the gold in Sleeping. |
He's also sprouting another tooth, which is just a LOT of fun.
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| Alligator smile, this one. |
And, as I said, his walking is getting much better.
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| And, unfortunately, his climbing skills. |
But that's all I have for you, mes amis. So, until next time,
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| Relax, and keep your feet up. |
