Christmas in Turkey

Most of our snow melted for Christmas this year, but we enjoyed a wonderful weekend with friends.  The kiddo had great fun playing with friends from our neighborhood and going to another friend's home for Christmas dinner.  Thanks to buddies, we had a fun Christmas open house gathering in our neighborhood.  Hubby and I munched more holiday treats than is probably good for a reindeer, but it was darn tasty! Kido enjoyed playing with her buddies-and learning about the joys of climbing up and down bunk beds...they make great caves and adventure locations.

Another reason I love my husband...he doesn't ask why when I volunteer him to be Santa at the holiday party...he just does it.

For Christmas Eve, we decided to have one more Istanbul adventure.  We visited Kanlica in Istanbul.  It is a small village that sits on the Bosphorus and is famous for their yogurts.  The kido and hubby had yogurt with powered sugar while I munched yogurt with honey-it was amazing.  The yogurt was not super thick, but had a great tangy flavor and was great at soaking up all the sugar!

After our adventures, we put out an apple for the reindeer and some cookies for Santa.  The kido made sure to write down a list of what all the children wanted for Christmas (including her furry puppy friends who couldn't use a pencil): a baby doll for her; a duck for Pumpkin; a squirrel for Jackson.  Christmas morning, we woke up to kido discovering that Santa had indeed arrived in Turkey.  St. Nicolas originally is from a small village located in Turkey (modern day Demre), so I think he didn't have too far to travel this year.  

The kido's favorite toy of the year was the horse (Angus) from Brave and Merdia the princess.  It helps that they both came with a small plastic bow and arrow.  The kido enjoyed using the bow and arrow to chase her father and I around the house attempting to catch us with a rough bow.  Thus far, bows have been located in the Christmas cake, under the table, on top of the dogs, and in my shoe.  Lovely.

Pumpkin and Jackson recieved a stuffed squirrel and duck.  They busily squeaked through the house for the rest of the day. 

Hubby and I made Christmas day cinnamon rolls and scrambled eggs to keep up our energy through all the present unwrapping.  Hubby was very sweet and successfully made a 16 hour (usually about an 8 hour trip but got a little crazy because of a change in road regulations) treck back from Ankara to stock us with all kinds of Christmas goodies.  

After presents and breakfast,  I attempted a little taste of home with a red velvet cake recipe from Gabriel's (a favorite bakery in Marietta).  I didn't have any veggie oil to create the cake with, so I sent the hubby out for olive oil-it worked perfectly! I was a little worried it might make the cake taste too olivey, but it ended up fruity, light, and delicious...and probably better for us...until I smeared the whole thing with pecan-vanilla-cream cheese frosting.  Yum!! Kido who usually ignores all cake and just eats the frosting, loved the cake.  

We enjoyed sharing the Christmas cake with buddies and hung out eating lots and drinking amazing cranberry/orange/cinnamon tea.  Kido enjoyed chasing her buddies around the house and playing with all their new Christmas toys.


Our yummy cake.  It was amazing!

Looking forward to a few last adventures before the hubby leaves next week...and looking forward to all the adventures of the upcoming year!