Better late than never Christmas pictures

Here are my better late than never Christmas morning pictures. As you can see, Maya changed her clothes about a million times. Her favorite gift by far was the electric mixer.

In the Shop

Maya has also been helping her grandpa out in the shop. She's been pounding and painting. With real (kid size) hammers and real nails. She also made a nifty coat rack for her bedroom that we are going to cart back to Egypt with us...

This was also pre-Christmas. I'll post the Christmas Day photos once I upload them from the camera.

Sledding

The snow has now melted, but Maya got in some good pre-Christmas sledding with her dad and grandpa. We made a sled out of the top of her water/sand table that grandma and grandpa got the last time we visited (in the summertime).

You'd think from these pictures that Maya is used to a cold climate, as opposed to living in Cairo. But she doesn't seem to mind the cold that much at all. She loved the snow, and is so sad that it is (mostly) gone.

Decorating the tree

A couple days before Maya's salon visit, we went to a tree farm, picked out a tree, cut it down, and brought it home. Then we decorated it. It was a terrific experience for Maya, although she seemed a bit surprised that the trees at the farm did not already have decorations on it. She seemed to think that her Christmas tree should not just be a regular tree. She wanted it to come decorated.

Christmas Day

Maya had a very nice Christmas Day (and so did her mommy and daddy). When she first came downstairs she was a bit freaked out because she was worried Santa was still in the house, and she didn't really want to see him in person, to put it mildly.We had told her that Santa would probably park his sleigh on our balcony, and she thought he hadn't left yet and refused to be put down. But once she realized Santa was not around, she got excited.

Later in the day we ordered a huge meal from a local Lebanese restaurant of grilled chicken with sweet rice and lots of salads on the side. It was delicious (well, except for the cooked chunks of liver in the rice, which I mistakenly thought was lamb and took abite of... Yuck!).

Here are some pictures from Christmas morning, mostly of Maya opening her stocking.

Christmas Eve Pictures

Here are some matching pictures of the three of us on Christmas Eve, taken by Grandma Jan. It is a real treat to get pictures of all of us together. That doesn't happen too often because we rarely have another person around to take a picture.

Anyway, Christmas Eve was a really nice day. We got invited to a brunch at the Four Seasons hotel with some friends of ours who have a son, S. (I don't want to use his full name because I haven't asked for permission) whose birthday is within three weeks of Maya's birthday, and the two of them are really good friends.

The brunch was fabulous! We all got to sit around and talk while Maya and S. ran around and played on the floor. Plus we did the brunch during off hours, so there were no other people around who the kids would bother. I have never been able to have such a nice, relaxing lunch with Maya around before. It was heaven! And that was despite Maya skipping her nap.

After that, we came home and hung out for a while. We have a Christmas tradition of opening one present on Christmas Eve. So my parents gave us matching red Christmas shirts, which made for some cute matching photographs of us. Anyway, here are some pictures. I'll post more from Christmas Day later.

Hair Brag!!

OK, so I am very proud of myself for doing Maya's hair in a cool new cornrow style. These are the smallest rows I have ever made, and I did them in a very cool sunburst style. Maya was very happy with her braids as well.

This afternoon, we took my parents over to Teberh's house for a pre-Christmas meal of Misir Wat (lentils), Doro Wat and collard greens over injera. Yummy! We dressed Maya up very nicely and I had her practice saying: "Mommy did it". (You know, so she could tell Teberh and her roommates who did her hair). Of course, when we got there and I asked Maya what she was supposed to tell Teberh, she just said: "Hello". Oh well, I tried...

Maya had a terrific time at Teberh's. She even tried a cup of Ethiopian coffee, or buna. At first, she gave a horrific grimace after trying the coffee and spit it out. But then later she tried again and decided she liked it.

Here are some pictures of Maya from today, with her braids in and dressed up in a very nice dress for dinner at Teberh's.

Getting Ready for Christmas

Here are some photos of Maya getting ready for Christmas. She had a big day yesterday. We went to the park with grandma and grandpa, then came home and decorated the Christmas tree, then made Christmas cookies.

Maya loved making Christmas cookies. We gave her her own piece of dough, which she rolled, cut, smeared, licked and tasted. Fun! Meanwhile Grandma Jan and I actually made the cookies. Maya got to decorate them later with some frosting we had found at the grocery store.

Speaking of decorations, we had a terrible time finding stuff to decorate the cookies with. We called the local grocery to see if they could deliver us some decorations. We asked if they had either sprinkles or food coloring so we could make some colored sugar. They said they had white sprinkles and coloring for food. So we said, OK great, please deliver. What actually came to our door was white asparagus (the white "sprinkles") and turmeric powder (the "coloring for food").

Meanwhile, I had gone to the big grocery store by myself. I couldn't find any sprinkles or food coloring. But I did find some frosting in a tube. So that's what we used to decorate the cookies.

Maya the city girl!

Maya has developed some very urban habits. For example, she can hail a cab on the street and tell it where to go, Cairo style. Here's how she does it. When she sees a taxi on the street, she leans forward, waves her arm, and shouts: Gabalaya, Gabalaya. (That's the name of our street)

Of course, Maya does this even when we don't need to get a taxi. So today when we were downtown and crossing the very busy Tahrir square, Maya was trying to stand up in her stroller and shouting: Gabalaya, Gabalayato about a million passing taxis.

Anyway, last night we had some friends over who told us about a European Christmas bazaar where we could buy imported European wine and chocolate. And since it is not easy to get imported alcohol in Egypt, Mike decided he wanted to go to the bazaar. It was at the Nile Hilton hotel, and began at 9:30 a.m. It was a serious mob scene. By the time we got there by about 10:30 a.m., almost all the alcohol had been sold and expats were leaving the hotel with huge boxes and bags full of booze.

We didn't leave completely empty handed. Sure, we couldn't get any French or Italian wine. But we did manage to snag a couple of the last bottles of sparkling wine from the Hungarian booth, and from a couple of other lesser known European countries. I think we scavanged up some Maltese wine, for example. And there was a lot left at the Armenian booth. I hope it's good.

Maya also got to see Santa up close, as he paid a visit. But she was absolutely terrified of him and would screech if we got within a 5-meter radius. She also demanded to be carried the whole time we were there because, as she put it, "Santa scary".

Anyway, now we are yet again trying to solve an annoying apartment problem. An electrical surge blew out the switch on our heater in the living room and we need to get it fixed. It is COLD in our apartment right now!