Alexandra's Baptism- Part 2

There she is after the baptism! I couldn't wait to share this picture. It's one of my favorites. All of the pictures that I have are from my camera...and most of them were taken by me. I have yet to call the photographer to see if the pictures that he took are ready.

Here's a picture of Alexandra and her Nona before the baptism. This is only the beginning of a rough ceremony. Alexandra knew that something was going to happen and she wasn't very cooperative. See how she's reaching for me as I take the picture? She put up a good fight at the church. She screamed throughout most of the ceremony. She kicked and punched to get away from her Nona and the priest. I held her for the majority of the ceremony even though the Nona really should. She loves her Nona, but I think that there was more excitement and attention than she could handle. If you have a baby and want to have a baptism, I suggest doing it while the baby is still and infant...not a toddler. :)

After the ceremony she settled down and that's how I managed to get a few nice shots.

Little Joji wants to cheer her up.

Izabella's dress is pictured above. She loved this dress! Below is one of the very few photos where my two children are actually together and you can see how she looked in her dress. As you can see, Foti is untucked and comfortable. He was running around throughout the ceremony. Everyone, including the priest, kept asking..."where's your husband?". I frequently whispered, " chasing Foti" or " looking for Foti". Foti just doesn't like to be involved in gatherings of this sort. He did the same thing at the last baptism that we attended, but it didn't really matter then because it wasn't his sister being baptized. So, when we look at the pictures 20 years from now and he's not present in most of them, we can just laugh and tell him that he put us through hell on the day of his little sister's baptism. The girl in the pink dress is Alexandra's God sister, Irini.

*** Me & another BAD hair style ***

Yes, it's true. I hated my hair. It's not what I wanted at all. Everyone was really nice and complimented me but I didn't like it one bit. Why? Because it's not me. Once again I brought a photo of what I wanted my hair to look like on this very special day but alas...my hairstylist had another idea. My hair looks nothing like the picture that I handed her, nothing. My new koubara (the Nona) and I talked about it the other day and said, "well-as the day went on it started looking more like you". AAAACCKKK! Better yet, when I walked in the door fresh from the salon my kids cracked up laughing. Iza said, " Foti, (hee, hee, hee) LOOK AT MAMA!" (giggle, giggle, giggle)...and Kosta inquired, "how much did I pay for that?" and walked away. Fantastic. I think that I'll shave my head and start over. The day was about our little princess, not me- and the show had to go on.

Here's something that I forgot to include in the previous post. It's the decoration that we put on the koloumbithra. The koloumbithra is the vessel that holds the water in which the baby is baptized. It looked so beautiful during the ceremony. Here's a close-up showing some detail...

Finally, a photo of the dessert boxes that were chosen for to hold the sweets that were handed out at the end of the receiving line after the baptism. I didn't have the chance to take pictures of the actual dessert. We chose a dessert called "coke" (kok). It's a cream filled puffy pastry that's easily eaten by hand. Ours had pink frosting instead of the typical chocolate frosting, they were delicious!

I'm taking a break for a few days. Hopefully, the photographer's pictures will be ready and I will have some pictures from the actual ceremony. Until then...

Alexandra's Baptism

It seems that whenever I'm not online very much that I must be up to something. Well, for the past month or so I've been organizing Alexandra's baptism that took place on the 19th of July in Kozani. I've just been recovering from all of the excitement as well as spending time with friends and family. Preparing for this baptism was unlike the last one that because I was actually here to shop and plan. Izabella and Foti had a joint baptism in 2005 that we planned from Milwaukee, which meant that MIL and SIL did most of the running around here in Greece. I looked at pictures of boubounieres(favors) that were sent to me via snail mail and we sent our self-designed invitations overseas in bulk ready for MIL and SIL to hand deliver...which is how most invitations in our family are given out. For this baptism I had an idea in mind of what I wanted the invitations to look like, but decided to go to a printer to have the them made. That decision alone saved me a lot of time and work. I ordered them on my own, which is a big step for me. Of course, the owner of the print shop had to go into the "which is better...Greece or America?" spiel but I'm used to it now so I didn't let it bother me. It's just so silly isn't it?

So, I ordered the invitations and headed for the photographer who was a referral from a friend. Everything went ok with him also, except about a week before the ceremony he called us and told us that he needed gas money to travel to Kozani. Um, what? The problem was that he couldn't find a videographer willing to drive so he wanted us to compensate him by paying him the gas money. My husband basically told him that he'd better get busy looking for someone else. Here's what I think...why didn't he just slip the cost of gas into the total estimate before we booked him? (Weird and unprofessional) So, a few days after that he called and said that he found someone to work and everything was fine and we didn't have pay for his gas.

Alexandra's Nona (Godmother) was extremely excited and started shopping immediately after we accepted her proposal. Yes, she asked if she could baptize our little one since she hadn't been baptized yet and I was really flattered and excited that she was willing. I joined her several times as we shopped for the event. She wanted me to approve the baptism dress and boubounieres. I really didn't think that was necessary since I believe that everything was totally her choice but I accompanied her to the baptism shop anyway. Plus, it was an enjoyable experience and it got me away from the house. As I suspected, the things that she chose for our daughter were just beautiful. Here's the dress...

The baptism box that contains most everything needed for the ceremony...

This box is also a little bench that she can use in her bedroom later on.


The contents of the box...

What's all of this?

-baptism towel

-new shoes

-new socks

-new underclothes that will help absorb some of the oil from the baptism

-a keepsake box containing the oil used in the ceremony with some soap

-the hat

The boubounieres(favors)...

They are little money banks...


The labada... The martyrika...

The martyrika were actually chosen by my cunyada (SIL). I think that she did a great job as well.

We also shopped for dresses, shoes, sweets and anything that you can imagine that was needed for the day. I really don't like shopping though. It was nice to get out of the house but shopping isn't one of my favorite things to do so I think that I managed to come out of it alright. I was a good sport and I'll admit that I enjoyed myself.

That's all that I have time for today. There will be more great pictures to come!!

Weekend harvest

Our garden is coming along nicely. This is what we harvested on Sunday afternoon. We only had one green cucumber. The rest of them are yellowish...something is wrong. I was told a few different things by a few different people.

First, someone said that I'm watering them too much.

Next, I was told that they need to be fertilized.

Shortly after that-they're getting too much sun.

Finally, we're not watering them enough. (sigh)

I suppose that it's up to us to figure out what our cucumbers need. ???? I've grown them before on my balcony in Milwaukee so it's not my first encounter with this veggie. Only time and testing will tell what's wrong with the cucumbers.

So, aside from that little mystery things seem to be growing well. We're really enjoying our first real garden. Here are some photos that I took last week...

L is for Lizard

Well we've had quite and exciting week with the creatures around here. The kids have a new routine that includes catching as many lizards as they can before coming in for the night. Last night we had 3 lizards in a jar. Today we have 2. The kids always let them out in the morning so that our lizards can thrive. It's funny because sometimes when the kids grab them, their tails break off. Now they can differentiate between a new lizard at the house and one that they've had before because so many are missing their tails. Foti is such boy when it comes to these things. He loves to watch the broken tail flip around in the palm of his hand while giggling, that is, if a tail breaks off. I think it's gross but, hey, I'm not a boy -so what do I know.
Speaking of lizards, I finally saw the big green one that everyone has been screaming about. Ok, so it's not as big as an iguana, but it's half the size of one. It's very green and lives somewhere on the property. I'm glad that I was able to see it so I can acquaint myself with it, perhaps when I'm weeding the garden since it seems to hang out there. I promise to snap a picture when it comes out of hiding.
Tonight we also have a gross spider making a web inside of a water bottle...taking up residence is Foti's room. It's definitely got to go in the morning. I don't want that thing getting out.
And finally, the owl visited us again. He decided to visit us late in the afternoon. The kids were thrilled. Gigi didn't stop barking for about 15 minutes after that incident. As I was talking with a friend last night she mentioned that my house sounds like a zoo. I agreed.

Some pictures for Saturday

It's been a busy week but we still managed to squeeze in some beach time. We went to a beach with a shipwreck in Epanomi called "Navagio". The shipwreck itself was really cool. It was fun to snorkel and see all of the fish that thrive around the wreck. Iza wanted to catch one so we did -but it took a while. That's the fish in the 2nd picture. That's all for now. Have a great weekend!

Storm

Here is a photo that I took at dusk Friday night, the 4th of July. The color of the sky was amazing as the sun was setting and a storm was approaching. This storm was packed with heavy rain and a few strong gusts of wind, but only lasted for about an hour.

Figs

Fresh figs. Honestly...I'd never had a fresh one until last year. The only fig that I ever knew before that was our lovely cookie back home called the Fig Newton. These figs were given to us by a neighbor yesterday. We do have a fig tree but it isn't ripe for the picking yet, we still have a few weeks in front of us for that. These figs are absolutely delicious!

1st Octopus of the Season

I think that a lot of my readers were thrilled with my first octopus post from last summer so I owe it to all of you to share the news of our first octopus of the season. This octopus was speared by Kosta on June 15-Father's Day. What a great present for him! He was only in the water for about 10 minutes when he emerged with his catch. I find that amazing. I've snorkeled a lot and I've still never seen an octopus hiding under a rock or swimming. I've been trying to spot one for 18 years. Maybe one day I'll see one but I'll leave the spearing to Kosta and in the future, Foti.

It was interesting to see how the kids reacted to the octopus this year. Izabella seemed a little apprehensive to handle it this time and Foti wanted to take it from Kosta as soon as it came out of the water. He's definitely a future octopus hunter.

He even volunteered to slam the octopus on the rock in order to tenderize it. I'm glad because I didn't really feel like doing it since my designer sunglasses were stolen and it wouldn't look quite right unless I was wearing them. Look at how seriously Foti was doing his work!

The kids also listened intently while Kosta explained where the tooth of the octopus was, how the suctions worked and why the octopus squirts ink.

This one was a fighter and was trying its best to get away. Although it's delicious I have to admit that sometimes, just sometimes I'm not thrilled watching the process. I forget quickly though because I love to eat them and I think that my husband is a master at handling them.

I think that we all posed with it this time. Here's one of Izabella's poses. She slammed the octopus on the rock a few times but it was too hard for her, she said that it was too heavy.

After we were finished tenderizing the octopus a little boy that had been watching us came over to show us the starfish that he found. I thought that it was sweet but my kids weren't impressed after having handled an octopus. I still think that it was sweet and I told them to be kind to him. I assume that he was vacationing with his parents since he didn't speak Greek or English.

When we finished at the beach we were ready to make dinner. We brought fish with us that we had planned on grilling and we added the octopus to our menu. It took longer on the grill but it was worth the wait...and I can't wait for the next one. There's nothing like fresh seafood in the summer!

***I'd like to thank our new friend Phivos Nicolaidis for featuring a picture of Foti on his travel site. His site is extremely informative, beautifully descriptive and he has great music also! Check it out! Thank you Phivos!***

10,000 Hits

Yesterday my site reached 10,000 hits and that's pretty exciting. I logged on at 9,999 and told Kosta where it was and he wanted to be the 10,000th visitor and so he was. That was really cool. He wanted to know what the prize was and I told him that I was not giving out a prize so I'll just make him an extra frappe and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

What started out as a means to communicate with my friends and family back home has become so much more than that. I have the benefit of keeping everyone up to date and also meeting others with similar interests. I find it amazing and flattering that there are so many people out there that think my life is interesting enough to keep reading and I'm flattered. OK, I guess that my life can 't quite be classified as boring since I have so much to blog about and little time to do it. Boy, if you only knew the whole shebang . I think I'll save all of that for the reality show that I always joke about and definitely the book. I'm not joking about the book though. Someday, somehow it will surface.

Anyway, I just wanted to mention that I think that reaching 10,000 hits is amazing. Thank you for reading! Who knows how the future will unfold...

Benching

We passed several people in the park that were trying to relieve themselves from the heat by resting on the benches. We called it "benching".

Nice benching huh?

Over the last week we've had a few visitors from back home. First, we had Foti's Nona (Godmother) visit on Saturday. He was very excited and couldn't wait to show her everything about his new house. That visit was short and hopefully we'll be able to visit her in her family's village before she leaves Greece.

Our next visitor was Pete. Pete has been a friend of ours for the better part of our marriage. He's visiting southern Greece for a few weeks and we were lucky enough to have him travel up north so that he could spend a few days with us before he was on to his island hopping and family visits. It was great to have a friend from home here for a few days. He brought me a Hershey's Symphony bar and Jalapeno seeds for my garden. The kids were thrilled because he gifted them with fruit snacks and Fruit Roll-ups.

It seems that he arrived just in time for the summer heat to turn up and we all suffered together. I kept joking about how shiny we all were and how Greece has given us such a healthy glow...he'd roll his eyes.

Pete was also lucky enough to meet our little owl. It ventured down the fireplace to have a peek at us earlier in the day and then at around 2:00 am as we were enjoying a conversation it decided to join us. Pete was more than happy to help me lead the owl out of the house. It flew into a window, bump into walls and finally ended up behind the TV. The little guy seemed exhausted. Pete wrapped it in a towel and took it to the window so that it could fly out and that's exactly what it did. It took a minute to assess the situation before it actually took off. I'm very surprised at how calm the owl was when Pete picked him up. It didn't seem alarmed at all. That was really cool.

The next day we took Pete into the city. We actually did a tour of the city by car because it was so hot. He also suggested that he'd prefer it that way! It was just so hot!

So we drove around and stopped for something to eat. On our way out of the city we stopped at some landmarks at the sea front. We got out of the car to take a few pictures and buy some water.

The kids enjoyed running around the statue of Alexander the Great.

And then they just ran around the park area. They had a blast.

When we were walking back to the car we noticed police officers ticketing cars that were illegally parked and one was even equipped with a power drill/screw driver. As they ticketed vehicles for being parked illegally they were also removing license plates. I can't say that our timing couldn't have been more perfect as our car was next in line for the punishment. We won't be stopping there for a quick picture again without looking at all of the signs. It didn't seem like an illegal parking spot as we waited for the spot when we were parking and there were cars parked all the way down the street. But then again we're in Greece and anything goes. We've got to be more careful. It would have really stunk if we had to go to retrieve our plates at the police station...we know because we've already done it! That's another story...

So Pete left yesterday afternoon and now I'm trying to catch up with everything that I've neglected over the last few days. Until my next post...