While I was busy cooking, Camille managed to get into our storage closet and climb into her old baby seat. Such a turkey.
Turkey Day!
Author: Robin Chartier
Happy Harvest
I’m pretty sure this isn’t what the Pilgrims had in mind as a Thanksgiving harvest:
In the background is our first baby watermelon, growing on the lattice.
The “problem” with composting is sometimes “volunteers” spring up from the remains that we’ve pit composted in the yard (dig a hole, toss in melon rinds, apple cores, etc). It makes for some pretty interesting mystery melons or squashes like this one. I guess we’ll find out if it’s edible in a few more weeks. You can avoid that problem by not composting seeds and/or having a true compost pile where everything is broken down completely before it is added to the garden, but this way is more exciting (and easier).
This is a small cantelope-type melon that looks just like the ones we buy in the grocery store here. That one definitely grew from the seeds and rinds that I tossed in that bed.
And cherry tomatoes are on their way.
It’s not pumpkins, corn, or acorn squash, but it’s our harvest!
Thankful
Things are blowing up again in Egypt and as much as I look back on our short time there as a “missed opportunity,” I am so thankful that I’m not looking ahead to this holiday weekend not sure if I’ll still be in country when Thanksgiving arrives. I’m not saying anyone is evacuating, but after going through it last time and being given such short notice, I’m sure there are rumors flying and bags are being packed, “just in case.”
In this alternate universe I’m enjoying Art and Barbara’s visit, shopping at the craft fair (and buying another pair of my favorite beaded sandals), and searching online for Alton Brown/Bobby Flay/Ina Garten’s best Thanksgiving side dishes as I’m narrowing down what to make for this weekend.
It feels a little Gwyneth Paltrow in Sliding Doors as I imagine what my friends are doing in Egypt and contrast it to what life looks like here in Oman. In this case, it’s a good thing I missed that train.
Jerash
The one other place we visited in Jordan was Jerash, a beautifully preserved Roman ruin that is about 45 minutes from Amman. I’m not usually a big fan of historical ruins or big piles of rocks that people flock to see, but Jerash was magical. It was my favorite place in Jordan, even coming in ahead of Petra.
Part of the magic could have come from the storm clouds that were rolling in and out all day, scattering rain here and there. It made for some beautiful skies against the mostly deserted ruins.
(This photo is of Amman as we were heading out of town.)
(This photo is of Amman as we were heading out of town.)
Coming up on Jerash. I included this picture because of the air freshener hanging from the rear view mirror. Later in the week Caleb and Carter had such foot funk from wearing their barefoot shoes nonstop that I took the air freshener down and made them rub it all over their feet on the way to Petra. It helped a little bit.
I don’t have a ton to say about Jerash because Calvin was the one with the guidebook and was busy telling us that these supposedly Roman ruins were using the Greek god names for their temples so he wasn’t sure if the guidebook was right . . . meanwhile I didn’t care who built it or what it was called — I was just happy to be there, climbing around the ancient city. And it was an entire city — Jerash is huge. We spent several hours walking around and didn’t see it all.
my attempt at a group photo while walking
Some of the more detailed “bricks” they have found — flowers on top, pomegranates on the bottom.
another giant coliseum
with many steep steps
view from the top of the coliseum — it’s a long way down.
We broke down and bought the boys “fa-lutes” (as Carter calls them). Fantastic cheap comedy. They were made out of pieces of bamboo that were taped together with colored electrical tape.
Fa-luting along
Caleb thought they needed a statue of Liberty
Trying to solve the Greek v Roman puzzle
because of the scattered showers, the boys were finding bunches of huge millipedes — this one was longer than the length of my hand.
In front of the temple of Diana, watching the storm clouds roll in and feeling the first drops fall. It was so much fun being there in the rain.
Headed back to Amman and happy to be in a warm, dry car.
Instead of Christmas tree lots, people were visiting the sheep lots to pick out their Eid sheep for slaughter. We passed 3 or 4 different ones along the side of the road on our way back to the city.
I have more photos of Jerash, but they are in the air somewhere as I’m transferring things between my netbook and my MacBook. There’s one more fun thing we did at Jerash, but since I haven’t found those pictures yet, that will have to be another post.
Amman mash-up
My eye is better today, but baby is sick. So I’m home with her while the family is out exploring a wadi today. She’s running a fever and is crabby so it was a no-brainer to keep her home. I’m waiting for the Motrin to kick in and hoping she falls asleep soon.
Our time in Amman was really fun. We rented a car at the airport and when the guy saw how many kids we had he upgraded us to a Pajero/Montereo like we have at home so we had plenty of room as we drove around the country.
Amman is located on many different hills. It reminded me of Ankara, Turkey with all the buildings stacked on the hillsides and the farmland surrounding the city.
We stayed at the Marriott in Amman — security was really tight there. Every time we entered the hotel we had our car inspected, passed through a metal detector, and had to have our bags screened.
Every morning they had the best breakfast buffet. I ate tons of strawberries, oatmeal with almonds and brown sugar, and a decaf cappuccino each day.
Not only was the food good, but the waitstaff loved all over Camille every morning.
The first day there it rained so we took the kids to the children’s museum. It was beautiful, modern, and lots of fun.
Calvin and Camille playing a video game — steer the bee to make your bee on the screen move. She was taking it very seriously.
If we lived here, it’s the kind of place we would visit all the time because there are things for all the kids to do and it was really clean and looked brand new.
Grocery shopping for lentils, beans, and rice. I love the little cart.
Calvin and his co-pilot. It was a full sized small plane. The funniest part was listening to Calvin and Carter “pilot” the plane using their “Harry Potter” accents.
Another afternoon while the baby napped, the boys went out to explore and stopped at a cafe for drinks.
Someone smoking shisha at a nearby table out of a hollowed out grapefruit. Josh said they could smell the citrus in the smoke.
The morning of Eid we went cruising around town to see if we could see any sheep slaughtering. In the Muslim faith, for Eid al-Adha (festival of Sacrifice) people will buy a sheep and slaughter it to remember how God spared Ishmael’s life on the mountain. If you are Christian or Jewish, you know the story as God sparing Isaac from becoming the sacrifice. Anyway, it’s a big deal and all related to killing sheep, which becomes particularly funny when all the decorations in the mall are of Shaun the Sheep (a favorite cartoon sheep here) the way Americans decorate for Christmas with Santa. All these happy sheep characters slapped up everywhere, just waiting to go under the knife.
This is the closest I got to a photo of sheep slaughter. I know, I totally failed. What you can’t see in this picture is the guy in the orange and green shirt is holding the knife in his hand and killing the large sheep right at his feet. More embarrassing is we drove by them twice and this is still the best shot that I got. Next time I’ll focus less on my super-stealth spy technique and more on actually getting the shot. On the bright side, I did figure out afterward how to set my camera to take multiple shots at a time, so next time I have a really good chance of capturing it. You know, with all the sheep slaughtering I encounter in regular life . . .
It was crazy seeing people right in the middle of the city with sheep tied up in their driveway and then the subsequent skinning and pools of blood on the street, but it’s not done to celebrate the death of the animal, rather God’s provision. Only those that can afford a sheep buy them (I think Mohammed said they cost 300 JD, about $500 each), but part of the significance of the holiday is they keep part of the meat for their family and give part away to neighbors or friends who can’t afford their own.
After my failed photography with the sheep, we stopped at the Roman Coliseum that is located right in downtown Amman. It wasn’t very crowded because it was “Christmas morning,” but there were groups of kids who lived nearby who were there playing and climbing up and down the many, many steps. They liked talking to Josh.
It’s huge, beautiful, and very steep.
Looking out on the city from the top.
This little guy’s name was Omar and he was skipping around the coliseum like a mountain goat, never a fear of falling. He didn’t speak English, but he motioned for Carter to “follow him” and they went off climbing together to the top.
Caleb was totally freaked out by how steep it was and decided it was much safer to climb up the steps on his hands and knees.
Looking across toward the citadel.
Omar tried to convince Caleb that it was safe to climb to the top, but Caleb wasn’t having any of that. He was hugging each step like he was going to fall off the side of a mountain.
Outside the coliseum we stopped at a stand and all the boys had mint tea. It probably makes me a horrible mom to admit that I didn’t have tea because I wasn’t sure where the water was coming from that he used to make the tea and I was sure it was fine, but knew drinking it would mess with my head so I let them all enjoy it without me. And yes, I did see the bottled water in the background of this photo, but I have a thing about consuming things from random stands and carts. Supposedly the tea was really good and everyone ended up being fine. I consider that a win-win.