Deep Breaths

The Holidays in a (chest)nut shell

Wow... so it's been a long time since you heard anything from us, huh? Sorry about that. Life's complications keep getting in the way of our best intentions. So here, in a very belated and somewhat abbreviated fashion, are a few nuggets about our first holiday season as Mr. and Mrs. Duncan and the aftermath:

We decked out our apartment with green and gold Christmas deocrations, including a tiny little tree that was rather reminiscent of the Charlie Brown Christmas special. But it was strangely perfect for our first Christmas, and it was nice to have a little bit of holiday atmosphere in the apartment. We had a lot of fun opening presents together on Christmas Eve, even though only a few things were surprises because we took each other shopping a few days earlier and let each other pick out a few gifts (otherwise I would have done a horrible job of picking out clothes for Leia, and she would have had to awkwardly pretend to like them while secretly trying to figure out a way to return them without hurting my feelings.) One thing we bought together was a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle, which we spent a portion of our holiday putting together whilst listening to Christmas music and such.

We spent Christmas day with Leia's parents, grandmother, and some family friends, and enjoyed a traditional English-style Christmas feast, complete with turkey and stuffing, roasted potatoes, cranberry sauce, and apple tart (among many other things). It was very hard being away from my large and loving family for the first time ever at Christmas, but in spite of a bit of homesickness we really did have a very nice time, and the food was phenomenal.

We had promised to take our youth group caroling before Christmas, but we ran into a scheduling conflict and were forced to take them the Friday after Christmas instead... so it was more like belated Christmas/early New Year's caroling, which I'm sure caught some of the church members off guard (as evidenced by a few church ladies who answered the door in their nightgowns). Nevertheless, they all showered us with snacks and candy, not to mention cash contributions (Budding entrepreneurs, take note: Christmas caroling is apparently a much more lucrative enterprise in Cyprus than in the U.S.) The only hitch with the whole evening was that all our caroling was in Greek, so at the back of the group was this big tall guy with a beard (perhaps you've met him), towering over everyone else and conspicuously not singing a word. Talk about feeling a bit out of place!

We basically repeated our Christmas pattern for New Year's, doing the romantic, on-our-own thing on New Year's Eve and going for a daytrip to the mountains with Leia's family on New Year's Day. The scenery was spectacular, and we had a very nice traditional Greek tavern-style lunch (let's just say that mouthwatering grilled sausages and cheese were prominently involved), but our fun was tempered a bit by the fact that our vehicle broke down and we ended up having to catch a taxi back to Nicosia.

On Jan. 2, Leia and I threw a post-New Year's dinner party and games night for a few of our friends, during which we introduced them to one our favorite desserts (chocolate fondue) and one of our favorite board games (Cranium). It was a crazy night filled with much laughter and high school reminiscences on the part of Leia and the girls, and a good time was had by all. It's pretty surreal being semi-adults and giving dinner parties, but I'm kind of starting to enjoy it.
















Alas, our blissful, restful holidays eventually came to an end, and we returned to work on Monday. Then Tuesday night we had quite a scare, as Leia started having rapid heart palpitations. Her parents rushed over and drove us to the hospital, and I got to do the attentive husband routine, sitting with her in the examining room, stroking her hair, trying to make her laugh... in retrospect, it was really quite wonderful and intimate in a way, in spite of the scariness of it. Anyway, you'll all be relieved to know that after a battery of tests, it seems that she's perfectly fine. Thanks to those of you who comforted us with your prayers during those few frightening hours.

For all our friends back in Tennessee, we thought you should know that we recently dispatched a representative of ours to Cleveland. Stephanie Alexandrou, a member of our youth group, has moved to the U.S. to study at Lee University, so those of you who meet her at church or on campus, be sure to give her a very warm welcome and help her to feel at home in what will definitely be a strange environment for her at first. And ask her what she REALLY thinks of her old youth leaders. Then report back to us.

And that pretty much brings us up to date. We are back in the rapid currents of work, youth ministry, bureaucratic red tape, and all the other activities that constitute our lives here. We deeply appreciate the phone calls, emails, MySpace messages, Christmas cards, and care packages that we received over the holidays from all our family and friends around the world. Staying connected in those ways makes our lives so much less lonely and challenging than they otherwise would be. So, in that spirit, let's see lots of comments to this post! If you guys are craving more frequent updates, make it worth our while! ;-)

We love you all, truly and deeply. We hope your own holidays were blessed and happy, and we'd love to hear all about any (mis)adventures you may have had. Until next time...

–John

posted by John and Leia @ 8:35 AM