Ending the Sabbatical with Christmas in Minnesota

Bonjour,

So now that we are back in the States, we headed to Minnesota to celebrate Christmas with our family. We thought you'd enjoy a few pictures from the festivities

Too bad there weren't many presents this year.

It seems that both the American and Moroccan economies benefited from this year's gift giving activities...

As shown in the photo at top, on Christmas Eve, we had a special surprise visit from Santa and one of his elves.

Introducing my family, including the new baby, Boden.

Tommy and Anna during the present-opening frenzy.

Anna reading to her little cousins.

My nieces, Eva (2 1/2 years) and Gracie (nearly 8 months and celebrating her first Christmas).

Then it was off to northern Minnesota for some time with Bob's family. Due to a most unfortunate tobogganing injury (I do not recommend sitting on your bottom, in the front of the sled, jammed together with a bunch of kids, and then dragging the heavy toboggan back up the hill when your back has already started to hurt), not a lot of photos by your blogger for a while there.

But I did recover...as Hunter captured.


And here is Hunter, striking a pose.

And here is Sara, aka Hunter's mother and Bob's sister (she is also known by other names).

Finally, here is Anna and Tommy "hitting the slopes," for sledding, anyway, at Auntie Jan and Uncle Jim's "cabin".

After a week of celebrations, it was back to Boulder for a snowy New Year's holiday, and someone's first day back at work.

It's now January 4th. Only 6 years and 361 days until my next sabbatical.

Happy New Year, everyone.

Au revoir,

Kim

A Wonderful Life

Bonjour,

So the date is all wrong. It's actually December 20th, and we're back in the States. But although we are happy to see friends and family again, we already miss so much of our life in Morocco.

More than anything, we miss our friends (and all the events to celebrate our year in Morocco, which were marked by lots of couscous and even more wine).

(I'm hoping that Lamyae and Khalil see this post and send a copy of the photo they took of us eating couscous at their home, so I can add it to the post...)

We miss our Moroccan pets, especially Stella (the cat below), Petey (the bird, also below), and Cocoa (the hamster). But Stella now has a good home with Rachida, our maid, and Pete and Cocoa live with Trish, Zoe, Nayla and Kai on the beach in Casablanca.

But saying good-bye to Stella, Petey, and Cocoa left Anna, Tommy and me all pretty blue.

And we even miss our Rabat house (although definitely not the proprietor/owner of the place),

especially our favorite reading corner by the fireplace.

When we first moved to Morocco in January, we didn't anticipate how hard it would be to leave our friends, our newly-adopted pets, our teachers, and even our house (which was a warm, cozy place, but mostly, as Tommy put it, was "home").

But I guess that's the price you pay when you become close to such amazing people and have such a wonderful experience... And we are grateful for our year.

A bientot,

Kim

P.S.: For those of you who have wondered how we got all of our stuff back, let me just say that it took a village. Planes, trucks and automobiles. And gracious friends and family.

But the result is that we were able to bring back some pretty things for Christmas presents for friends and family. (Below, a small sampling of the gifts that we have arranged to get back to the States).

Our Hay Riad (Rabat) Neighborhood

Bonjour,

So we are packing up to leave now, which feels pretty weird -- a little "unreal" as Anna and Tommy have put it -- for all of us.

Before we go, though, I wanted to share some pictures of the gates in our quartier (neighborhood), Hay Riad.

There are lots of beautiful homes in this area, but they are largely hidden behind tall walls and big gates, so you don't see much of them. But people do express some of their style with the design of their gates and doors.

Many have flowers or ornamental grasses growing above the gate door.

But as lovely as some homes (or at least the gates) are, this is still a developing country. So right next to a fancy home, you might see a vacant lot filled with leaves, branches, some broken glass, or even a small herd of sheep and cows, like this nice group grazing near the Marjane the other day.

We also have a large, green forest nearby. It's very quiet, and maybe not a terribly safe place to walk alone. But it is pretty.

Bob loves it when I take his picture for the blog.

And Tommy loves to throw sticks.

Here's one of our neighborhood mosques. Lately, I've been hearing the 4 a.m. call to prayer a lot more; it seems louder.

But not much more of that for us...

A bientot,

Kim

Christmastime in an Islamic Country

Bonjour,

So I had pretty much forgotten that it was getting so close to Christmas, until I read my friend Marie's funny blog post earlier this week. She totally makes me laugh. Check her blog post called "O Christmas Tree".

But with a lot of green, too much rain, and no formal Thanksgiving festivities beforehand, it can be easy to forget that Christmas is right around the corner. After all, you don't hear Christmas music playing every time you go in a store. And as you might have gathered, I've had my Christmas shopping pretty much done for a while, so it's not like I'm feeling a lot of pressure to find a bunch of presents.

But folks here are still aware of the Christmas holiday ("Noel"). In fact, when you go in the bigger malls, it's clear that at least a few retailers know who they want to attract in December.

Here's from the MegaMall.

(Fyi, photos are "interdit" (forbidden) inside the MegaMall, so it's a good thing the security guard doesn't know about the photos that follow).

And here's from the Marjane (Rabat's answer to Target) (not the most exciting decorations, but better than nothing).

A couple of the many other retail store windows.

Finally, here's our Morocco "Christmas tree" (for the next week or so, anyway).

But, as we found last night, even if you don't have many decorations or a tree only Charlie Brown would love, kids will still have fun decorating it (for at least three minutes).

A bientot,

Kim