The tree has been up for a while, the presents got wrapped (either proactively… last week, or in a mad rush last night, Christmas Eve), they’re currently UN-wrapped and your somewhere in your day, either preparing for or (hopefully) digesting turkey dinner.

Welcome to Christmas!

Ours has been a bit more rushed than normal, because Liz & I got back late Sunday night, from a few days away… only two full days to prepare what hadn’t previously gotten done…

Istanbul, Turkey

Every couple of years, we take a few days, at the beginning of December and we head down to a spot just outside of Pisa, Italy. It’s a TimeShare that we picked up before coming to France, as a way to ensure that every other year, we’d get away someplace for a true vacation – not things related to church or extended family, just us.

This year, the spot wasn’t available, so I went hunting for another destination. I have a couple of good friends in Turkey and there’s a low-cost air carrier that flies Paris to Istanbul, so we picked up two tickets and off we went.

We did a quicd 5-day down-and-back, had a wonderful time with friends and saw some incredible sights (pictured L-R):

• Top Row: together with friends
• The Basilica Cistern: An underground cistern capable of holding 80,000 cubic metres (2,800,000 cu ft) of water. The ceiling is supported by 336 marble columns, each 9 metres (30 ft) high.
• The Blue Mosque: Built in the 17th century, during the Ottoman era, under the reign of Sultan Ahmed I.
• Hagia-Sofia Built in the 6th century as a Byzantine Christian church, then later turned into a mosque under the Ottoman Empire.

Time with Christian Friends in Istanbul

On Sunday we were able to spend time with Christian friends in the city, celebrating the reason-for-the-season together, followed by a nice meal all together. One of my friends accompanied us by car – it was his first time in such a gathering and it led to a couple of cool conversations afterward.

Belgium

As soon as our plane landed in Paris on Wednesday, we picked up our car and headed to Belgium, where a long-time friend was getting married on the weekend.

We spent the following day with family, preparing for a supper together that evening. Pictured below, in black-and-white, are Liz’s parents, her two aunts and their husbands. They really love her, as evidenced by the fact that they stayed to chat until surprisingly late. It was wonderful.

The following day we helped set up the wedding venue, then headed to another friend’s house for dinner and a place to sleep that evening. That friend was my piano teacher when I lived in Belgium from 1990-1992. We have kept in regular contact. The highlight of Saturday morning was standing around the baby-grand piano in their living room, singing Christmas Carols as she played. What a wonderful, wonderful memory!

• Saturday afternoon … the wedding
• Sunday morning … an early start so that we could make the 2-hour drive to the church in Amiens, in time for their morning service. Dinner with the church then coffee and treats at the home of the Lacko family (the local pastoral family).
• Sunday evening … a dark, wet, blustery drive home, but we made it safe & sound.

All in all, it was a VERY DIFFERENT pre-Christmas timeline for us. I’m not sure that we’d do it again the same way another time (it puts a lot of pressure on the two days just before Christmas), but it’s been a really wonderful few days of get-away.

That’s all for today.
Thank you for stopping by,
Thank you for your prayers, messages and encouragement,
and from our house to yours…