Seeing in the New Year!

 

It is hard for me to believe another week (and year) has gone by and we are only 10 days away from heading home.  Wednesday Artemis will be 4 weeks old.  We see changes everyday, mostly in her ability to stay awake longer and to focus her eyesight.  She went to the pediatrician Friday evening for a well baby check-up and she now weighs 10# and is 21.5" long. 

 

 

Ready to  travel to the party and village on Monday.  She seems to like to ride in the car and car-seat.

Monday evening Karen and I hosted a dinner for the family at Perek.  It is a very nice taverna out toward the village.  There were 20 of us altogether and we had the whole place to ourselves.  Eleftheria's brother Simo works there and helped us make arrangements.  Eleftheria's cousin Saki raises sheep and he provided a lamb along with some wine for the dinner. 

 



This is the whole group.  It was really a great gathering.

Good food and drink, much laughter and enough English speakers to keep Karen and me involved.

 



 

Kristina and Andreas checking out their new cousin.

 

This is one of the desert plates provided.  The flower/leaf design on the plate is drawn on with chocolate syrup!  There were at least half a dozen of them.

 

Papou Patsikas in Artemis' owl hat with Kristina (a grand-niece).  He really enjoys having the children around. 

 

The morning before new years a band went up and down the streets of the neighborhood playing and collecting coins for support.

 

Mid-day on New Year's Eve Ian took us down to the city center to see the build-up to the evenings festivities.  We stayed down until 7:00 and then headed out to the village for dinner and the new year countdown.

 

 

A very fancy sweet shop.  One of many.  Thessaloniki is known all over Greece for their sweets.

 

 

A couple of crowd shots.  Really doesn't do it justice.  Much noise, eating, drinking and dancing in the streets.

 



 

Your choice of gender and color.

 

We had dinner in the village and afterward Eleftheria and the cousins laid out a game of hopscotch on the tile floor.  Ian showing how it's done?

 

Next came some traditional Greek dancing.  The girls are taking lessons at their home in Crete.  Evangalia has danced her whole life and says she will teach Artemis as soon as she is able.

 



 

 This is Kristina drinking her champagne and eating what we call pomegranate which is broken on the doorstep at midnight on New Year's eve.  The more seeds that spray out the more luck you will have in the new year.



 

Mother and daughter

 



 

 

Father and daughter headed out for a walk in her carrier wrap.  Pretty slick!

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!