American in Cyprus: The New Year

Happy New Year! We had a lovely holiday season. Sofia and Alex each participated in a Christmas program at school. They were cute as can be and did a super job. Sofia's class sang several Christmas songs in English and one really long song in Greek. She knew all the words for the songs and sang them to us regularly at home, and by that I mean she sang them all of the time. Alex's class was part of the program with the rest of the school. They sang one song in English and one in Spanish. Not sure why they chose Spanish but it was a catchy tune and he had a dance part for the song as well. He was front and center of the stage and did everything as he was supposed to.
This year the kids wanted to set up the Christmas tree in their bedroom. We agreed since they were so excited about it. They made almost all of the ornaments for it and decorated it themselves. On Christmas Eve they went to bed around their usual time. By about 10:00 p.m. they were both awake. Sofia had a disappointed look on her face and said, "Mommy, we didn't get any presents." I told her, "Sweetie, you just went to bed not long ago. You didn't give Santa a chance to come yet." That's the problem with a tree in the room. The kids know when Santa has come. She managed to sleep most of the night, but Alex fell asleep around midnight and then woke up again at 5:00 a.m. I convinced him to stay in bed until a bit after 6:00. Santa was good to them and they spent the morning playing with their new toys. We had Christmas lunch with the family. Everything was yummy. We are lucky to have so many good cooks in our family.
We rang in the new year with another family gathering and more good food. They have a traditional almond cake, vasilopita, for new year's eve. A coin is baked inside the cake and whoever receives the piece with the coin will have a lucky year. Marissa was the one with the lucky coin this year. I'm expecting big things for my baby in 2014.
Speaking of Marissa, she is growing quickly. Her favorite new activity is splashing in the bathtub. She gets her mommy pretty wet. She can sit up by herself now and has started to do some babbling. She has a lot to say but it loses its cuteness at 2:00 in the morning. That girl will "talk" sometimes for an hour during the night. How do you make a baby stop talking?
The weather has been very mild this winter and we try to get outside as much as we can. This past weekend we went to the Athalassa Park for a walk. I know the paths there fairly well since I like to run there. I chose a loop that is quiet with lots to see along the way. When I run that loop I do it in about twenty minutes. At the end of my pregnancy it took me forty five minutes to walk it. With three kids and a husband, we finished in an hour and forty five minutes. Well, we did have fun and it was some good exercise for the kids as there are some big hills along the way.
As we start the new year we are reminded how blessed we are. We added an awesome baby to our family in 2013 and are looking forward to watching her and her siblings change and grow in 2014. May you all have good health and happiness this year.