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How Christmas was celebrated in your hometown/country? Can you explain the activities that you are doing for the celebration? I was always fonder of Christmas Eve than of Christmas Day. In my family, we were permitted to open a single present the night before, and we had a great time trying to decide which one might be the best. After this, the nine of us (I'm the youngest of seven children) went with our parents to Midnight Mass, which I always found to be very beautiful and meaningful.
What does Christmas mean to you? / Is it important to you? How so? Being from a big family, and having grown up in a not so big house, it meant all of us crowding around each other, and the wrapping paper piling up in a mountain around us as presents were opened one by one. It meant the closeness and comfort of togetherness. It also meant special food. My Polish grandmother was a wonderful cook, and she would make all kinds of delicious things for Christmas dinner -- pierogi (a kind of dumpling), galumpki (a stuffed cabbage roll), and kolachi (a semi-sweet pastry stuffed with nuts, apricots, or poppy seeds), and sweet carrots with butter and sesame seeds. Our table looked like something you could sit down at in Warsaw or Krakow, not Central Florida.
When did you come to Turkey? How many Christmas holidays did you spend here? This is my third Christmas in Turkey. The first time I came here, Istanbul was covered in snow -- easily one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. Istanbul looks great in any weather, but I think it looks especially beautiful -- Sultanahmet, most of all -- after it snows. We all deserve a spectacular snowscape after the dreary parade that has been 2020.
How is it different here when compared to your hometown in terms of celebration and enthusiasm of people? Being from Florida, where I could go for a run on the beach on Christmas day if I wanted to, you don't experience the winter wonderland magic of Christmas in other parts of the US. That may be why I prefer Christmas in colder climates, like Turkey's. That being said, this year and last year, the weather here has been far too mild for my liking. It could snow all winter long and I would be happy -- I don't recall a single snow day all last year.
Did you decorate your own house this year with Christmas decorations? Sorry to admit this, but for me, Covid is the Grinch who stole Christmas. No tree, no ornaments, not even a festive bow to tie around either of my cats, for which Junior and Mooshkala ("mooshkalah" means trouble in Arabic) are most grateful.
What are your plans for this Friday since Covid-19 changed everything? Santa has brought me lots of papers to grade, and even though I've been nice in a year that has been naughty, he has brought me rubrics, too. Hopefully, he'll be his old jolly self in 2021 ... Um, are we there yet?
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