Phillip and Rebecca Mefford

Age : One Year Old! Quotes : For to us a child is born, to us a son is given. These beautiful words from Isaiah 9:6 are so full of meaning to us as we celebrate a full year of Lincoln Umut’s life along side celebrating the birth of Jesus, this Christmas. Height : 72 cm (about 28 inches) Weight : 8 kilos, 800 grams (almost 19½ pounds) Eating : Lets just say, after seeing the sugar high (and subsequent emotional breakdown) that follows birthday cake, we’re going to stick to meals of fruits, vegetables, grains, and other healthy stuff! Sleeping : 8 hours through the night, good long morning nap, afternoon nap optional. Skills : Standing without support; climbing; putting round pegs in round holes; playing his Garanimals pipe-organ with pizzazz! Click here to see photos of Lincoln Umut’s First-Birthday Party and Christmas Celebration!

Gülü Seven Dikenine Katlanır One Who Loves Roses Will Endure Thorns Since the beginning of time romantics and poets, ascetics and mystics have found a relationship between love and suffering. In idiomatic English we might say, “Every rose has its thorns.” Sure, Auntie Ayşe is cranky when she hasn’t had her nap, but we love her despite that. İstanbul traffic is a bear, but we deal with it because this is such an amazing city to live in. Roses, little thorns. No big deal. The comparable Turkish phrase takes this idea to an even more personal level, Gülü seven dikenine katlanır , “One who loves roses will endure thorns.” Love covers a multitude of “thorns”—even big ones. This seems so apt to us this Christmas season, as we contemplate the birth of Jesus, İsa Mesih . Even from his first day on earth he endured a lot-- for us! And we are probably more like thistles than roses, even on our best day. Merry Christmas, dear friends. İyi Noeller!

Her Koyun Kendi Bacağından Asılır Every Sheep is Hung by its Own Leg In Turkish there is a phrase: her koyun kendi bacağından asılır or “every sheep is hung by its own leg.” Now sometimes, as modern 21st century individuals living in the big city, pastoral metaphors have a tendency to loose their profundity. The farm-yard aromas, coarse textures, and the sights and sounds of baa-ing and braying creatures don’t feel as real and as close as they might have when the expression was first formed. That is, until kurban bayram , or the sacrifice holiday (called Eid in most of the Muslim world). There is a great effort on the part of city officials to contain the expression of this ancient tradition by directing people to designated slaughtering grounds, but at some point on kurban bayram weekend you are going to see a sheep or a cow or its subsequent product, i.e. raw meat. And on that weekend you can imagine a little more vividly a sheep being hung by the legs. It is a little easier to pe

Auntie Ayşe’s Cookbook İrmik Helvası Sweet Semolina Dessert Description : This is the first Turkish dessert Rebecca attempted to make. After about two weeks of being here, as an offering to the neighbors in hopes they would invite us into their home, we prepared it and put it on a plate. Ünzüle, ever gracious, did invite us in and portioned out some irmik helvası for the others in her family. Her husband said, “Is this an American dessert?” it was that unrecognizable! That being said, this dish might take a little practice! Ingredients : 2 C whole milk 1 ¼ C granulated sugar ½ C unsalted butter ¼ C vegetable oil ¼ C pine nuts 1 C semolina Directions : Get all your ingredients out before you start cooking, so they are on hand. (Especially when the pine nuts start becoming brown, you have to be quick so they don’t burn.) Bring the milk, sugar and butter to boil in a medium-size saucepan. Set aside or keep on low heat. Put vegetable oil and pine nuts in a large saucepan and cook over low