Phillip and Rebecca Mefford

Merry Christmas from the city of roses. “My sister lives in Europe and she is always sad when she doesn’t have our holidays off of work,” Phillip’s superior at work empathetically explained. Because of this compassionate understanding, consistently for the past 6 years, we have been allowed to take a few days around Christmas and New Year’s off to spend with family and friends. Phillip makes up the classes he misses, and we get to fully embrace our holiday. Once again, thankful . Merry Christmas and Happy New Years.

The royal chariots speed by. Have you ever considered the magic of a pillow case? What is normally a simple sheath to protect one’s pillow can become a royal chariot with a little imagination. Our children taught us this a few weeks ago with a spontaneous potato-bag race up and down our hallway replete with giggles and shouts of joy. What happens when the ordinary just stays…ordinary? We lose the wonder of it. The yet-to-be-discovered potential in it. The joy in it. Rebecca was recently invited to a seminar on sociology. In preparation she interviewed a broad spectrum of Turkish friends and acquaintances on a few topics relating to Turkish customs and culture. At the off-set it seemed like the answers she was getting were general nuggets of information that we have become familiar with in the nearly 10 years we have lived in this country. And yet, the process of interviewing encouraged us to dig deeper. To rediscover the depths of this culture, exami