Good Morning Everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend. David and I had a pretty low key weekend which was very nice. David and Judy gave us Netflix for Christmas and we received our first movies on Friday so we watched a movie on Friday and ordered in Chinese food. On Saturday we slept in and then went to the grocery store and watched two more movies. Sunday I took down all of the Christmas decorations. I know it is not New Years yet and most people keep them up until then but for the first time in a week I had the motivation. Vicki arrived back from the States yesterday after being gone for a month so we went on a run in the afternoon. I actually felt really good. I had taken at least a week off for Christmas and a cold. I am hopeful that yesterday's run is an indication that I have not completely lost the work that I put in prior to Christmas. I had a sore knee towards the end of the run but a little ice and some stretching took care of it.

Today I am planning on cleaning out the fridge and organizing the office. I have left the office until last because I need to get in a do some serious organizing. I am also hoping to get a run in with Vicki and maybe some pilates.

David had to go into work today but for those of you former or current federal employees he has an early dismissal. Tomorrow is a federal holiday so the Embassy will be closed. Not sure what we are going to do tonight. We have been invited to a party being held at the house of a guy David works with so we will probably stop by there. It should be a pretty low key New Years Eve.

Well I hope everyone has a fun and safe New Years!

Love from Athens.....

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a great Christmas! David and I had a very nice Christmas. On Christmas Eve we took a drive to Ancient Corinth and to the town of Loutraki. Loutraki is on the sea about 1 hour from Athens. It is a very cute town with a beautiful beach. For dinner on Christmas Eve we went to a wonderful Thai restaurant for dinner. Of course we went at 9:00 and we were still the only people in the restaurant. The Greeks don't usually eat until 10:00-10:30 which is beyond me.

On Christmas we woke up in the morning and opened all of our presents. We were extremely blessed this year! We had planned on going to the 11:15 Greek/English mass on Christmas day but unfortunately we were given the wrong mass time and ended up sitting through the French mass. It was a beautiful service very traditional but still in French. After church we came home and had Dan, Stacy, Colin and our friend Ann over for Christmas dinner. We had ham and all the usual sides. It was hard to be so far away on Christmas but it was still a wonderful day.

David had the last three days off of work which was great. We had Monday and Tuesday off from the US Government and then yesterday was a Greek Holiday so the Embassy was closed yesterday as well. I think Mr. Mark had a hard time getting out of bed this morning.

Sorry I didn't keep up with the blog last week. I really didn't have anything going on so I didn't post to spare you very boring blog entries. Today it is cold and rainy and I am going to clean up around the house and go to the farmers market with Stacy and Colin. Tomorrow I am going up to Susan's house for a girls lunch.

Enjoy the pictures from Loutraki and Ancient Corinth!

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=nchytxl.c9b3b9a9&x=0&h=1&y=-dzbf69

Here is a little video we made this morning to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas! We are very thankful to have such wonderful family and friends and appreciate all of your support! We love you Merry Christmas!

Good Morning Everyone! I hope everyone had a great weekend! I am glad to report that the party went really well on Saturday night. The food turned out great and everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves.

Sunday we hung around the house for most of the day and then went to church in the evening and then to Dan and Stacy's house for their Christmas party.

I have been fighting a bad cold the last couple of days and it is only getting worse. I have been laying on the couch for most of the day today. I did manage to finally get the office a little better organized. Tonight David and I are going to see the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra at the Athens Concert Hall so I am trying to rest up so I feel up to going.

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Happy Friday everyone! Well today it is cold here and rainy. I would guess that it is in the low 40s. Yesterday afternoon I finally finished my cookies. I found a new sugar cookie recipe without butter and they turned out great. I like the flavor of the other recipe better but they are still pretty good. Today I got the frosting out and decorated all of them. I am glad that I did not do double batches because I would have been decorating all night. I have provided a few pictures because I am rather proud of how they turned out.

I still have a lot to do before tomorrow's party. I need to get to a store and find a red table cloth for our dining room table. I ordered a really nice one from Macy's two weeks ago hoping that it would get here in time but it hasn't made it so I have to go out either tonight or tomorrow and find a red table cloth. I am going to be making my a bunch of appetisers tonight and then I will just have to pop them in the freezer tomorrow. I also have to go to the farmers market by the Embassy tomorrow because I missed ours on Thursday because I went to IKEA with Stacy and Susan.

Well lots more to get done before David gets home. Have a great weekend everyone!

Love from Athens....

Hey everyone! Today I got up early (7:00am). Ok it is not that early but if you didn't have a job or any kids would you really get up at that time? This morning I went to IKEA and the Greek equivalent of Home Depot with Stacy and Colin and our new friend Susan and her 15 month old daughter Caylin. We had lunch out and spent some money so it was a pretty good day!

We had another big rainstorm last night which continued into the morning. The sun is trying to come out now but it is cold in the high 40s I would guess. I didn't have a chance to make it to the farmers market today so I am going to head to the one in the adjacent neighborhood tomorrow.

So my gingerbread cookies came out great yesterday! My sugar cookies did not. I am pretty sure that the butter I used is causing them to flatten out and not keeping their shape. My gingerbread cookies did not have butter in them and they came out great so I am thinking that it must be the butter. Susan told me that some of the butter here has some olive oil in it which would make a difference in the recipe's outcome. I am going to try a different brand and see if that works.

I heard on the news that you guys are getting some pretty bad storms in the Midwest! Hope you are all well and are staying warm!

Love from Athens.....

Hey Everyone! Today I started the cookie baking finally. Yesterday I thought I was going to be productive but I ended up watching 3 movies and laying on the couch until David got home and then we went to the grocery store together. Yesterday it rained so it would not have been a pleasant walk to the store. I have the gingerbread and sugar cookies mixed and in the refrigerator and am getting ready to roll those out now.

We got a call yesterday that our car has finally arrived at the Embassy. David went to look at it today and said it looks fine except that it is filthy and has a dead battery. The maintenance people at the Embassy are going to try to charge the battery today otherwise we are going to have to buy a new one. David said the car is so dirty that it looks like it is brown instead of black. I am so excited that I will finally be able to drive somewhere on my own without having to make David take me.

Tonight we are planning on trying out a new Thai restaurant with a person David works with. Everyone says the food is amazing so I am really looking forward to it. I haven't had Asian food since we have been here and David and I used to get it all the time back at home.

Well I hope everyone is having a great week!

Love from Athens....

Happy Monday!

Hey everyone! I hope everyone had a great weekend. Friday night David and I went out to IKEA to return a VAT form. I am not sure if I have explained this process to you yet. Since Greece is a Socialist country they pay extremely high taxes in return they receive medical care and an education. Many people may think that these services are "free" but the Greeks pay around +25% of their income in taxes and have a 19% sales tax. To me this seems far from free. (On a side note we have been told my the Embassy that the public hospitals in Athens are not up to our standards and that we should use private hospitals. They have told us that we should not call the Greek equivalent of 991 unless we are near death because the ambulance that shows up will most likely not to stocked well enough and would certainly take us to a public hospital so we are better off driving ourselves to the Emergency Room This is what socialized medicine is like.)

Being a diplomat we are not supposed to have to pay the sales tax and we obviously are paid in dollars by the US Treasury so we pay US income tax and not Greek income tax. In the US diplomats show there Diplomatic ID and the tax is not charged on any of their purchases. Unfortunately in Greece that is not the case. We have to make our purchase and then fill out a form and provide a receipt to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who returns the form with a stamp of approval. We then have to take the form back to the merchant and get our money back. The Greeks only allow us to do this on purchases of 75 euro or more. So Lauren and David have the pleasure of funding the Greek people on a regular basis whenever we make less than a 75 euro purchase.

Saturday David and I finally got a Christmas tree. We ended up getting a small about 5.5 foot tall fake tree. I was afraid that it was going to be too small for the space but it turned out great! I am in love with it! David and I hung the lights and ornaments on it and it looks wonderful. Saturday night we had some people over that David has met through work for dinner. Sunday we laid around the house and watched a few movies and read. We went to Church and then had dinner at home.

This week I am going to start baking Christmas Cookies. Thanks to everyone who sent recipes. I am going to get David to take me to the store tonight to pick up everything I will need. I am planning to make 1-2 different cookies each day starting tomorrow. I am also getting ready for our Christmas party which is on Saturday. David is inviting 15-20 people from work to come over so I am trying to make up a list of appetizers and drinks to serve. Luckily the house looks great so it should be a great party.

Went for a run today and felt like crap! I took the weekend off and I am hurting because of it today. I hope to have a better run tomorrow. It is warm today in the high 60s and sunny. Can't beat that in December!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Love from Athens.....

PS I have posted some pictures of our very cute little tree and the fireplace. I am working on learning how to upload video today and I hopefully I will have a video posted tomorrow.

Hello everyone! Sorry I didn't post yesterday I completely forgot until right before I went to bed. Yesterday I didn't do much at all so I am not sure I would have had that much to post anyway. Yesterday I came to the Embassy in the morning with David to get a Flu shot and maybe it is just the ones we got from the Embassy but they hurt really bad this year. It hurt when the nurse gave me the shot and my arm is still sore today which has never happened to me before. Yesterday I went for another run and I managed to run the full 30 minutes without stopping to walk and then having to add running time onto the end. I was very proud of myself but now I am pretty sore.

Today Stacy and I went to the farmers market in the morning and then headed to the Embassy for the spouses luncheon which was great. We went to the fanciest and oldest hotel in Athens for a tour and luncheon and it was spectacular. The hotel is the Grand Bretagne (http://www.grandebretagne.gr/index-eng.htm) and it is spectacular. It was a really nice event and was nice to get out of the house and spend sometime with other women who are pretty much in the same boat.

This afternoon I am going to take a day off from running and probably clean house or take a nap we will see how I feel when I get home (still at the Embassy). Thanks to everyone who sent cookie recipes I am going to short through them tomorrow and then go to the store and pick everything up.

Hello Everyone! Hope you are all doing well. Another day in Athens...today the maintenance people came to the house to hang a few mirrors. They used nails and screws so I tried with mixed success. Instead of destroying the walls I am just going to wait until the hooks arrive. I finished another book today and my supple has almost been depleted so it looks like Amazon is going to be getting a bit more money from me.

Well last night David and I saw some real Christmas trees for sale in Papagou. We are still trying to decide between a fake tree and a real tree but will be buying one or the other tonight finally.

I got some news from the Embassy today that we will not be getting our mattress until Friday now. I am more than a bit irritated by this development. Yesterday when the mattress did not arrive I had David go down and talk to the Customs guys who called the moving company who told them that it was not even cleared through Customs yet. Why did they tell us on Friday that it would be arriving on Monday you ask? Because this is Greece and it takes a couple of tries to get a straight answer. Needless to say I phoned the moving company back in DC and let them know that I did not appreciate the misinformation and we would be expecting straight answers from now on. God help them if that mattress does not come in the same condition it left over two months ago. Ok enough of that...

I am going to start making Christmas cookies next week. If anyone has some good recipes please send them my way. I am going to try to make at least 5 kinds and could use some suggestions. I am going to make the standards: sugar, gingerbread, those ones with the little peanut butter cup pressed in the center and the ones with a Hershey's kiss pressed in the center but could use a few more ideas.

Well it is a pretty dreary day here but I still need to get out for a run. I have been doing 45 minutes of running/walking 30 minutes of which is devoted to running. It has been hard to get the motivation since I lost Vicki my running partner back to the States for the holiday but I am doing my best. I am over the initial hard part which are those first few days when you are really sore and you suddenly realize how out of shape you are. Now I can tell it is starting to pay off.

Hope you are all have a wonderful week! Love from Athens.....

I hope everyone had a great weekend. David and I had a very nice weekend and the weather was beautiful. On Saturday Stacy and I went to get our nails done and left the boys to themselves. I knew that Stacy needed to get out of the house so she could do something for herself and I don't really need an excuse to get my nails done. Saturday night I made Mom's beef stew and Dan, Stacy and Colin came over for dinner. Every time Colin comes over I am reminded that my house is not baby proofed. I put out the nativity set that Aunt Beth gave me a couple Christmas ago and he so desperately wanted to pick up baby Jesus and I feared throw him across the room. Not the best image during the Christmas season.

Sunday David slept in and I tried to catch up on emails and clean the house a little bit from the night before. Sunday afternoon I took David up to Imitos for a quick hike because it was such a beautiful day and because David doesn't get enough exercise. After the hike and a shower we went to church were David read again. I think they are starting to take advantage of him now because no one else seems to be reading other than David.

Today I had Property from the Embassy finally bring some of the stuff that I have been asking for since we got here. We finally got desks for the office and the hutch for the dining room. I had originally asked for a headboard for the guest bed which still didn't come so I have given up on that. I have also been waiting for a bookcase that they said came broken in the box so they have to come back. I am sure that will be another month wait. I can't really complain since it is all free but if I knew it was going to be this much trouble I would have just brought my own stuff which is now sitting in storage in Virginia. We are supposed to be receiving the mattress today. I will believe it when I see it considering it is almost 3:00 and it has still not showed up.

Since our walls are plaster on top of concrete I have had to order special hooks in order to hang things on the wall. I cannot find anything in any of the stores here in Athens which surprises me because I know they must hang stuff on the wall. You can't just put a nail in the wall because it hits concrete after about 2 centimeters and I don't have a drill that can go through cement so screws are out. It is very frustrating. I have said it before and I will say it again--NOTHING IS EASY HERE!

Well that is about all for now. The house is really coming together. Once we get things on the wall it will be our home instead just an apartment in Athens. Hope you all had great weekends!

Love from Athens...