Merry Christmas 2015!

In the Michaelides household, we have various traditions that can be traced back to grandparents and great grandparents :D

We live in Cyprus, and 3 out of our 4 grandparents are Cypriot, so we do have alot of greek traditions, for example our Father Christmas (Ayios Vasilis) comes on New ears Eve, so we get our present from him on New Years Day. We do open presents on Christmas day too, so we get lots of presents, and things to look forward to in the holiday season :)

On Christmas Eve, family gathers in one house and we eat a potato and hot dog soup that my grandfather picked up the recipe of when he was stationed in Germany. Here is a link to a Jamie Oliver recipe that is similar to our family recipe :) Kartoffelsuppe We also eat sausage rolls, and  mince pies . We play board games like monopoly, sing carols and generally have a good time :D

On Christmas day we like to get up early and open PRESENTS!! We have to wait until 7am (which can be really hard when you are excited, and want to open your presents) and then wait until all the grownups have a cup of coffee in their hand (otherwise they can be very grumpy!). We open presents and then have a big english breakfast, something similar to this , and usually we drink orange juice, lots of tea, and the grownups might drink bucks fizz (fresh orange juice mixed with champagne).

After breakfast, people get washed up, and dressed in their Christmas outfits, while Daddy gets on with the cooking. On our Christmas feast, we have a huge roast turkey, accompanied by steamed veggies, one or two different salads, roast potatoes, but also Koupepia, and Makaronia tou Fournou. This meal can take hours, as we greeks like to talk, drink and eat..basically we like to PARTY!

Dessert would be a traditional english christmas pudding , and a chocolate bread and butter pudding and also something like a fruit platter or something for those who dont want anything too heavy to finish off their meal.

Boxing Day we like to go to the snow (if there is any) we have to drive around 45 minutes to the highest point on our tallest mountain (not very tall haha) this is fun, because it is cold up there and we get to play in the snow, but when we come home, the sun is shining and we can run around in our tshirts.

How do you spend YOUR holidays??

Welcome to the Christmas Newsletter!

So, 2010! It has been a year to remember all right! George celebrated his sixth birthday and is starting to leave 'little boy' behind, and get more serious about things. I fear he will always be a gamer (his current mania is Super mario and it has held for nearly a year now!) but he also loves his Piano

 and his new hobby is origami. Now, as you may or may not know, neither Kako nor I is interested in Origami, so George gets on You tube, and researches the video tutorials on how to make various things. He is a truly amazing little boy, and I feel very lucky to be on this crazy ride with him :)

He has also lost alot of teeth this year, and we had a very fun time around halloween- as his teeth looked very much like a pumpkin's teeth- with holes left right, and centre!

Tina on the other hand is also coming into her own this year. In September she started "real school" and can now read! She also started ballet , and really loves dancingShe is also really enjoying the fact   that this club has nothing to do with George! For Halloween this year, both of the children wated to be vampires-Tina went in full makeup as she wanted to look scarey-bless her, she looked way to cute to be scarey! (pic)
Both of the children have been taking lessons from their grandmother and enjoy winter swimming (ok for most of you an outside temperature of 25 degrees doesn't exactly mean winter- but here in Cyprus we are having an unusually hot december).

Kyriacos has once again played a big part in his karate schools annual seminar-choreographing the seperate displays, and taking part of course :) He has also been fishing alot this summer, and kept the freezer stocked up. We ate the last of the fish only two weeks ago!
I have been very busy this year. In april, i accepted the post of treasurer in my organisation (the Cyprus Women of Today) and we have held some wonderful events including the baby disco, super secret beach clean up, booklovers club, and my all time favourite culturally cooking club.
We are a very positive group and love to have fun while sticking to our ethos of personal growth, community service and friendship. I am very proud to be part of this group, and the achievements that we have accomplished this year.

I am also finally charging for my photography, adn have done some lovely prortraits of friends. I am doing a photography course to learn even more about my camera and the things it can do :)

I mentioned earlier that it is still warm in Cyprus, it is a little difficult to feel Christmassy, when the temperature is still in its;'s 20's (c) and we have blue skies and sunny days but this year we have continued our tradition of going to the Pantomime-Peter Pan this year- and I am looking forward to being part of the audience this year, instead of being on stage (as i have had a part in the last two shows!) It wouldn't really be Christams if we didn't go the Panto, and the children really look forward to it. My daughter was particularly excited about this years, as she is mad about tinkerbell! Here is a picture of the children meeting Tinkerbell