It is amazing how much activity can go on by essentially staying in place. The usual holiday madness is always compounded by Adi's bday which involves both a school and separate family celebration. Plus a home Christmas complimented this year by a 3 family gathering at a local American's house accompanied by another St Louis former resident. Then we added a weekend away in Tirana to boot for cleaner air, warmer weather and fantastic food (sushi and the best farm fresh gourmet restaurant in all the Balkans). Not to mention New Years here is celebrated with the same fanfare of Christmas but add in the fireworks. Bitter cold weather and splashes of snow have added to the full holiday spirit but sadly everything will return to 'normal' this coming week as schools open back up and everyone returns from extended vacations. We have counted our blessing hearing about all our foreign friends various travel woes and have appreciated Santa locating us in Kosovo despite Amazon not being able to ship here. A local British toy store opened and the malls now have enough kid activities and movies we can all find a little something to do. And in the spirit of giving, I organized the Kosovo Cub Scout troop that I started for Adi to join the US Marines and visit a local pediatric ward to donate Toys for Tots.
We of course missed the spirit, commercialism, family, friends and Christmas routines that conjure up so many warm memories of my youth by not heading stateside this year, but as most you know, we were just there in Oct so will most likely not return till 2020. However we keep our guest floor warm and open for any adventures to include a trip to Kosovo this year as one of the top 50 unexplored places to visit...
