And the Movie Version

A Cairo Christmas

Decorating the tree with Henry in Christmas tree camo pajamas.

CAC Christmas celebration

Of course, Santa swaps reindeer for a camel when visiting the Middle East

Christmas morning pre-wake up

Yes, I still love football cards. Get off my back.

Displaying new earrings and charm bracelet

Bombs away

T-Daddy's Favorite Things

Ms Underwood's charming The Sound of Music got me thinking about a few of my favorite things. So, for those looking for last minute gifts or for something cool to try out or read or watch, here are my favorite books, movies, apps, products, etc. that I discovered in 2013.

1. Moleskine journals. I had moved my journal writing and day planning to the digital realm but reversed that this year. I find spiritual serenity in the excellent craftsmanship of these journals and have rediscovered the joy of cursive handwriting, something I hadn't used in years. Yes, you read that correctly.

2. Pacific Rim. As my brother said via Facebook, not the best movie of the year, just the most fun. So awesome.

3. Keynote for iPad. No more laptop for me. iPad only. This has been an enjoyable transition. I especially enjoy making presentations in Keynote. There was a learning curve, but not that steep. And it is so much easier than PowerPoint. It's actually fun to use. I find myself thinking up excuses to make another presentation.

4. Clear for iPhone. Must. Swipe. Red. Items. Task list app keeps me on task.

5. The end of Despicable Me 2. Best movie ending ever. I swear.

6. The Paleo Manifesto. Few books relocate my world view as dramatically as this. In addition to scriptures, I have three books I read regularly and try to put into practice: 7 Habits, Standing for Something, and Magic 1-2-3 (you know, for parenting). This book, for now, is similarly situated as my personal bible of what to eat and how to exercise. Though I did just have a bowl of Cap'n Crunch.

In Which More Bragging (To Be Fair)

Also last week, Caleb advanced a belt in Tae Kwon Do to yellow with green stripe. In doing so, he memorized his third pumse in about five minutes. Good chance you don't know what that means, so I'll just tell you, it's impressive.

And Madeline won the dance contest at the super-birthday-party-dance-party (like father like daughter*).

* Groove is in the heart

Am I Bragging? Yes. Yes I Am.

Today was Cairo's annual Youth Death-by-Soccer. This is a six-game round robin tournament in which five-year olds who have been playing games for weeks with few onlookers and no score keeping suddenly have covens of eager mothers screaming at them to "get him!"

Unlike last year (see mid-November 2012 post for more details), I kept quiet, though I was assigned official score keeper and frequently had to correct "well intentioned" parents who were pretty sure their kid scored three goals, not two.*

Anyway, through six games, Henry's team was outscored 15-10, posting a record of 2-3-1. However, during the time Henry was on the field, his team outscored opponents 10-9. Henry scored 8 goals. While on the sideline, he was upset, exclaiming several times, "I'm letting down my team. Can I go back in?"

* They're five years old people. Get a grip.

Saturday Extracurricular Update

Henry Soccer Game: The other team had a ringer, but Henry nearly neutralized him with several excellent defensive plays. Henry scored his side's lone goal with an end-to-end dribble, fighting through several tackle attempts and following his blocked first shot with a rebound strike. The effort fell short in a 3-1 loss.

Maddie/Caleb Tennis Lesson: I observed Caleb swinging with his right hand. So I pointed out to the coach that he is a lefty.

"For me," the coach said, "he is right-handed."

"Okay. I've only lived with him his entire life and you've coached him for five minutes, so you'd be the one to know."

So the coach did what he called "a little test" in which he told Caleb to catch the tennis ball with his right hand. When Caleb was successful, coach said, "See, he is right-handed."

What?

But anyway, I'm not trying to raise the next Roger Federer, so, whatever.

Pinewood Derby: Caleb first place for the Wolf Den and second place overall.

Back in Egypt Photos

This is still in Virginia, I just like photos of Henry playing soccer.

Maddie back on CAC campus. Don't ask, because I don't know, why she is holding a stuffed lobster.

Tiger was happy to have me back.

Pillow Talk (Maddie)

She wanted to talk to me about her feelings. It was 11 pm and we both should have been long asleep. I was tired. But you have to take such moments when you can get them. So I laid down next to her and made some interesting discoveries.

She feels a lot of pressure being the oldest kid because what if she makes mistakes and then Caleb and Henry follow her example. So we talked through that.

Also, she keeps a picture of a map in her mind and adds different colors to parts she has visited. Florida is pink. Virginia is green. Egypt is brown.

And this (quoted as close as I can remember): "I found the scriptures open on your desk and I wondered why you kept reading them. So I started reading. The words were all weird and I didn't understand anything. But I felt really happy. I think that was God telling me I should believe in the scriptures."

Back to Cairo

We left Cairo with 4 suitcases, 4 carry ones, and 5 back packs. We returned with 800 pounds shipped, 5 suitcases, 5 carry ons, and 5 back packs. So I guess our 5 months in the US were productive...from an acquisition perspective.

We all enjoyed being able to try things on rather than guessing at the size and buying online.

Anyway, we're back. It rained the first two days in Cairo, which are the only rainy days we've seen here. The kids were thrilled to reunite with Tiger (the cat) and friends. We slept day one and then they returned to school yesterday. All reports from their second first day of school this year were positive.

Decision Matrix

Car: With no certainty as to when the evacuation would end, we finally bought a used car in early October rather than spend $1,000 per month on the rental. We also figured that we could buy an SUV and have some space rather than schleping around three kids plus sports gear in a Nissan Altima.

We spent about $1,200 on post purchase tune up plus new brakes and tires. So with two months of use, we could sell it for $1,000 less than we bought it and basically brake even with the expense of the rental. Plus the risk of extended time in the US beyond two months was effectively hedged, a hedge for which we were happy to pay a premium, so even if we didn't quite break even, the deal would still be considered fair.

We now know that we have to go back to Egypt Nov. 16, one and a half months of car usage, so we won't quite break even unless we can sell it for close to purchase price. However, the time frame is such that we don't really have time to effectively advertise, market, and negotiate the price, so this is unlikely. We will not break even on the deal.

Cat: We left Tiger in Cairo, of course, because we thought we were just going on vacation. Our housekeeper was visiting him every day. This ended in August when her embassy evacuated her home to the Philippines. So Tiger went to the home of an "essential" US embassy employee in Cairo. We debated endlessly whether we should have Tiger shipped to us. But we just kept thinking we didn't want to spend $800 just to find out we would be returning a few days later.

Then this employee's tour ended in October and Tiger went to another US Embassy home, this home less enamored of said cat's behavior regarding furniture. So we made arrangement to ship him back to the US. What else were we going to do? This involved buying shipping crate and related items and having them sent to Egypt and trying to get cat medical records in order via remote control. This effort was somewhat less than convenient both for us and for our agents in Cairo.

Tiger, meanwhile, was moved to a third home, our British Petrolium friends, for the final week before shipping. Of course, now we are returning, so shipping is cancelled. But at least we have a really nice and expensive cat shipping crate.

2013 Additions to Christmas Playlist

In an essential post-Halloween tradition, the Christmas playlist expands by a handful of songs every year. Here are this year's additions.

Little Drummer Boy, tobyMac

O Holy Night, Sara Groves

Mary's Boy Child, Boney M

In the Bleak Midwinter, Annie Lennox

O Come All Ye Faithful, Amy Grant

The fun of Christmas playlists is having multiple versions of the same song so you can enjoy it reverently, or joyfully, or playfully. There is a time to every purpose under heaven. I love Christmas music.