John and I are enjoying our four-day weekend – thanks to President Obama for giving us the 26th off! We spent a nice Christmas Day at home. I enjoyed a delicious latte while opening presents. John surprised me with a digital frame; we’ve really been enjoying seeing old photographs pop up. We carried on our Christmas tradition of drinking mimosas and watching “Love Actually,” our favorite holiday movie. We also talked to Mom and Pete and Ginger – and I was happy to get a call from Ann and Pamela! We also had a good chat with our friend Rick in London (thank you, Skype!) and John talked to Phillip. A good day all around.
We continue to chip away at getting the house in order and it’s starting to feel more like home. We’re really happy with the rugs we bought in Pakistan – they’re pretty and look nice on the marble floors in our apartment. John put up two hummingbird feeders and we have delighted in watching the hummers on the balcony. We’ve identified at least two kinds: broad-billed and violet-crowned. John says the violet-crowned look like little penguins sitting on the railing, waiting for their turn at the feeder. We plan to put up a seed feeder as well to see if we can attract some of the colorful birds we see in the trees up to the balcony.
I was the duty officer this past week, meaning that I take after-hours emergency calls. Some turn out not to be emergencies – which makes me very happy (Americans can ask some crazy questions and think you should know the answer!). Other calls are tragic. This week alone, I had two calls to let me know Amcits had died in horrible accidents while they were in Mexico – what was supposed to be a happy time for their families turned into a nightmare for them, one that they will undoubtedly remember every holiday season from now on.
It turns out that America isn’t the only country that gets crazy calls at their Embassies. The Australian High Commission recently gave notice to their citizens that they needed to be more self-reliant while traveling. Click here for an entertaining article about it; suffice it to say that the questions we get at our Embassies aren’t a heck of a lot different than this article talks about!
(And one note of advice: if you are traveling, you may want to consider some sort of insurance that would pay for a medical evacuation, especially if you have health issues and are going to a country without good medical care – or check your insurance policy to be sure it would cover you overseas.)
On Christmas Eve, we went to a nice get-together at a co-worker’s house. John made his famous Hello Dolly cookies to take – but he’s re-named them Hola Lola’s since he is using Mexican ingredients – they were a big hit, whatever you call them!