Holidays at home...

I'm sorry that I haven't been writing for so long, I'd like to say that it is because I have been so busy, but really I haven't been all that busy.

Over Christmas and New Years, Seyfi was off, so we had that opportunity to do some traveling. However, between all the snow, and how ill all of us got, we didn't get too far at all.

One thing that we did to was visit all of our neighbours at Christmas. This was a real highlight for us. It was very nice to be able to go to everyone and visit, and get to know the lovely people who live around us. What was even nicer was when they came to visit us as well. We had decided to live in a little community like this so that we could meet the people around us, to learn about Belgium from Belgians, and it seems that we are on the road to doing this.

We were also invited to our landlord's home to celebrate the Epiphany, or Three Kings on the sixth of January. We sat with them and ate Frangipane (an almond pie) and drank Champagne (with a blackberry syrup for the ladies). One of the fun things about the night was that there was a statue of the king hidden in the pie, and while we were eating, who ever found the statue was the king of the night. Guess who was the king- my lucky husband! He spent the rest of the evening wearing a crown!

I guess that we did have a quiet holiday, but I wouldn't have changed it for the world. We could have gone anywhere, but by staying home, we learned so much more about the country we are living in, and the people who live here.

Halloween

Halloween is not a completely foriegn concept to us. While living in Ankara, we did celebrate Halloween every year with the others in our apartment building. But there was always something missing- pumpkins. In Turkey, you can find one kind of pumpkin, and it is huge, hard and green.

We were really fortunate this year to be near a big American community that does a trick or treat out of the trunks of their cars, all the candy supplied by sponsors. We would have our first Halloween outside! We got Alara into her costume and set out for a lovely evening.

This year for Halloween Alara decided that she would be a witch, probably because that was what her friend Melissa was going to be as well. She put on her costume and kept saying 'no scared Baba, Alara is good witch.' It was beyond cute. She was so happy to dress up. And when she got to the trick or treating area, and after she got over her inital fears of the others in their costumes, she really enjoyed herself, and her candy.


This year we have got a large selection of pumpkins to choose from. We bought one, and Seyfi decided that he would make the jack-o-lantern this year. It was his first time carving a pumpkin, and I think that he really enjoyed doing it. He and Alara worked on it together, after I had done that hard part of cleaning it out.


We put it out at out front window, lite it up and waited for any neighbourhood children to come by for some candy. No one rang our door bell.

Here in Belgium, Halloween isn't celebrated the same way as back home. Here they have more festivals in the city and village squares. Everyone is dressed up and there is a real sense of community. Unfortunately this year we didn't get to one of the little festivals (we were waiting by our door), but my friend got to one and said it was great.

Now that we know how to celebrate Halloween here in Belgium, next year we will have even more fun!

Honey Festival- Virelles Lake

On Sunday, while Seyfi was working, again, Alara and I went for a drive outside of Mons to a Honey and Nature festival.

It was held at a nature reserve called Aquascope, which is on a lake in the south of Belgium, about an hour from Mons.

The title of the festival was a bit miss leading, it was not really a festival, and there wasn't much honey (although I did buy a small jar, and a big bottle of the most delicious apple juice), but the nature was beautiful.

The nice thing about this place was that it was really geared to teach children about nature. There were ponds to catch bugs and frogs from, and then microscopes to look at them under. There was information written everywhere about the different birds, trees and insects. There was also a tree top walk.

Alara and I had a lovely time, we will be going back in September when they are having their bird festival, hopefully Seyfi will be joining us too!

What we did today- Bon Secours

This morning we got a phone call from our new friends here in Belgium, asking us if we would like to go for a nature walk in Bon Secours today. Since it was the first day in almost a week without rain, we jumped at the chance

Bon Secours is a little town about 25 minutes from Mons, it has a large basilica and wonderful walking trails.

When we got to Bon Secours the first thing we did was get our tickets to the tree top walk. I really enjoyed the walk, and so did Alara. We were on top of the trees, walking along, looking at the birds and the beautiful view of the tes all around.


When we got down from the tree tops, we started the three kilometer nature walk. It was an absolutley beautiful. The trees were beautifuli the path was clear, the birds were singing and we ate out weight in beautiful blackberries. The girls had a wonderful time running along, jumping off logs and picking up acorns.

The only thing is that when we came to the last turn on the path, we went the wrong way and ended up in FRANCE! How do I always end up in a different country! Luckily we found the road back and walked into the town, had a nice lunch and then ended up finding the car again.

On the way back to the car, we did stop in and look at the basillica. The basillica is located right in the middle of the town looking down on the main street. It is a beautiful old church with wonderful stain glass windows.

It was a wonderful day, with good friends and wonderful weather. It was what we needed after all the rain!

Mons Market

You all know how much I love a good farmers' market, and yesterday morning Alara and I went to the Mons Market. It was a very good market, and had a variety of things to buy.

Of course it had fruits and vegetables, and we bought lots of those! Lettuce, carrots, oranges, butternut squash! Blueberries! (two things that I haven't been able to buy in years!!

But there were other things there too, there were trucks roasting chickens and meats right before my eyes! I bought one of the chickens, and it was quite nice.

There were also many different types of cheeses on offer. I chose one of the cheese makers and bought a selection of her cheeses. They were all very lovely (honestly though I didn't care for the camembert (but that might be me, not the cheese).

We could also find lots of differen breads, pastries and desserts, but Alara found the one thing she loves most... waffles!

Ten Weeks

In the past few weeks the Özmay family has been living through many big changes, some good, and some...

The biggest good change is that we just celebrated Alara's second birthday! I can hardly believe that my little baby girl is TWO! and that she isn't a baby anymore!

We celebrated her birthday with gelato and our first gluten free cake...

Gluten free? You may be asking? Yes, that was another one of our changes, we need to become gluten free because Seyfi has been diagnosed with celiac disease. After months of feeling awful, it is great to finally know what has been making him so uncomfortable. The change to gluten free hasn't been easy, especially with Seyfi being in Izmir and me needing to send him packages of homemade bread, but we are managing and it really has been an adventure! To be honest, making the change to gluten free is coming at a good time, as I will soon be leaving my job, and becoming a house wife. thus having the time to play around with all sorts of yummy new recipes.

Leaving my job? You may be asking? As many of you know, we are moving the Belgium in ten weeks (more or less). Ten weeks isn't that long, but it isn't that short either. Getting ready to move is a bi undertaking, and we haven't even started yet! To be honest, the main reason we haven't started is because of Seyfi being in Izmir for three weeks. I'm not planning on started anything while he's away. The move to Belgium is really exciting, but leaving Turkey will be very hard. It has been my home for over the past eight years, and the thought of leaving makes me very sad, but we will return, and a little adventure never hurt anyone! Right?

So this is what this blog will be about, our lives (the Özmay family) as we get ready to, move to and adjust to our new life in Belgium; our adventures in the gluten free world of celiac disease, and of course the exciting happenings of our family. Hope you will enjoy reading our stories!