Dear ECS,
Hey honey, it is the heart of holiday season and we will be spending
Christmas here in Addis. The house
smells great and we have a small tree and lights strung up. It feels like Christmas, but not in the way
of the holidays of my youth with the cold, and twinkling lights, and
coziness. This is our third holiday in
a warm place in this crazy Foreign Service life, and honestly it is hard to
recreate the feeling of my own childhood in a foreign land.
But recreating my own childhood is not the point. You love this season, with fun parties and
events and most importantly family. Your
mom and I have very intentionally taken a broad definition of family since you
were born. You have dozens of aunts and
uncles -- some that share your DNA and many who don't.
As a result, you have gotten to spend lots of time with loved ones,
people who we think of as family.
In addition to the numerous loved ones sprinkled around the
world, some of whom we have gotten to see recently and some who we keep in
touch with over various technology tools, we have had the pleasure of hosting
my sister and brother and law, then my parents (aka the babas), and now dear friends from SF (another aunty and uncle) over the last
month. These have been great times,
whether playing in our house or compound for hours, or heading down south in
Ethiopia to walk in the jungle beneath monkeys.
Having loved ones visit us is such a joy, we are happy to
show the places you like, the places we like, here in Ethiopia. What I have found in these 4 years of living
overseas is that visitors do something sort of magical, they make us see the places
we live through new eyes once again.
The feeling of arrival to Ethiopia and the discovery we felt way back in June of 2017 has mostly gone by the wayside with our routines and schedules and assessment of places we like, or don’t like. When our family and friends come, the excitement and wonder that they feel in exploring the city and country is deliciously infectious. For some reason that is beyond me, the renewal we get is much stronger than when your mom and I lived in various places back home.
The feeling of arrival to Ethiopia and the discovery we felt way back in June of 2017 has mostly gone by the wayside with our routines and schedules and assessment of places we like, or don’t like. When our family and friends come, the excitement and wonder that they feel in exploring the city and country is deliciously infectious. For some reason that is beyond me, the renewal we get is much stronger than when your mom and I lived in various places back home.
Anyway honey, we are so happy to celebrate Christmas and the
holidays with you. The leaps and bounds
you have realized this year is astounding, the person who will open presents in
a few days in our Addis house is so different than the one that opened presents
in our Airbnb in Austria a year ago.
What a joy it is to be along for your growth and progress.
Merry Christmas!
love,
dad
