Lulu and Pops

Lulu and Pops came to visit for the holidays. We had some really nice warm days when Lulu was here so we got to go to the park and play.



We have this really great spiral slide at the park down the road from our house.



Lulu, Sam, and I went to the Children's Museum at Fair Park one day. Sam loves the Children's Museum because he can touch anything he wants. Here he is learning binary, ha! The Children's Museum is part of the Science Museum. That ticket also gets you in to the Natural Science & History Museum, so we went there too. Sam made Lulu's day by choosing to have her carry him there instead of me. They had a room set up there for physics experiments. Sam loved putting these tennis balls on tracks sort of like ski slopes. The ball would roll down, then up, then fly into a box. We spent a long time there, and Sam was hogging all the balls.



This is a video of Sam playing with the musical instruments in the area for younger kids.



Here we are at the Original Pancake House. Mmmm, pigs in a blanket, crepes, super yummy!



Here's a few shots of Sam in some of his cute new Christmas outfits. He's got "Doggy Bear" with him in the photo on the right.



Pops came to visit for New Year's. Melanie picked "Pops" for my dad's "grandpa" name. We're trying that on for size, and we'll see what Sam does with it.



After our traditional southern New Year's meal of pork chops, cabbage, black-eyed peas, and cornbread, we opened the Christmas presents from Pop's. Chris and Sam had fun throwing the packing peanuts at each other.



We love to cook. We especially love it when my dad cooks. Fried Mississippi catfish is one of our favorites!



Here we are just hanging out. Melanie is tickling Sam, and Cleo is in my dad's lap, which is where she stays when he is here.



Going through our photos for the last few weeks, I found several photos of Sam and Melly pallin' around. Sam loves it when Melly sings "Part of Your World" from Disney's The Little Mermaid.



Here are photos of me holding Sam while he's playing his favorite game, "Can You Do This?" with Melly.



Sam is a little scared of the David the Gnome jack-in-the-box that Melly got him for Christmas. He likes to play peek-a-boo with David. He just doesn't like it when you turn the crank and it plays the music. He calls David "Ho, ho, ho" because he kinda looks like Santa.



We were having a hard time getting Sam to brush his teeth, so we got him this motorized Sesame Street one. Of course, he'll brush his teeth to be just like Melly.



Remember, that nice new trick he learned - climbing on the ottomons - well, here it is!



Sam LOVES bubble baths. I think he's gotten one every night for the last few weeks. We had to go buy more bubble bath last weekend. When Sam saw the bottle of bubbles, he signed "more." We tried to explain that we were buying more and that he could take a bubble bath that night, but he ended up crying because he couldn't that a bubble bath right then and there. Chris says that Sam hands him the bubble bath bottle as soon as he gets in the tub every night.



This is Sam's favorite book right now. He still loves all his Christmas books, but I think he wants us to read this one every day. It's called "The Biggest, Most Beautiful Christmas Tree." It's about squirrels, chipmunks, and mice that live in a big fir tree, but they are sad because Santa never comes. Then they decorate the tree so Santa can find them. Sam gets so animated when we read this book. He says, and does the sign for, "eat" when they are sitting around the table. He oohs and ahhs about the ornaments. He says "ding, dong" when he sees the bells. He does the sign for "sleep" when they go to bed. Then he squeals when Santa comes and brings them presents. He wants to talk about each one of the presents, and does signs for some of them, like book, car, drum.



Here we are reading Sam some more Christmas books.



Sam loves to feed Cleo. He has to feed her every time now. He will throw a fit if we feed her and he doesn't get to help.



I think Sam would really like to hand feed her piece by piece.



This is a video of Sam terrorizing Cleo with his maraca. One of his favorite games is "Chase me or I'll chase you." He would prefer that one of us chase him. He tells us he wants to be chased by picking up something and saying "mine" then taking off running. When we won't chase him, he settles for chasing Cleo. This usually turns into Sam pulling her tail, or pinching or hitting her. We have to rescue her (and consequently him) all the time.



This is a picture of Sam taking a nap last weekend. I tried to wake him up after two hours, then two and a half, but he just looked at me and rolled over. He ended up sleeping for three hours!



We finally took the Christmas tree down last weekend. We waited until Sam woke up from his nap because we wanted him to help take it down. He's had to say good morning and good night to it every day since we put it up. He loved the tree so much that I didn't think it would be a good idea to take it down while he was asleep. Of course he had fun playing in the box, and "helped" us pack the tree away. We said lots of good-byes. He still asks about the tree, but he never got upset about it.



These are some pictures with Chris and his family when he went home for his grandmother's funeral. From left to right, Paola, Costas, Chris, Nicoletta.



Nick & Nicoletta (Papou & Yiayia)

Sometimes you get lucky

Recently I had to travel to the Mississippi Gulf Coast to attend my grandmother's funeral. On the morning I left, everything was going as usual and as I approached the Air Tran ticket counter, I removed my driver's license from my wallet because I'm often asked to do just that. As I used the automated baggage check system to check my bags I quickly realized that my license was no longer in my hand. I immediately scanned the floor, baggage check computer and began back tracking my steps. I looked for the better part of 10 minutes and could not find my license! I explained my situation to the Air Tran agent and she told me that it was possible to travel without ID, but I would be subjected to a more thorough check from TSA. Going through the DFW Airport TSA security checkpoint took a little longer, but they were very understanding and helpful. They provided me with a few phone numbers to call just in case my license was found or returned. While I was waiting on my flight, I made all of the necessary phone calls to the numbers the provided, but the license was still lost.

I had plenty of time to think about losing my license on the flight to Atlanta. My biggest fear was of identity theft, but thankfully Texas does not use SSN's as the driver's license number. I feared the worst, but was hopeful. I just listened to story on NPR that referenced study done in NYC where students dropped wallets with small amounts of cash in them throughout the subway stations. Remarkably, 82% of the wallets were returned. I was hopeful, but resigned to get a replacement license when I returned, dreading the two to three hour wait that comes with the renewal (I had just gone through it in September).

My return trip was uneventful, but I can say that TSA in Gulfport was very thorough. As they went through all of my pants pockets, hat, jacket, shoes, and every lens, camera, and pocket on my camera bag I began to hope that they were going to find my license! It was not to be, but I did find out that the TSA screener was a photography buff and liked my equipment.

Today, I checked the mail and found a small hand written envelope pictured above. I picked it up and knew exactly what it was. The note below says it all.



My new license should arrive next week.

In Loving Memory of Panayiota Karahalios (Yiayia)

My yiayia (grandmother) Panayota Karahalios passed on December 26th, 2007 in Ocean Springs, MS.  Our best guess was that she was 94, however we can't be sure since records in rural Greece weren't kept with the same sense of urgency as they are today.  For most of her life, she lived in Horemi, Greece, not far from Megalopolis.  The map below has Horemi marked with a yellow push pin.

How one gets from Horemi to south Mississippi is a bit of a story.  The short version is that she came to live with us after her husband passed away in an accident.  She had gone through many hardships in her life, the largest being the occupation of Greece during World War II. 

I am left with many wonderful memories of my grandmother.  She rose early every day and worked in her garden and tended to her animals.  She was no stranger to hard work, loved dirty jokes, and despite a rough exterior was very loving.  She led an active life up until the last few years when she had a stroke.  Everyone who knew her will remember her how she was before that event.

From left to right: Dad, Mom, and Yia Yia
Yia Yia shelling beans

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Standing on the front porch with all of the flowers in bloom.  One of my favorite pictures of Yia Yia.

The family with Aunt Alexandria.

My brother and me with Yia Yia.  No comments about how we were dressed.  It was the 80's and you'd groan if you saw pictures of yourself today.

Mom and Yia Yia.  This had to be taken in the summer.  The tomatoes and homemade bread on the table were a common sight around the house.  Living in the deep south, Mom quickly learned how to make southern dishes and we would have many with the Greek food she made.  Fried chicken and Greek tomato salad remind me of summer.

For many years, Yia Yia raised sheep and goats.  This picture shows her feeding them vegetable scraps from the truck stop where my mom worked.  I think folks found it odd at the time.  Today, you'd say this is "greener living".  Yia Yia would say this was common sense.

Snaphot of the family with Aunt Alexandria on the front porch.  The house went through various changes throughout the years, often stimulated by post hurricane clean up efforts.


Mom and Yia Yia dancing with friends. 

Yia Yia and me in Las Vegas.  Dad says I was three or four months old at the time.