Saturday Dreaming

I don't know exactly what to write today. It has been a mostly quiet day. We ran a couple of errands this morning and Gray mowed the grass this afternoon while the big girls played quietly inside and the littlest one took her afternoon nap. Despite being completely knackered after mowing the lawn, Gray got in the kitchen and whipped up some of his wonderful chicken quesadillas for dinner. I know he was tired and didn't probably feel like it, but he's didn't complain. He's did what he does so very well -- take care of all of us, including me. I have been fighting a headache most of today and a less than stellar mood.

Our local Greek Orthodox church was having their annual Greek Festival this weekend. I really wish we could have gone, but it would've been more money than we need to spend at present. We're actually kind of lucky in that we have three churches locally that put on ethnic food festivals. Our local Melkite Catholic parish does a Middle Eastern festival, then the Greek Orthodox church has their Greek festival and finally in the spring, our Maronite Catholic parish does a Lebanese festival. In addition to these long time festivals, one of the predominantly German parishes has done an Oktoberfest and a predominantly Italian parish has done an Italian food festival in the last couple of years or three. The fantastic thing about these festivals is that the food is wonderful (the Melkite one is my favourite) and you get a chance to experience the music and culture as well as take tours of the churches. It is a lot of fun. The reason I like the Melkite one best is that the food is amazing and they have Middle Eastern dancing done by the youth of the parish. Best of all, on Saturday evening, they open up the floor to everyone to come and dance to the live band. We went last year and had a blast. After stuffing ourselves full of roasted chicken, baked kibbee, spinach pies, stuffed grape leaves, rice, green beans, bread, and hot fried doughnuts, the big girls and I took to the dance floor and shook and shimmied while Gray stood watching and holding our baby girl, bouncing her a little bit to the beat. We had to miss it this year due to a conflict in scheduling, but there's always next year, I suppose.

My heritage is definitely not Mediterranean or Middle Eastern, but I do find myself drawn somewhat to some of the culture of these countries. It would be lovely to one day visit Italy, Greece, and Israel, but that may have to wait until our children are grown and have flown the nest. I would love to go back to Ireland and the UK as well. Actually, if I had my druthers, I'd plan about a three or four week long trip to Europe and spend a week in Ireland, a week in Italy, a few days in some of the rest of Europe, and end with a week in the Holy Land. Obviously, that last place may just be somewhere I'll have to visit in my dreams. There is so much instability in that part of the world that I don't know how wise it would be to plan a pilgrimage there. While I'm dreaming though, part of this trip would be devoted to researching my ancestral heritage and Gray's. I suppose for his though, we'd need a few days in Eastern Europe too. Perhaps, one day I'll get there.

For now though, I need to stop this wakeful dreaming and close my eyes for sleep (as it is, I'm posting this late and it's technically Sunday!). Buonanotte! A domani!