Guess What I Had Yesterday??!!???

Ha!  No, not a baby!  It was an Authentic Hellenic BABY SHOWER!!!!**** 

 Yesterday, the fabulous Kristal threw me an equally fabulous baby shower!

We are fairly certain it was the first baby shower our village had ever seen.  Due to the fact that Greeks do not actually have baby showers, or anything at all akin to them, we elected to have (other than Christos' immediate family) an English-speaking-expatriate-ladies-who-are-attached-to-Greek-men-from-our-village shower.  Although I do know some wonderful Greek ladies, in addition to the fact that they are not familiar with the concept of showers, it can be really exhausting (for me at least...and I am sure there are others of you out there speaking a not-yet-mastered language who feel this way) going back and forth between languages all day.  I will be the first to say that Greek does not exactly flow naturally off my tongue..it takes a lot of brain power!  So, 2 American, 3 Canadian, 3 English, and 3 Greek (Christos' mom, niece, and sister-in-law) ladies spent the day..

*Feeding each other from baby bottles,

 

*Guessing how big my belly is (everyone grossly overestimated its size...I am not sure exactly how I should feel about that,)

*Writing on tables,

*Guessing which adorable baby picture belonged to which lady,

*Devouring all of Kristal's delicious eats,
*Oooohing and aaaahing over adorable baby gear in the form of ALL the generous gifts I got,

 *Talking all about the various aspects of having a baby on the island of Corfu,
*And, just generally, enjoying each other's company, thinking pink, and celebrating the upcoming arrival of Baby Vasilaki.

(By the width I appear in the above picture, I can see why people were guessing that I am about 4 times larger around than I actually am.  Maybe they were all sitting around me at that particular angle?)

So, I want to say a big THANK YOU to Kristal (and Makis) for preparing such a special day for Baby and me!!!!  And to all the ladies that came and made it all so wonderful!

Speaking of how wonderful they all are, look at this beautiful dress that was hand-made by the talented Louise, part of the English-lady faction.

How adorable is that??

I also have to say a big thank you to my grandmother, Nana, who saved the day (although she, so far, has no idea.)  Part of Kristal's marvelous master plan was all those delicious cupcakes.

As I mentioned in a much earlier post, it is absolutely impossible to find liquid vanilla here, except at the British supermarket.  As it happened, the British supermarket was totally out and was not expecting another shipment for a month (ah, island life!)  So, in desperation, Kristal called to ask if I had any.  Because Nana reads my blog, and is observant and thoughtful, part of my Christmas loot was boxes of vanilla and food coloring (also a novelty only to be found at the British supermarket.)  Soooo, when Kristal called in a panic, I just happened to have a brand new bottle of vanilla!!!!  Thank you Nana!

So, the inaugural Expatriate Ladies of Corfu Baby Shower was a roaring success.

 ****A quick language lesson....Greeks do not call Greece "Greece."  They call it "Hellas."  And they do not speak "Greek" they speak "Ellinika."  And they are not "Greeks."  They are "Ellinos" or "Ellinitha," depending on their gender.  So, you can find "Hellenic Seaways," "Hellenic Banks," the "Hellenic Navy," and now, "Hellenic Showers."  To take this a step farther, "pan" as a prefix means "all" such as in Pangea (remember that super continent you learned about in class?  its name literally means "all Earth,") the Pantheon (literally means "a temple of all Gods,") and all those "Pan-American" organizations, such as Pan American World Airlines, Pan American Health Organization, Pan American Games, etc...well, you catch my drift?  In fact, they refer to the Virgin Mary as "Panagia" meaning something around "the Saint of all Saints."  So, for all you sorority gals out there, here is some Monday trivia for y'all...now do you see what the word "Panhellenic" means? 

****A quick cultural lesson....Greeks do not have baby showers, or any variation of them.  This tradition has not, unlike so many others, made its way across the ocean and into their culture.  Therefore, there was no such thing as an Authentic Hellenic Baby Shower....until yesterday.  I guess we set the bar.
                          
Also, I am aware that I used the word adorable A LOT in this post.  I adore that word.