A Visit to Kato Scholari

View Larger Map

Early last week, before Theophany (or what is colloquially known as "Ta Fota"), I had a brief lull in my schedule and we used the opportunity to go visit our friends Athanasis and Sophia in the village of Kato Scholari, about 30 minutes southeast of Thessaloniki in Halkidiki.

Athanasis is the brother of our beloved Gerontissa Efpraxia, the abbess of St. John the Forerunner Monastery in Goldendale, Washington. He still lives in the house they grew up in.

Sophia had some lego-type toys that the babies played with on the living room floor. Above, Paul is enjoying playing with a plastic bag over his head, which is always a sign of good parenting. (Don't worry, there was no danger of suffocation. I think he liked it because he had a safe bubble in which the other two couldn't steal his toys.)

Here's Paul with a flower pot as a helmet.

And here he is riding in a plastic bucket.

That afternoon, Phoebe and Benjamin were having trouble taking a nap in their beds, so they fell asleep with Pelagia in a chair in the living room.