Norooz 2010

Two weeks ago we celebrated Persian New Year or Norooz (or Now Ruz.) Anahita flew in from Cali and we drove down from the Hill to meet at Shirin and Gabriel's house in Athens. Since Tita's visit was short we spent basically every minute together as a family.

Saturday's weather was predicted to be the only reliable good weather day so the women took the little bubsy to Memorial Park. The men? Bah, probably in front of the computer or a book.

Watcha doin? Silly question.



The master slider no longer requires any assistance.

Tita decides to see if she can still cross the bars. Look at that expression of determination!

She can still do it...

... but boy does it hurt your hands when you no longer weigh 65 lbs.

Meanwhile the little man gets a booboo on his knee and needs some TLC.

I'm trying to poise them for a picture and he's still talking about his knee.

Back home Anahita spends some quality time with Cyrus. This video is so sweet.

When Cyrus says no, he means no.

Since my birthday was the Friday before Norooz I was allowed to choose the restaurant for dinner -- THE GRIT it is! Here we are happy and full leaving The Grit.

Remember that game Barrel of Monkeys? Cyrus was teaching Tita how he likes to play it which probably differs more than a little from the original instructions.

At Cyrus' nap time we all run to the kitchen table to play Catan -- it's understood. Tita hasn't played it since the last time she was home and gets some reminder tips from Shirin.

After Cyrus' nap it was raining so we went mall walking. We noticed a little train driving around on the bottom floor of the mall so here are Cyrus and Shirin waiting for the train to circle back. (Notice his little hand resting on her leg.)

Look at Shirin's hands. So did she learn that "Where is the train" maneuver from Cyrus or did he learn it from her?

Tita kept walking around. I guess little trains aren't that exciting to people from Californina.

There's the train! It made all the appropriate whistling and chugging sounds.

It's already heading away. Boy, all that waiting and it's gone so fast.

I missed most of the wrestling, but Cyrus has learned a very interesting maneuver to get out of a tight spot:

We finally got down to the business of celebrating Norooz. Our haft sinn table was left surprisingly intact. Cyrus was very curious and we let him fondle things as I was putting the table together, but once the table was finished Gabriel kept telling him it was Baba's table and not to touch it. I never thought he'd be able to resist all the goodies on the table but he did. What a good boy. Notice the sabzi in the back left corner of the table that I posted about earlier.

Here is Saeed getting out his wallet to present Eidi - the crisp new dollar bills for the 'children'.

Cyrus says, "Hey, where's mine?"

Look at that smile!

Family portrait.

The next part of Norooz is the children "kissing the hands of the parents" tradition, one that I have always felt very uncomfortable with. The meaning behind it is wonderful, however, as it symbolizes the children's love and gratitude to the parents for their loving care through the year. For us now it's more hugging and thanking and expressing terms of endearment, something Cyrus really picked up on immediately. I know he couldn't have understood what was going on and what was about to happen, but somehow he sensed this was a very warm fuzzy moment and made the rounds hugging everybody.

I missed him hugging Tita but his little grin here at the end is priceless.