New Years' on the Nile... Seventh Day: Gifts of the Holy Spirit

Monday, January 1, 2007

It was a cold gray way to begin a magnificent 2007. Compared to the dry warmth and sand of Egypt, Collette still found herself preferring the cold gray for the new year.

3.5 tons of confetti had been dumped on New York City alone, the night before.

In Egypt, where, (as Rose explained), Egyptians preferred to celebrate New Year’s Day and not so much New Year’s Eve, there were festivities planned for the night of the first day of the new year.

But first, they were to visit the Temple of Horus (the falcon god), cruise for a bit to Kom Ombo, and there see the Temple of Sobek (the crocodile god). Come that night, they would be celebrating the new year in “true Egyptian style” (as their itinerary put it) at an Oriental dinner and Galabea party.

Apparently, at a Galabea party, participants dressed in certain Egyptian robes. Carrie and Rose had plans of purchasing their own while there, in time for the big bash.

For OLeif and Collette, New Year’s Day was spent at the Silverspoon’s. Relevance and Kitts arrived close to noon for coffee and the rest of the early afternoon was spent over enchiladas and more cream puffs, and talk. Later, Kitts popped in a background video tape (for a conversation starter, as she put it) of an environmentally conscious minimalist save-the-earth concept entitled Koyaanisqatsi, after a Hopi expression for “a life in chaos” – all silent film and music, written by the very modern Phillip Glass – no dialog.

And by the end of the morning, the skies had cleared somewhat. Although everyone seemed ready to fall asleep by the time four o’clock rolled around.

So, to wake everyone up, there was another visit over to the house for all eight family members.

“The neighbors are going to think we’re crazy,” OLeif said. “How many times have we been over there since Thursday?”

But there were no neighbors out that evening. And they were able to once again explore the premises, in peace. Although Denae was tempted to knock on a couple doors and introduce themselves, and see what their potential new neighbors would be like.

Collette figured she wouldn’t make any plans about the house until things were certain. OLeif had a handful of phone calls to make that week before they would know anything for sure. And then there would be work to do, if it all came about as planned.

After looking around the house for a short while, they all spontaneously decided to drop by the movies (after another visit to Mr. Bulkey’s, at OLeif’s suggestion) to see Night at the Museum, all at Theodore’s treat. So for two hours they were lost in a world of Roman soldiers, tyrannosauruses, Egyptian pharaohs, and Attila’s Huns. Even Dick Van Dyke and Mickey Rooney guest starred.

Come nine, they called it a day. OLeif headed back to work again the next morning, and reality was coming back to the world after the holidays. But OLeif didn’t see the feathers until he had finished tweaking a cross logo for Christ Presbyterian Church. Once he got on a roll doing a computer project, time seemed to stop for him for awhile.

And so the new year was conducted in.