Marrakesh Mama: Holiday Week Musings from Marrakech

Morocco welcomed us back from our little European adventure with a 90 minute wait at customs and a small fist fight in the parking lot over which taxi driver would take us home. While a few drivers brawled and kicked up dust, another one whisked us away. When he eventually deposited us near out apartment, Brianna and I breathed a sigh of relief and gave each other that knowing "we're back" look before hop scotching through traffic to get home. Rome was a whirlwind of chilly fun, but it felt warmly familiar to be deposited back in Marrakech after our weekend away.

We picked up right where we had left off before our adventure. Brianna went back to studying and trying to catch up on school work. I went back to planning and grading - optimistic that I would actually have classes to teach this week. We took time out on Wednesday to bake a "test batch" of Russian tea cakes in anticipation of some cookie baking fun later in the week. With "The Gift of the Magi" on the agenda for my creative writing class in the morning, I thought Christmas cookies would make a tasty seasonal treat to share.

We've had pretty good luck finding comparable ingredients at the grocery store, however, our "furnished" apartment was not furnished with Martha Stewart in mind (mind you, I am no Martha Stewart). So, we are lacking in some of the basic necessities of baking - measuring utensils, a chopping knife, a whisk, a mixer, cookie sheets, cake pans, a rolling pin, an oven rack...you get the idea. So, I put Brianna to work hand-chopping almonds with a wobbly excuse for a knife, and, thirty minutes later, she had produced one teaspoon of nicely chopped nuts. We made an executive decision that this year's Russian tea cakes would be "chunky style," and she went about hacking almonds into bite-sized bits. Our rack-free oven has a broiler pan that slides into the slots that are meant for the racks, so we just lined that with some foil and called it a cookie sheet. At the end of the production, we had exactly 28 Russian tea cakes for my class of 27 students. I packed them into our salad bowl (we are also lacking any form of storage container) and decided to hope for the best.

The next morning, the bowl of Russian tea cakes was balanced carefully in my bike basket as I headed out for my classes. When I hit the first bump of the day, the lid flew off, and through a puff of confectioner's sugar, I saw cookies spill into my basket. Not to be deterred, I pulled over (to the annoyance of the donkey cart on my tail) pushed the cookies back into the bowl, resealed the lid, and wedged everything more tightly into my basket. Then it was off to the races again in an effort to still make it to class on time. The story ends well with a holiday tale, shared Christmas cookie traditions, and smiling students. Sadly, my afternoon classes, which number 100+ students in each, did not get the same treatment.

Christmas cookie picnic at Menara Gardens

With the dress rehearsal behind us, Brianna invited friends over on Friday to share in cookie-baking fun. We exposed them to the wonders of snickerdoodles, fudge, peanut butter balls, and crinkle cookies. They fully embraced bowl-licking and dough-tasting as part of the American cultural immersion process. At the end of the afternoon, Brianna headed off for a Christmas cookie picnic with them in the Menara Gardens (that doesn't happen in December in VT). I headed to a meeting at Starbucks and had a surprise Santa sighting to complete the festive day.

Christmas Eve found us enjoying sunshine on a rooftop terrace in the Medina - watching the Djemma el Fna circus down below with the monkeys clad in festive red and green dresses. We pretended they were Christmas dresses, although they were more likely in celebration of the King's visit to Marrakech this week. We dropped Christmas cookies off with a friend and enjoyed shopping in the sun before treating ourselves to a rooftop lunch. Sunshine and temperatures in the 70's mingling with the call to prayer playing from at least eight surrounding mosques made for a Christmas Eve experience like we've never had before. We forced ourselves to stay awake until the wee hours, so that we could Skype with the crew at home and watch them open their Moroccan babouches (slippers) and pose for a group slipper photo. The wonders of technology made Vermont feel like the house across the street, and we could sense the family warmth and wackiness from the other side of the Atlantic.

Christmas Eve breakfast sunshine

Christmas Eve lunch sunshine

Christmas day was about as non-traditional as they come. Brianna and I slept in (which has NEVER happened on Christmas before). We enjoyed hot chocolate and Christmas cookies while opening a few presents that were under our pathetic palm frond Christmas tree. We stretched it out as long as we possibly could - eating snacks, lighting candles, and unwrapping gifts slowly. We spent the rest of the day never leaving the house - watching movies, snacking, talking to people at home, and making Christmas burritos for dinner (what could be more traditional than that?). We'll definitely remember this as a "different" kind of Christmas - far from home and from the people we love. The Moroccan babouches that were opened in Vermont yesterday were actually part of a contrived little plan; the toxic stench of the slippers' leather will remind them of us day after day - ensuring that we are kept near and dear despite the distance. Merry Stinkmus to all, and to all a good night!