So a lot has happened since I last updated! Ahh I'm so bad at this updating thing!! We've made it through our first Thanksgiving and Christmas without any family and we survived thanks to the wonderful friends that we've made. Let's start where we left off....
Thanksgiving:
So after the Halloween hoopla we moved on to Thanksgiving. Our wonderful friends Jelica and Scott and their daughter Tiana (who is in Cecilia's class) invited us over for Thanksgiving. Cecilia had off from school, so we spent the morning at home and I prepared the dishes that I had agreed to bring while the girls played. Tommy, of course, had to work. Around 2 the girls and I caught a cab to Jelica and Scott's building and Tommy joined us around 5:30. We had a blast!! The girls played while the adults talked and then we all sat down to a wonderful dinner. I couldn't have asked for a better way to celebrate!!
Keira's B-day:
Keira's birthday was right after Thanksgiving on December 6th. Since we really didn't have time to put together a big party and since it was during the week we got her a big plastic slide to play on outside. Also I made cupcakes (or KKs as Keira calls them). She loved her slide and had a great time smashing and eating her KK. Ever since her birthday she walks around saying "a KK to you!"
Carols in the Desert:
So the woman who runs Kindermusik in Abu Dhabi puts on something call Carols in the Desert every year and our friends invited us to go with them. It is exactly what it sounds like. A bunch (almost 1000) of people go out in to the desert and hang out and grill and camp out and once it gets dark they start singing Christmas Carols. It's a pretty spectacular sight! Our friends like to camp out in the desert so they brought their tent and everything thing they needed to spend the night, while we just stayed till about 8pm. We had a wonderful time. The girls played in the sand while the adults talked and enjoyed themselves. The only thing I could complain about is that the sand gets all over you and everything you have. Keira, who decided it would be fun to roll around in the sand, was covered from head to toe! I think we brought home about half of the desert in her shoes.
Christmas:
After coming home from summer vacation, Tommy and I decided that there was no way we could make the trip home for Christmas because Keira had the worst jet lag so I decided that I wanted to have a relaxed and uneventful Christmas at home. We had never had a Christmas at our home.
I heard through a friend that the hotels here offer 'Turkey Boxes' which have all of the components of a Christmas dinner already cooked and ready to eat when you pick it up. Pretty freakin' awesome in my book!!! So Tommy took the whole week of Christmas off from work and I frantically tried to get all of my shopping done, which isn't easy when you can't order things online. Christmas Eve I made cookies and Tommy went and picked up the turkey box we ordered and later we all sat down (sorta) and had a lovely Christmas dinner. Later, we ate cookies and the girls each opened one present. Then we drank hot chocolate and watched a Christmas movie together. It was calm and perfect! Then the girls went to bed and the fun began! Tommy and I went outside to put together the trampoline we bought for the girls. Well.....really Tommy put it together and I held the flashlight! Once we finished, I proceeded to finish wrapping the rest of the presents.
Christmas morning the girls got us up and we opened presents and played with them all morning. After Keira's nap we went over to Tina and Aneesh's house for dinner. Their son is in Cecilia's class and their youngest is close to Keira's age. Jelica, Scott and Tiana came too. We had such a wonderful time and although we missed our families, it was nice to finally have our own Christmas.
National Day:
I forgot to add National day which was December 2nd and 3rd. National day is like the 4th of July in the UAE only much more extravagant!! Locals spend thousands of dollars decorating their already expensive cars with pictures of the Sheiks (rulars) and all other things green, red, white and black.
There are tons of festivities including two days of air shows and fire works.
So it was really interesting and fun to see all of the activity going on around us. Pretty much everything in the city shut down for 2 days meaning all of the workers were off too. So Tommy, the girls and I walked to the Corniche (which is boardwalk in Arabic) to see all of the action and the air show. Once on the Corniche I felt 300 pairs of eyes staring at me and no, I'm not exaggerating. In the States you might have one or two obnoxious people(assuming you aren't dressed outrageously) who overtly stare at you, whereas here anytime you walk anywhere you get stared at by every worker within a 1 mile radius(okay I'm exaggerating a little bit). On National Day there is a high concentration of men who stare at you as if they had never seen a woman and you were walking down the street completely naked. I've NEVER been so uncomfortable in my life!
Wow... that was a lot! That's all I got for now! Love you all and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone this summer!
Thanksgiving:
So after the Halloween hoopla we moved on to Thanksgiving. Our wonderful friends Jelica and Scott and their daughter Tiana (who is in Cecilia's class) invited us over for Thanksgiving. Cecilia had off from school, so we spent the morning at home and I prepared the dishes that I had agreed to bring while the girls played. Tommy, of course, had to work. Around 2 the girls and I caught a cab to Jelica and Scott's building and Tommy joined us around 5:30. We had a blast!! The girls played while the adults talked and then we all sat down to a wonderful dinner. I couldn't have asked for a better way to celebrate!!
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| Add caption |
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| The Kids' table |
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| Our Thanksgiving Feast |
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| The beautiful table |
Keira's B-day:
Keira's birthday was right after Thanksgiving on December 6th. Since we really didn't have time to put together a big party and since it was during the week we got her a big plastic slide to play on outside. Also I made cupcakes (or KKs as Keira calls them). She loved her slide and had a great time smashing and eating her KK. Ever since her birthday she walks around saying "a KK to you!"
Carols in the Desert:
So the woman who runs Kindermusik in Abu Dhabi puts on something call Carols in the Desert every year and our friends invited us to go with them. It is exactly what it sounds like. A bunch (almost 1000) of people go out in to the desert and hang out and grill and camp out and once it gets dark they start singing Christmas Carols. It's a pretty spectacular sight! Our friends like to camp out in the desert so they brought their tent and everything thing they needed to spend the night, while we just stayed till about 8pm. We had a wonderful time. The girls played in the sand while the adults talked and enjoyed themselves. The only thing I could complain about is that the sand gets all over you and everything you have. Keira, who decided it would be fun to roll around in the sand, was covered from head to toe! I think we brought home about half of the desert in her shoes.
Christmas:
After coming home from summer vacation, Tommy and I decided that there was no way we could make the trip home for Christmas because Keira had the worst jet lag so I decided that I wanted to have a relaxed and uneventful Christmas at home. We had never had a Christmas at our home.
I heard through a friend that the hotels here offer 'Turkey Boxes' which have all of the components of a Christmas dinner already cooked and ready to eat when you pick it up. Pretty freakin' awesome in my book!!! So Tommy took the whole week of Christmas off from work and I frantically tried to get all of my shopping done, which isn't easy when you can't order things online. Christmas Eve I made cookies and Tommy went and picked up the turkey box we ordered and later we all sat down (sorta) and had a lovely Christmas dinner. Later, we ate cookies and the girls each opened one present. Then we drank hot chocolate and watched a Christmas movie together. It was calm and perfect! Then the girls went to bed and the fun began! Tommy and I went outside to put together the trampoline we bought for the girls. Well.....really Tommy put it together and I held the flashlight! Once we finished, I proceeded to finish wrapping the rest of the presents.
Christmas morning the girls got us up and we opened presents and played with them all morning. After Keira's nap we went over to Tina and Aneesh's house for dinner. Their son is in Cecilia's class and their youngest is close to Keira's age. Jelica, Scott and Tiana came too. We had such a wonderful time and although we missed our families, it was nice to finally have our own Christmas.
National Day:
I forgot to add National day which was December 2nd and 3rd. National day is like the 4th of July in the UAE only much more extravagant!! Locals spend thousands of dollars decorating their already expensive cars with pictures of the Sheiks (rulars) and all other things green, red, white and black.
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| Small example of what they do to their cars |
There are tons of festivities including two days of air shows and fire works.
So it was really interesting and fun to see all of the activity going on around us. Pretty much everything in the city shut down for 2 days meaning all of the workers were off too. So Tommy, the girls and I walked to the Corniche (which is boardwalk in Arabic) to see all of the action and the air show. Once on the Corniche I felt 300 pairs of eyes staring at me and no, I'm not exaggerating. In the States you might have one or two obnoxious people(assuming you aren't dressed outrageously) who overtly stare at you, whereas here anytime you walk anywhere you get stared at by every worker within a 1 mile radius(okay I'm exaggerating a little bit). On National Day there is a high concentration of men who stare at you as if they had never seen a woman and you were walking down the street completely naked. I've NEVER been so uncomfortable in my life!
Wow... that was a lot! That's all I got for now! Love you all and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone this summer!
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