Well, it has been a month and I haven't written in the blog...guess I will set a goal to write once a month. I'm sure I'll forget some things I want to share but it is better then nothing! It has been a good month and we continue to enjoy all things our new home country has to offer. But, we do miss all of our friends and family back in USA!
This Friday we will celebrate Thanksgiving with our American friends here and will host at our place. Looking forward to celebrating one of my favorite holidays of the year. The guys work on Thursday so that is why we'll be celebrating on Friday. The stores are well stocked with all the cooking items (including butterball turkeys:) we'll need so it will be just as easy as cooking at home. The kids and Chip have been off this week to celebrate EID and the kids are off for Thanksgiving this Thursday since they are at an American School. The EID holiday is a Muslim holiday that translated means "blessed festival". Eid is the combination of 3 meaningful words
E – Embrace with open heartI – Inspire with impressive attitude
D – Distribute pleasure to all
So, that brings me to what we did in November. It was a BUSY month!
One of the things we have been enjoying here are the Friday brunches. It is a big thing here in Dubai and the hotels/restuarants set up HUGE buffets and you basically stay there from 12-5, enjoying company with friends. Seems like a long time to sit and have a meal but it really is fun and the when we bring the kids there are plenty of places that cater to them- I've attached pics of the one at the Westin that had chinese acrobats, face painting, a band, petting zoo and a special kid's area...so fun can be had by all! Definitely something to do if you visit here.
Also this month the boys have started taking Ski lessons at Ski Dubai. It's a huge indoor (of course) ski area - really a fun place! Will has done well with the ski lessons and is moving on to learn to snowboard. Weston did well with his first ski lesson and he will be moving on to another class next week. They really like it and I can watch from the cafe at the base fo the hill where they take lessons so it's fun for me too.It's funny they can go kayaking in the morning and skiing in the afternoon! Attached are pics of the indoor ski park and the boys getting ready to ski for the very first time in their lives. Big Day!
We also decided to try an overnight desert safari this month. You start with camel rides, sand surfing, dune bashing and a dinner with fire dancers and belly dancers. Fun time - until it was time for the overnight...everyone left except for us and 2 German sisters. They had come out with us with our tour guide and were also supposed to stay and overnight in the desert. Little did we know that the dinner site where 300 people had just dined was also the overnight "camp". It was filthy after the big feast and all the lights were going to be on until midnight until they could get it cleaned up and pitch tents - needless to stay we all decided to head back to our place for the night, including our new German friends:) Wasn't quite what any of us had in mind. The girls had no other arrangements so we brought them back with us and it actually turned out to be a nice time - and now we have some new friends! One lives in Germany and the other sister lives in Bahrain now so we learned some new things about life in those places. We have been told that camping in the desert in Dubai is too commerical so we'll be trying that out when we visit another country sometime- maybe Oman or Jordan. The other parts were fun and I've attached some pics. It's really beautiful out there and now that the weather is cool it is very comfortable and actually quite chilly after dark.
And so that ends most of our activities for November...we wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving...tonight we are heading out by the pool for movie night - one of the benefits of the excellent weather here. It never rains and is always warm so very easy to plan outdoor activities.
We are thankful for you all - and thanks for keeping in touch!
