Christmas Eve 2012

I remember each Christmas Eve in Las Vegas, marveling at the kids riding their bikes in short sleeves.  We topped that this year.  My friend Jana and I try to run together Monday mornings.  We usually go to the beach.  Her boys are out of school for winter break (all the schools have a two+ week winter break--even if Christmas is not a public holiday), so we decided to go a little later and let the kids play and swim.  The Ramptons came along too. We got there even later than originally planned and wished we had more water to drink as we slugged out 6 hot miles.  We went to a new beach that has 1.5 km bike and jogging trails paved along the back, close to the road.  There is also a little playground, and better yet, LOTS of rinsing stations to wash off the sand on the way out.

We ran, the kids used the boggie boards and played in the water and on the sand.  Three and a half hours flew by and we were all pink cheeked for the rest of the day and Christmas.  I took all these shots before going running. We were waiting for the Jayakodys to arrive, so I don't have pictures of Nishawn and Nishane, unfortunately.

When we got home, we had to shower, make sugar cookies, make caramel corn, make green jell-o with pomegranates,  run to the store for fresh strawberries, clean up and do a bit of sewing.  Not really in that order.  Isaac was in charge of the caramel corn.  He thought stirring the boiling caramel for 5 minutes was taxing enough.  His jaw dropped in wonder and admiration to learn that grandma's famous homemade caramels have to be stirred for 45 minutes!

Makenna and Jess helped sew covers for new couch throw pillows for dad.  Makenna also finished the cape she was making for Jessica while Isaac distracted Jess upstairs.  

Jess was in charge of the jell-o.

The kids worked together on one section of cookie dough instead of rolling out their own in the interset of time.  By this point it was already after 9.

The girls put out milk and cookies for Santa.

Christmas 2012

Since the kids have been in the habit of going to bed late and getting up around 9, we, the parents, were hoping to sleep in a bit. Matt had a long workday and I was worn out from running and playing on the beach before coming home to cook, cook, cook and clean.  I think the kids did wake up before 9, but kindly let us sleep until then.  In years past, Isaac has let the girls sleep in his room.  This time they reversed the tradition and made a cozy spot for Isaac in their room.

Jess was the first, and only, to race downstairs, though the photographer asked to go first. 

She had written a letter to Santa asking for bread, plain hershey's kisses and goop to throw on the wall.

Hershey's kisses, check.

Makenna and Isaac enter.

Bread, check!

Makenna found new scuba goggles.  That's good because hers kept leaking on the last open water dives.

Sprinkles!

A flat brimmed hat, finally he can stop unbending his Seahawks cap.

Bat Jess got a new cap.

And bathrobe.

Something funny in that stocking. 

Good Santa bread.

Bat Jess in action

Blowing a kiss?

Thanks grandma Chris! She especially loves the skirt. 

After the kids went through their stockings, they couldn't resist starting on a few unwrapped presents from Santa.  The girls jumped into a Harry Potter Lego set and Isaac started programming a Mindstorm set. There was a breakfast break (the traditional pancakes, strawberries, whipped cream and even some bacon from the back room of Spinneys).  Then they were back to legos. We had the phone call with Missionary Kim and family and our amazing dinner before opening presents.

For the second Christmas in a row, Matt has made his amazing steak with grilled pineapple salsa.  YUM!!

Simply divine.  I made homemade rolls too, but the steak was the star.  

Green Rice Krispies

"Make Christmas Krispies" has been an activity in our big advent calendar ever since it got finished back in our Pleasant Grove days.  You simply add green food coloring to the liquid marshmallows before adding the cereal.  Then you can add red hots or red sprinkles on the finished products.  We originally started years ago by making wreaths, but have since made trees, snowmen, bugs, etc. The kids love to shape and mold them.  And eat them too.  One of the fun parts is rubbing butter all over your hands so they don't stick.  You can see the butter stick by Makenna.

White Elephant

This wasn't our own original idea, but it was so good, we are keeping it alive.  The youth had a white elephant exchange for their Christmas activity.  We took a special picture of Isaac in the backyard, printed it off, he signed it and we put it in a frame and wrapped it.  It got all the laughs he was hoping for.  The first one we printed was too big for the frame, but he signed it anyway.  "He'll sign anything that holds still."

Court of Honor

This is the first Court of Honor Isaac has attended.  The ones in Vegas always conflicted with football games where if Isaac and Cameron (on the team and in the ward) didn't show up, they would forfeit.

This was held in the large, very nice auditorium at the American School of Dubai (ASD), not to be confused with Dubai American Academy (DAA) or the
Collegiate American School....  This is the school where scouts are held most Sunday nights and where carpools usually start and finish.

I digress.  There were about 50 boys getting advancements, merit badges, and/or awards.  Isaac received merit badges for Scuba and Shotgun.  He also received the special award for the mile swim.  He is all ready to advance to Star.  He just needs to wait one more month to finish the time requirement for leadership position.  So next time he will have an advancement along with Archery  Woodcarving and .....

Isaac receiving his awards from Scout Master Scott Butler.  

Interesting to note:  Normally for their weekly meetings they do not say the pledge, but only recite the scout oath and scout law.  MANY different nationalities participate.  At the CoH, they had the full flag ceremony with a guest singing the American National Anthem and everyone saying the Pledge of Allegiance.  There was also an Invocation given by a guest Imam (Muslim teacher), but it was more like a 5-7 minute talk about how well the values of scouts mirror so many of the teachings of the world's great religions.  

Some Random Pictures

Playing catch up necessary.  I have gotten behind on the blog, largely thanks to primary spreadsheets and planning for the new year.  I'm going to dump a lot into this one.

The picture doesn't do it justice.  This was a gorgeous sunset.  

The mornings have gotten COLD.  We sometimes open up the back door to air out the house in the morning and everyone goes to get sweatshirts to combat the mid-60's coming inside.  Having a nice warm laptop helps too.

This was taken at our cookie exchange.  A fellow home school mom hosted several families at her house on the Palm.  Our house smelled delicious that morning as we took the luscious coconut cookies out of the oven.  But cookies became an afterthought once we got there and they ran for the beach.  Isaac loves to take out the kayak.  Makenna met a new girl and enjoyed walking and chatting with a gang of girls.  Jess brought home a cup full of shells, a dried sea star and a crab.

This morning the girls had their end of season gymnastics show.  It was supposed to end by 11:30, but was still going at 11:45 when I pulled the girls out.  (My friend later told us it didn't end until after 1!!)  I had to drop off my girls at a friends house and pick her son up.  I drove the boys to a mall to meet up with a couple other boys and they went and saw The Hobbit.  Another mom was there and after the movie, took them back.  I went back to pick up my girls and two friends and raced back to our house in time for another friend to be dropped off early for craft day.  This was the scarf day.  The girls had a picnic out back while waiting for the other two and while I got stuff ready inside. 

More Christmas decor at the mall.  The giant wreath of Tiffany's boxes has about a 20' diameter.

We tried riding the metro and went to Dubai Mall.  We were testing out ways to possibly go see the fireworks and avoid traffic hassels.  The lady selling tickets told us that the last train leaves at 11 each night, even New Years.  So we bagged that plan.  Turns out she was wrong and it actually ran all night, but more on that later.  

We did see a really amazing model of the Mall, Burj Khalifa and a few hotels.  

We have a cookie sheet full of fake snow.  The kids have made winter scenes with legos and change them from day to day.  This one made me laugh.  Another day, Batman was peeking out behind a Christmas tree.  But I don't have a shot of that one.  

Swim team was chilly the Sunday after Christmas.  Makenna had a slight fever and stayed home, but I swam with the other kids.  It actually felt good after a couple laps, but after the girls got out, they claimed hypothermia and huddled up together in a big heap of girls and towels.  A couple of days later our family went to play tennis on Matt's day off.  We all got hot and sweaty and came back to our neighborhood to jump in the pool, but the water had gotten colder.  After a few laps, it still did not feel good.  We are going to take a swim team break until they turn the heaters up. 

Painting cookies with dyed egg yolk.