Happy Holidays From ABU DHABI

Its been one year since we moved from the United States and began our adventure in the Middle East. The year has flown by and our perspectives of self, family, and the world have grown. Most of our experiences have been ones to laugh about and added to another chapter in the book of life. My New Year's resolution this year? To be a better blogger. When ever I have a new experience I think "I should write about this in my blog!" but does it happen? Like, I never wrote about the car accident that I was in (not my fault), or wrote to brag about how instead of freezing our tails off, we went swimming outside, in 87 degree weather the Sunday after Thanksgiving! Oh, well. That's why, like I said, it's my New Year's resolution to blog about life in Abu Dhabi.
This was our second Christmas outside the U.S. We left last year to Bahrain two weeks before Christmas and survived it, but this year was much better. I did most of my shopping in Idaho this summer. The toy selection here is pretty pathetic. We do have a Toys R Us here, which is actually attached to an ACE hardware, which is where we got our tree. We chose to buy a fake one instead of paying the $300 for a real one shipped in from Canada. Brian took a trip back to Utah and Idaho in November so he was able to buy some fun decorations- window cling pictures, spray on snow, ice cycle lights, and a wonderful tree-scented candle (which was the number one thing that helped it feel like Christmas). We had our tree up before it was even December. Our tree skirt is a ghutra which is the red and white checked fabric the arab men wear on there heads. Which reminds me of a story that I just can't help tellling...
There is a store we call the "Japanese Dollar Store." They had quite a lot of Christmas stuff there which was really nice to see (most stores have some, but not much). We needed a tree skirt and I thought as I was looking around, they might have one. I saw something that looked like it could be one, but it didn't say on the package. I asked the clerk, a Filipino woman, if it was a tree skirt (remember, most people not only speak English as a second language, but also only know as much about Christmas as they have been exposed to through the media). She said no, it was to wear, and gestured putting it around her shoulders. I guess I didn't look convinced, so she took it out of the package for me. At this time, the manager noticed us and came over to see if he could help. When she took it out and held it up, he said, "For little girls..." and began to demonstrate putting it around his waist. At this point I'm 100% convinced it IS a tree skirt, and you can imagine how hard it was for me not to bust up laughing. I tried not to make my smile too big so as not to seem as though I was laughing at them, and said shook my head and said, "No,no. Let me show you..." and took it and placed it around the tree they had on display. Both their faces just looked like "oooohhh" and laughed and smiled. I just smiled and handed it back and asked how much. It was more than I wanted to pay, but now I think it would have been fun to have it just to remind me of that story!

More later... I've run out of time. Got to feed my family sometime!