Well Happy Thanksgiving to everyone...wait a minute... I am a tad late on that one! Well, Thanksgiving was interesting for us this year. Usually we eat turkey and lots of sides, watch the game, maybe take a nap, eat some yummy desserts and then feel miserable for eating so much! But this year we didn't really do anything special for Thanksgiving. It's kind of sad! Michael had to work on Thursday/Thanksgiving day so right there it just didn't feel right. I can't even remember what we had for dinner! I told you it was sad! We can get turkey here and pretty much have most the side stuff we usually have but we just didn't do it. But we were invited to an after Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving feast on Friday. So we counted this as our Thanksgiving. One of our friends opened her home and invited a ton of people over, well at least 50 people! Everyone brought a dish and filled their bellies to their fullest. I didn't even eat any dessert because the food was so good! On Saturday, we were invited to another friends house for another get together. Again everyone brought a dish to share. The kids had a blast because there is a play scape just outside our friends back yard! The only problem about all the eating is that I didn't take any pictures. It's terrible that I didn't capture our first Thanksgiving in Saudi! Oh, well there will be another one next year!
On Sunday our friend Brad and two of his children were so kind to take us in to Rahima. I needed to get the girls a few pairs of pants because it has been a little chilly in the morning and evening times. I found some at a store called Center Point which is kind of like a Target (kind of!). Brad then took us to restraint called East West. It was okay, a bit too spicy for me and the girls to eat. It was so spicy for me that my eyes were watering...I was trying my best to eat the food! So here we are with our Saudi Champagne!
Michael turned himself blue! Looks pretty good! He turned blue because the sixth graders made their goal of raising money for a men's cancer group. Michael as well as dour other teachers turned themselves blue. He did come home at lunch and took a shower. It took at least three showers to get all the blue out of his hair!
Last week the girls had their showing week a dance, Now, they haven't been going very long but their dance instructor Kristy Lee gave them a certificate and a little goody bag. She was so sweet to do this for them and the girls were just as excited to receive them!
Macey trying to touch her toes to her head! Love her mouth opened wide, must help!!
Back home, we would have put up our Christmas tree on Friday after Thanksgiving. But that didn't happen here. One, we don't have a Christmas Tree and didn't put one in our shipment (although we might have been able to get it here). Second, you can't just go out an buy one...actually you can but you have to know where to go. I've been told that the trees at this one place are really small. You can go to Bahrain and bring one back but we don't have transportation to get there. Plus, it could get taken away at the border. So this year we decided to make a paper tree. I think it turned out pretty cute. Although, some of the paper keeps falling but I guess I can pretend it's needles falling from a real tree! The girls have enjoyed making paper ornaments, coloring them and taping them on the tree, A true tree made from love!
We did buy some light from someone who is retiring soon!
This weekend the "Visitor from the North" arrived! That's what they call Santa around here! The girls had a blast! Both sat on his lap and didn't cry although they did look a little frightened! Caley keeps say that this is her "Santa," so I guess no other child can have Santa because he is hers! She's so cute and serious when she talks about her Santa! During this activity there were little craft type activities to do. The girls made reindeer food, got a lollipop with a Christmas character to cover it. They colored got a giant cookie and juice. Plus, they got a gift from Santa. It's our first presents under the tree. We told the girls that Santa said not to open till Christmas. I know they have the same thing but not sure what is inside!
This week is a big week for us. On Tuesday we will finally get our shipment. We are super excited about this and are preparing for the change in furniture and lot of good feelings to fill this home from our home in TX. On Wednesday we are having a play set installed for the girls. They have no idea that this is going to happen so I'm pretty sure they are going to be very excited.
Please pray for Sandy's visa to go through this week. We applied back in October for her visa. It turns out that she never received the paperwork to get the visa, we didn't know that there would be papers sent to her otherwise we would have been on top of this a lot sooner. We were able to make some calls and the Houston office was able to email her the paperwork, Visa's can take anywhere from 2 -4 weeks to process. Sandy did have to jump through some hoops before that big ice storm came because a visa would not be issued if your passport expired in less than nine month. Well hers does, in eight months. Go figure. So on Thursday, she went to the passport office and was able to get a passport the same day, She then overnighted the paperwork and passport to Houston. Now our fingers, legs, toes, hair whatever is crossed hoping that this will come through. She has a flight that leave on the 18th.
Blessings
The Myers
