Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!! We hope you and your family enjoyed a very Merry Christmas together! We did for the most part, due to sickness that plagued some of our family members for most of the week of Christmas. But, we were thankful to have Grandmommie and Poppie here with us and they did a great job of spoiling Sadie Mac! I think she had 4 stockings, just for her! We all enjoyed time together in the morning and then headed over to a friends house for lunch. We enjoyed HAM(!!!!) along with all the sides of a usual Christmas dinner. Everyone chipped in much like Thanksgiving and we made it a meal fit for kings and queens. The kids exchanged gifts and the adults played "Dirty Santa" where you can steal gifts. It was great! We missed the snow that was falling back in the States along with family and friends there. But, what a gift to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas with both family from the States and family found overseas!! We love you all!


Poppie and Sadie Mac cuddling her first Cabbage Patch Doll

Grandmommie getting me ready for bed on Christmas Eve

Sadie and her two friends that are all about the same age. "Toddler Trio" is what we call them!

The Perfect Photo

It's that season for taking magical and memorable photos of your child. While some are dreaming of sugar plums dancing in the heads, I am a mom who was dreaming of the perfect Christmas card photo to send family and friends back home when my inlaws leave. When we were walking around the mall last week, we saw this little Santa and his house and large Christmas tree decorated with lights and I thought my dreams were about to come true!
So, I waited until just after Sadie napped (when she is most full of holiday (or just regular) cheer and set off to the mall with Grandma Jannie. Decked out in her holiday best with fancy new shoes and a fancy new dress. She was the queen of the mall with all the Arabs kissing her and saing how beautiful she was. Surely we were going to get the perfect photo!
We head down the escalator and "impressed" she was not. The little old man wearing red, who was about her size couldn't make her smile or even entertain her to sit still long enough to get a good pic. Or... if she wasn't getting distracted by a passer by or a larger billboard than the Santa and his house, my camera was either malfunctioning or taking 3+ seconds longer than Sadie wanted! Ugh! So... here are our "out-takes" or basically our "best takes". It was a memory... with no PERFECT pics to be found! But... we'll keep the cute little girl in them! Oh well... Merry Christmas!!!



A 3 second delay on the camera was just long enough for her to get distracted and turn her head! (UGH!)

Hey little girl, did you just find out you were on the naughty list or something? Where's the holiday cheer!?!

Good pic... bad background!

Here mommy... here are my holiday panties!!

More of the Tourist thing...

We are continuing our adventures here with the family in town and are seeing lots of places. A few days ago, we went to the WWII monument at "El Alamain" which means two flags in Arabic. This is a site where the British and Germans fought and lost several hundred of their soldiers. The Italians also had a monument there as they were helping advance the German efforts. There was a really nice museum in their honor and Charlie loved it. Sadie Mac enjoyed the flowers and tanks.



On Saturday, we decided to give them a taste of the town by taking them to The Fish Market, an upscale seafood restaurant where you pick your own fresh fish. Charlie choose a red snapper and the rest of us ate shrimp! It was tasty. We loved the view of all the boats and the beautiful Med.

Seeing the Sites

We are having a great time with family visiting and we are seeing sites and things we never have before. Last time they were here Sadie Mac was only a week old! So, this time we are going, going... going! Earlier this week we went to the Roman Ampitheatre and enjoyed seeing some excavating going on. We walked around and Sadie was climbing on everything. We are having a great time and thankful for their company! Charlie was trying to make a speech, but as usual, no one was listening... haha!!! (He knows we love him!)

Family photo opp. back behind the theatre

Stephen and Charlie in front of the amphitheater

Walking with Grandma down the ancient Roman Road

Sadie Mac trying to climb onto the sphinx!

Charlie and his speech!

Family is here... and we're EXCITED!

Well, "E-ma" Jannie and "Poppie" Charlie have arrived and we are soaking it in!! Sadie Mac is thoroughly excited (as you can see!!) We LOVE having family here in this season and are thrilled they will be here through Christmas. We have lots planned They have brought us lots of goodies from family back home and are enjoying slowly giving them to us. We are literally enjoying the 12 Days of Christmas. (It's killing us!) But, Sadie Mac is enjoying and thrilled at every little thing! Uncle Matthew and Aunt Jennifer gave us the book "Night Before Christmas" and recorded their voices... she loved it!! She also loved the little window stickers too! Oh what a Christmas it is going to be!!



Thank you Aunt Nikki and Uncle Daniel!! (as I cheer, "GO HEELS!!")

Sweet Reunion at the airport

Riding the train back and enjoying a new book!

Holiday Fun!

Snuggling up to daddy while he mixes the good stuff!

It's CHRISTMAS TIME (!!!) and we are loving this most wonderful time of the year!! We have been busy getting ready and just wanted to show you a few pics of what we've been up to. A family favorite of course every year is making our secret eggnog!! It is tasty!! Sadie Mac was loving the ice cream and milk as we started making it. (Notice, I didn't post these pics until after our friends enjoyed the eggnog... little did they know that SM fingers had dipped in!!!) ;-) We also love making Christmas cookies and enjoyed making several dozen of those with friends who came over tonight. Last week, we went over to a friends house and made our very first ornaments of the year!! Sadie Mac did the star and I made the tree. We LOVE this season!!

Cookie Crazinesssssss!

Christmas Ornaments

Happy Thanksgiving... and Eid!

We hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends... we know we did! We woke up that morning to delicious pancakes and Sadie Mac was thankful that we let her lick the spoon! We have so many things to be thankful for this year... family, good health, safety, and good friends! Living overseas can always be a challenge during the holiday season, but we feel so blessed to have a handful of friends here to celebrate with. We had wonderful turkey, stuffing, baked potato casserole, green bean casserole, deviled eggs, pineapple (or just apple as some around here say) casserole(!!), coconut, pecan AND pumpkin pies. We were stuffed and satisfied! We played games, cross stitched, and watched movies! What a blessing to have "family" when we are so far from family. It's hard to believe this is our 3rd holiday away from home... but God has been good!!

Thanksgiving was also a holiday weekend for our friends here... (Viewer discretion advised for the below pics!!)
Muslims around the world celebrated their holiday (Eid) where they believed that Abraham went to make a sacrifice and therefore they make sacrifices. What a bloody day it was. On Black Friday... we had Red Friday where the streets literally had blood running in them. The past two years in the sandbox we weren't able to see it like we did here. Blood doesn't run as easily on dirt roads! It was pretty crazy... but... it's our culture!

Blood literally running in the streets!

Poor animals, just waiting for their turn... (the board is going from the street to the sidewalk so people don't have to walk in the blood... and yes, that is blood.)

Day at the beach...

We are very blessed to live just across from the sea and there is a little patch of beach that we can see from our balcony. We've walked by it several times, but haven't stopped. Last week we decided to take a picnic lunch and enjoy the nice breeze, sand, and sun with our PB&J sandwiches. When we first arrived, the water was coming in kinda loudly and Sadie Mac was scared of the crashing waves. She just wanted to go back to her stroller. But, after that I had her sit on my lap to remind her that "mommy makes it all ok"... she was fine. After a while her and Stephen went down to the water and dipped her toes into the cold water for a second!! Her little legs trying to walk in the sand was a cute little site to see. What a beautiful day... wouldn't you agree?!

THANK YOU!!

While we were living in the sandbox, we had a mail system that some would call... unreliable or maybe even, non-existent. So... now that we are temporarily living in a place where we CAN get mail... we have loved getting it!!! Thanks so much to our family who have sent us lots of our favorite goodies!! PJ's and clothes for Sadie Mac, magazines, season Halloween candy, and lots of other favorite treats and pictures!! THANK YOU!!!! We love you so much and feel so appreciative... especially in this wonderful season!

Arm in Arm

One reason why I love this culture... this picture says it all. I'm not sure if these two are brothers or just friends, but I walked behind them for several blocks and they walked just like this. As I approached my house I raced up the stairs, grabbed the camera and ran to the balcony to catch these two just before they turned the corner. Sigh. Good day. Great picture.

Lions, Tigers, & Bears! (oh my!)

This past weekend we spent the day at city zoo to see the lions, tigers, and bears. Sadie Mac loved everything except... the big animals!! She was so funny when we got near the hippo, camel, or elephant, she was not interested!!! Poor thing would cry or squirm until we would take her away. Her favorite animals were all the stray cats running around everywhere. It was a fun little adventure and thankfully, the weather was perfect and we enjoyed it with some friends!

Camel Ride!!
Sadie Screaming, "NO Mama NO!!"

Stephen fed the hungry, hungry hippo... and Sadie wanted to be far, far away from it! Granted, it did look like a monster!

Feeding the Doves

Can't get her eyes off the zebra for a photo!

Again, she wouldn't take her eyes off of the lions to take a photo!

Clinging (and squirming) to daddy for dear life! (poor thing thinking)... "Is that an elea-monster?"

Black Kitty Kat

Happy Halloween!!! We had a little black cat running around our place looking at pumpkins and "meowing" (or is that a "hisssss"?!?) at her daddy! She was quite funny and we sure enjoyed dressing her up. She wasn't thrilled with her pig tales, but left them in long enough for pics! Hope everyone enjoyed their trick or treating back in the States... we enjoyed time with other friends here... candy, carving, and all!!