December 15
It was 69 degrees last night... it's really warmed up. Everyone says this winter has been a lot colder than last year.
We got Jordan's school picture today. Grandparents and Aunts: If you would like a picture, please let us know and we'll bring it home for you next week.
We are looking forward to our trip home next week. We are planning to spend Christmas day here in Saudi, and then fly to Atlanta afterwards when there are seats. I am hoping to fly with the girls on Dec. 26; and Bruce is hoping to fly on the 27th. We have been dog-sitting Zoie again for the month and Bruce needs to wait for her owners to come home from their trip, and then they'll watch Shadow for us while we're gone.
Here is the Christmas party Bruce and I went to tonight. The family that lives here has lived in Saudi for over 30 years! They've got one of the nice houses with a pool! Employees get to bid on houses when they're vacant.
They even hired a shawarma guy to make shawarmas all night!
They've had some crazy lights going on in the living room and some people were dancing.
I know it's blurry, but their Christmas lights were so pretty.
December 16
This is Friday School.
It hasn't started yet.
Today our neighbors invited us to join them at the private beach (Half Moon Bay) and ride in their boat. The company has a private beach here that is about a 20-minute drive away, and you must own a boat or a wind surfer to qualify for a membership. Here we are driving to the beach.
Beautiful scenery along the way...
There's the entrance up ahead.
Here Reese is playing with our neighbors.
It looks warm, but the wind was very cold. Expats like to come to this beach and barbeque.
Here's the boat.
Here is the sand dune where the kids like to go sand sliding.
Because it's winter break, all the elementary and middle school kids are out of school for 3 weeks and there were several tents set up for camping. They looked like heavy-duty tents! I understand that when you rent the tent, they come and set it up for you as well... nice!
Abayas on the beach.
Arabian sunset.
Tonight we had a Christmas Carol in the elementary school auditorium with a bell choir and a Christmas play. It looked as if some Muslims came to sign the carols with us!
Brooke was in the Christmas play. She had the part of a modern-day teenager.
Reese is still studying Canadian Inuits and made a totum pole today.
Tonight is Bruce's football game. Every so often, he has to host his football game (a dice game) at our house and I have to provide dinner and snacks for the guys. Tonight I made Taco Casserole and Chicken Flautas with fresh guacamole. I forgot to take a picture of it, but it sure looked good! I miss good Mexican food the most.
December 19
I still needed some Christmas presents, so my neighbor and I split a driver for the morning. This way we can drive to several stores instead of just going to one store or a mall on the shopping bus. Here we are leaving my house at 8:15am.
First, our driver took us to Lulu in Khobar, but it was closed from 8am-5pm today only! Then he took us to Carrefour where we found some nice gifts. He waited in the parking lot until we were finished shopping. He came in the store and pushed our shopping cart out for us and loaded the car. Then we went to a strip mall closer to home. We knew we only had an hour until prayer and then we would go home.
During prayer, all the stores close for 25 minutes, so we expats try to schedule our shopping around prayer times. I bought my last gifts at Toy R Us, and then decided to get some groceries at the Giant Panda. I knew that the store would announce the prayer time, but they kept making announcement after announcement and they were all in Arabic, so I finally quit listening for the prayer time, and when it was just about time, I stumbled upon tortillas for only 2.50 riyals!! That's a bargain over here! I made my own tortillas a month ago because a package of 8 tortillas in the comm was 15 riyals ($4.) I couldn't believe I found as many packages as I could want for only 2.50 SR ($0.67!) So I loaded up my cart with tortillas and rushed to the register and found that they were just closing up for prayer time -- I had missed my chance! I had to leave my full cart in the store because my friend and the driver would be waiting for me to go home. What a disappointment!
When we arrived home at 11:45, we both paid the driver 50 riyals ($13.) I guess that's not too bad for an escort!
Later that evening, I took the shopping bus back to the Giant Panda and bought my tortillas! Now we can have all the breakfast burritos and soft tacos we want.
- Pattie -
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