Abigail's First Year

Happy Birthday to our Abigail Lily! It has been such an amazing first year. We love you SO much!

Christmas Day 2011

Here in Saudi Arabia Christmas is not a recognized or celebrated holiday.  So December 25th is a regular day.  The man loves working on holidays of all kinds because it usually means several people are off from work and he has a chance to get a lot of work done. 

I admit.  I threw a bit of a tizzy fit.  I just felt like we should celebrate ON the actual designated day together, and with The Man at work there would be no slowly opening presents together, eating a nice Christmas breakfast, playing with our new toys, watching movies, lazing around all day, etc.  So, although it was hard for him, he asked.  He got it off.  Yay!

We woke up at 5:00 in the AM on Christmas morning so we could skype with my family - who has a Christmas Eve party every year and is 10 hours behind us - and then we ventured downstairs for the opening of gifts.

The night before we had prepped the girls with a video message from Santa via PNP, an awesome website where you can customize a video of Santa with your childs name and pictures and specific information about them... it really is great.  I love Madeline's reaction when she sees herself in Santa's book and hears him speaking directly to her about her life.  We've done the PNP thing for two years now. We also made cookies for Santa, read some Christmas stories, and watch a Christmas movie. 

Christmas morning the girls were ecstatic, although Madeline's face has almost no surprise on it.  She seems to be catching on a little early (being only 3 years old) and questioning a lot of things.  Basically this means that if The Man and I wish to continue this lie with our children we need to be sneakier.  We plan to invest in a Santa suit this year for Paul and set up a situation where Mads may catch Santa in the act or something.

My family watched on skype while the girls opened their gifts, and then we said our goodbyes to them so we could continue our day.  Abigail and I went back to bed at 8:30 am (5:00 is waaaay too early for us) and slept in until 10:30.  It was pretty nice.  Then it was up to play some more. 

Paul made his delicious spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. We were able to skype with The Man's side of the family on Christmas day which was great too!

It really was a nice, relaxing and fun day, and we feel very blessed to have each other and feel so very fortunate to live the life we do.  I pray every day that others might experience the kind of joy I get to experience each and every day of my life with this amazing little family I have.  Merry Christmas!

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Merry Christmas 2011



Wishing all our family and friends a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Love, Paul, Edith, Madeline, Abigail and Kitty                   

Christmas Playgroup

This past Tuesday we had a playgroup at our house.  It was actually supposed to be the week before, but Madeline had a croup episode the night before the morning of was not a very good morning.  Anyway, we postponed it until this week. 

Mads and Abs helped me get ready by coloring a sign for one of the games we played.  They are both very helpful and sweet. 

Our friends came over and we made a reindeer craft, using the kids handprints as antlers. Then we played some games - Pin the nose on the reindeer, Frosty's snowball toss, Stack the presents, and the kids danced to some Christmas tunes. Then the kids finished the activity off with some reindeer cupcakes.
Even though half our friends couldn't make it (due to the date change) we had a good time!

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Snowflakes

I love paper.  There are SO MANY things you can do with paper, and one of my favorite's is making snowflakes at Christmas time.  This year we discovered snowflakes in 3D! I can't WAIT to get back to the States to buy two sided silver and gold scrapbook paper for next year's snowflakes!

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Christmas Cookies

For many years I put my urge to craftify on the back burner for things like college and working full time. Now that I have a little bit of time of my hands (NOT MUCH, believe me) I am trying to fit in any kind of craftiness I can.
Hence... Christmas cookies for my friends and neighbors. It's also a really fun thing to do together as a family. Of course, this year Madeline's only interest in Christmas cookies was eating them.

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Sand Sledding

A common tradition here in Saudi - especially around the holiday season - is to go sand sledding. About 30-40 minutes outside the compound is this huge sand hill. At the bottom is the perfect place to set up camp for resting, visiting, eating etc.

Even though we don't own a sled (YET), we followed a group out today for our very first adventure in sand sledding and we had so much fun climbing up and sliding down the huge sand hill. I normally don't like sand, but it was really quite soft and the sand underneath the warm stuff was nice and cool. It was almost therapeutic. Dare I say... I am starting to acquire a tolerance for sand? I guess ANYTHING under the right conditions can be pleasant.

Paul got his first experience with using 4 wheel drive with the yukon (that was pretty fun actually).  It even made ME feel manly.  Some of the men took their big, manly vehicles up the hill and drove down (see pictures).  We decided against that (for now) since our Yukon is a little newer.  Maybe in a few years?

Madeline had a blast! She was on the hill as soon as we arrived. Someone let her and her friend K and K's mom borrow a sled and they had a great time sliding down.  I also brought some sand toys for the kids to play with.  We set up Madeline's toy tent - a perfect place for the kids to eat lunch - and we spent a few hours just having a great time!

Someone brought a Christmas tree so we were able to get some family shots in front of the tree, which I just LOVED.  A to top it all off... we saw a herd of camel on the way home, which almost felt planted because Madeline had been asking about it on and off all day. Yay.
Sand sledding will DEFINITELY be one of our yearly traditions while we live here in Saudi Arabia. We had a magnificent time. 

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Halloween 2011

It has taken me a while, but here are photos from our Halloween this year!

The month of October was full of fun.  Madeline and I are really into being "crafty" and we make all of our decorations - for whatever holiday it might be.  This year we made some tissue ghosts to hang in the entry way of our house.  It was fun to see the reaction of our friends when they would come over. 
The girls and I were also invited to a Halloween party where the kids got to do a candy hunt and play with bubbles, eat, and do crafts.  Madeline went as Jasmine from Alladin.  And because everything this year has seemed to creep up on us a little to quickly, Abigail went as a bumble bee (an old costume I had from Madeline's previous Halloweens).
Madeline also had a carnival at her preschool and dressed up that day as Little Red Riding Hood.  She LOVES dressing up so it just makes sense that she would be TWO things for Halloween.

Two years in a row now we have spent Halloween night with our good friends the E's and the B's (names withheld for privacy). This year was a little different in that the very night of Halloween we had a taxi coming to take us to the airport for our trip to Thailand (post to come soon).

We had dinner at the E's house, and then we took the kids out for some trick-or-treating. They had a good time, but unlike last year, we decided to trick-or-treat in the busiest part of camp and it was a little crowded, not to mention a little overwhelming and stressful for Madeline.

She still had a good time and enjoyed her candy - she really loves candy (that's another story).

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Christmas Decorations Homemade

More homemade Christmas decorations!!

Madeline and I made a Santa, a snowman, and two reindeer for our front window.  We used paper, markers, crayons, scissors, cotton balls, and tape.  Madeline glued and colored the snowman entirely by herself.

Here is a wreath I bought last year that I spruced up with some glittery balls and ribbon.  A VERY quick craft to brighten up our dreary front door.

Here is our front window display.  We have received many compliments for our efforts from kids and parents alike. Madeline is very proud of her snowman. 

I had some pine garland from last year. It was just enough for around the living area entrance and up the stair banister.  I spruced it up with cooked playdough shaped like gingerbread men and painted.  I also curled some ribbon and layed it all over to add some shine and color.

One of my gingerbread men.  I hung these guys on all the shelves in the living room and dining room area and on the garland.

My coffee filter angel tree with salt dough cooked ornaments.  And that tree skirt?  It's an actual old white skirt of mine that I have always hated on.  Works nicely as a tree skirt!

We brought our advent house with us from the States. It was one of the only Christmasy things we thought would get through without any troubles.  We purchased our countdown santa and white glitter Christmas tree her at a couple of the craft fairs they have on camp this time of year.  There are a TON of crafty women and men on camp.

And finally, we did not make this one, but it is homemade and we love it.  Our outdoor wooden Christmas tree that we bought from a friend. Her and her husband are very talented.  We bought a yard pumpkin from them at Halloween.  They plan to do stuff like this for almost every holiday.  A very smart idea in a place like this and a great way to make some extra money for whatever reason you might want to.

Chocolate

Christmas time = Christmas candy = Chocolate!!

Here is Abigail after her very first piece of chocolate.  I think I did pretty good holding out giving her any for 11 months.  She really liked it... A LOT.

Homemade Christmas Ornaments 2011

When Paul and I first got married we had the idea to buy each person in our family an ornament each year.  Then, eventually, and by the time our children moved out and on to their successful careers and lives full of happiness and independent, wise thinking, they would each have their own set of ornaments for thier trees.  A fun, and common traditional idea.  It's kind of hard to find ornaments here in Saudi. Technically we could order them in advance and bring them back with us each year on repat, but up to this point (only our second Christmas here) we haven't thought that far in advance. We are learning.

In the meantime, we decided it might be fun to make our own ornaments. And we were right!  It was fun and will now be a yearly tradition.  Who knows, maybe we will do both. 

We went a little crazy with the cooked salt playdough this year so I won't post all of them, but here are some of my favorites:

 This year we decided to do handprints of the girls, the first letter of each of our names (Kitty included), and some random Christmas shapes (trees, reindeer, candles, etc.). 

 Madeline is quite the little artist and she always has a good time doing this kind of stuff...

 Paul is always a trooper and he participates. He agreed this was a fun activity and that we should do this every year.

Madeline at work... such an arteest!

Abigail spent the night cruising at lightning speed around the circle that is our kitchen, playroom, hallway, dining room.  She is always on the move... always.  

 Madeline doesn\t like to rinse her brushes in the water so we get a nice blend of colors here.  Paul thought even her paint palette looked like art so he snapped a shot.


Madeline's star

 

Madeline's circle art

 

My snowflake with lined glitter edges



Ab's handprint



A lovely tree painted by Paul

 

Mad's handprint

 

An oval that turned out looking like a pine cone, sort of

 

Paul's letter P.  Everything he painted (except the tree) was solid colors like this.
A display of his logical personality?



It was a great time together and we will do it again every year until the kids think it's no longer cool, which I hope will be never.

Coffee Filter Angel

Christmas in Saudi Arabia is a little different than in the States.  Here it isn't so easy to find anything that has to do with the holiday, and if you DO find it, it's usually ridiculously expensive and not really worth your money - unless you just can't wait and are totally desperate. 

So this year I am finding myself MAKING a lot of our Christmas decor.  It has been really fun, and actually sort of therapeutic for me.  I get these ideas and I just go with them. 

Paul and I decided not to bring most of our Christmas stuff with us when we moved here because of the relgious laws and restrictions on anyone non-muslim.  We didn't want to risk losing our precious ornaments and other things. Long story short, we had nothing to decorate with for the holidays.

So last year there was a lovely group of women who put together a sale for new people. I went, spent some money on a few things (knowing I would eventually get all my stuff from the States and bring it back) and I entered a raffle to win a tree. 

I won a tree!  I was able to find a few ornament type things at a local craft store and I tied some ribbons on them and called it good.  Being 9 months pregnant and having a 2 year old who is excited easily it was enough. 

This year is different. We didn't get a chance to go through our things on repat so we still had nilch.  We have a three year old who is beginning to understand the season and what Christmas is all about. 

So... I had to idea to make a homemade angel for the top of the tree - among many other homemade things.

I started with a plastic ball, two plastic knives, a paper cup, a plastic cup and my trusty glue gun.  I LOVE my glue gun. 

I began kind of late, and these guys wanted to hang out with me.  It took me until about 1 am to finish so this is what they did while I was working...

Here is the finished product!  I painted the ball with some acrylic paint, added some doll hair, and used coffee filters to make the dress, halo, and wings.  A few other random things like left over hard dough from our homemade ornaments and some felt and fake plant leaves and ribbon helped add some finishing touches.

Here she is on the tree. I am really pleased with how she turned out.  It really completes the tree and it makes the holidays and our home even more special this time of year.

My angel has brown hair because most of the angels in my life have brown hair... my mom, my daughters, my sisters, my best friends... it just made sense.

Cherry Chomper

I found this website a while back that I have spent way too much money on in the past several months, but they have some pretty cool and unique stuff advertised every once in a while.  Like this:

The Cherry Chomper.  You actually place a cherry inside the little chomper guys mouth, press down, and the seed inside the cherry is pushed out the bottom of the cherry and into that clear, cup-like area.  It is the coolest thing!

 See look, here is a cherry after having surgery in the cherry chomper. The pit has been removed and it was fast and furious.

 Mads loves the cherry chomper, and since we got it, has wanted cherries every day. 

 This is Paul's face after I asked him to act like he was doing an infomercial for the cherry chomper so I could get it on video. He thinks I am silly.

 Abigail had no interest in the cherries OR the Cherry Chomper. She'd rather chomp on celery... thank you very much.

Oops! The Cherry Chomper only works 8 out of 10 tries cause it looks like Mads found a seed. 

I just love cool stuff.