Sheik Ha-Jo

Sheik Ha-Jo gets fitted for a new dishdasha.

Visitors

We've been very busy with visitors from Germany (a great family of 6 from Neustadt-Coburg-home of Hummel porcelain figurines.). And now my in-laws are here from Belgium. I'll try to post pictures. It was nice to finally see some of Dubai again, as a tourist, especially the creek and souks filled with so many colorful fabrics,- rather than as a resident just heading to the grocery store in mass traffic jams. I have to admit it has been enjoyable setting the table for 8 people, breakfast and dinner. Cooking all that food for dinner. I made 16 huge bratwurst sausages the other night, haven't cooked that much meat in ages. The Germans have only been eating a donut in the afternoon. (something I had to tolerate even with a growling stomach, longing for something for more substantial.) Although strangely enough, in Germany, they eat their main meal at noon and eat sandwiches in the evening. I think it has more to do with not wanting to eat in restaurants, something most Germans and Belgians do only in special occasions. Today we head to the Mall of The Emirates, the biggest mall in the middle east, the one with the ski slope. And then tomorrow we will go see a camel farm and head one more time to a spice souk to look for saffron, which cost an arm and a leg here (yet cheaper than elsewhere.)Gabi and Lucas have not been sleeping well because of all the excitement, and oh, I scored 4 goals at soccer practice yesterday. :) My first goals ever!

Excuse me, may I have some privacy please!

Lucas has been telling us lately when he has to do a number "1" or number "2", so we decided to pull out the "potty". He was pretty funny the first time with it. He got up about 15 times and shouted out, "FINISH!" each time, and then sat back down. We're sure he got that from Gabi. In the end, there were only a few "droplets" of number "1". Small success, but still in diaper. :)

clean up

The flood clean-up started a few days ago in our building. Unfortunately, our friends downstairs lost all the contents of their house and have been sleeping on couches of friends and neighbors. In fact all downstairs' apartments were badly damaged, cars included. Marc's car suffered some major water damage, sigh. But we are doing fine, thank God. Schools re-opened and we are resuming our Spring Term schedule. Both Gabi and Lucas are doing class topics of Self, Civilisation, and Home Countries. So, we are making big collages of the Belgian side of the family and Mexican American side. So far all Marc and I can think of are food items, like tacos and belgian waffles, (typical.) The rains also brought the satellite down so we've had no TV since then and we are actually enjoying the evenings without it. We are watching some of the DVDs that we buy and never get around to watching. We are also catching up on books too. I finally read Into Thin Air. That was intense and so sad. I've included a picture of some of the clean up process here in our compound. But also, Marc ran a 10k on Friday. He did really well for a first-time-in-his-life run. So here is a before and a couple of afters.

Too much of a good thing..

Rain in the desert is a good thing but after a low pressure system parked itself over the Emirates for three days, it ended up dumping a lot more rain than anyone bargained for. I took a picture of the flooding around 2p yesterday (car in water), but the following two pictures from late this morning show just what it looks like outside our front lobby-parking lot. Water is knee high now. It has stopped raining and the sun should come out today, according to the weather report. Unfortunately, all the bottom apartments are flooded out and the trucks to pump the water out are just now getting started.

Gabi's version of bringing her bike to the park

She's usually gung-ho to ride her bike to the park, but it usually turns into someone else pushing her or the bike home. Thank God for little brothers.

Oh NO, the sprinklers, RUN!!!

heading to the park with papa

brrrrrr

Homes in Dubai are built to keep the blazing heat out and unfortunately in the winter, this means we are left with a house that is freezing cold. It is only getting as warm as 62 degrees in the house. Outdoors it is probably 65-68 and overcast. (Yes, warmer outside.) We are wearing pullovers and socks all day. We take walks to the park just to stay warm. I guess we can't complain since we left Belgium at 0 degrees. But at least there was a wood burning stove that kept us toasty indoors. In three weeks we'll have a whopping 8 visitors stay with us. Let's hope the temperature will rise a bit and they can have the sunny holiday they paid for. Lucas and Gabi head back to pre-nursery and kindergarten on Sunday, giving me time to prepare for all the visitors.

Christmas in Belgium

Taking our first winter walk with Bompa.

Waiting for Sinterklaas (Belgian St. Nicholas)

Gabi and Lucas waiting with their friend Sari -ever so patiently for Sinterklaas to call their names. Lucas wasn't sure what was going on. Gabi was a little nervous because Sinterklaas knows a lot about your past behavior and she wasn't too sure she would get a present. She made it out ok!

Gabi goes to Nutcracker

Our first real ballet. She surprised me and sat still with her good friend Noor, watching and humming a long to the music, for two whole hours.

My family

Welcome

Welcome to our family blog page. I've been inspired by my friend Karin from Kansas, living in Colorado-to finally do something about all those pictures that never make it past my desktop. Her blog is great. Check it out- http://karinsfamilyworld.blogspot.com/ This blog is also due to my New Year's resolutions, to try and remain more in touch with people I care about. I'll try to update daily with photos when possible. Here's to a succesful launch, chingching!