Merry Christmas Eve!

 

                     Merry Christmas Eve from Abu Dhabi!

 

It’s been almost two months since I’ve updated and so much has happened! I haven’t been keeping notes of what I wanted to blog about like I had been so hopefully I can remember everything.

We celebrated our first UAE National Day (Like our July 4^th) Celebrations here and wow was it cool! These people love their country. Their flag was up everywhere with their “43^rd National Day” symbol. There was an air show at the Corniche (one of the beach areas), fireworks, and UAE’s version of a parade. We met some of our new friends at the Corniche and spent the afternoon with them. We got great spots for the parade and waited in the same spot for over 4 hours to see this “parade”. During the 4 hours, tons of cars decked out in UAE colors and flags came passing by honking their horns and kids spraying silly string everywhere- at people, at cars, you name it. We desperately wanted to see this cool parade and waited in the same spot for that whole 4 hours before I finally asked one of the officers when the parade started. Unbeknownst to us, UAE’s version of a parade was just what we had been watching for 4 hours – decked out cars. A car parade. No firetrucks, no police cars, no camels (I mean, come on, we are in the desert…), just… cars. So to say the least, you have to go to National Day Celebrations at least once while you live here in Abu Dhabi, but we won’t be attending anymore J

For UAE National Day, Zach and I were both off for three work days, followed by the weekend. So we took the opportunity to head over to Oman for the long weekend as Braxton and I needed to renew our 30-day visitor visa anyway (which by the way we have since received our residence visas! yippe!). Zach told me as we were on our way that he spent a little less on the hotel so that we could spend more on attractions and things to do. While I appreciated his thoughtfulness, I really did want to splurge with a nice hotel. So after driving over an hour through nothing but rocky, absolutely breathtaking mountains, with only 60km of gas left in our tank, and following random signs praying they were still correct, the mountains opened up to a breathtaking resort on the back side of the mountains. He had book a 3-story penthouse on a resort for us- complete with a grocery store, beach, pool, restaurant, and shopping- all right there within walking distance. The place was in Le Sifah, Oman and WOW was it absolutely beautiful. We stayed two nights and three days and had a fantastic, relaxing time. We visited some souks, local traditional restaurants, and spent some time at the beach and the pool. Thanks for the surprise babe. It was so awesome.

Some changes have come about at my job and I am no longer working at the same nursery that Braxton attends. Within the 8 weeks that I worked there, I was moved to 4 different positions with the last being the receptionist. While I really did enjoy sitting at the computer, helping parents, and lets not forget- drinking hot tea every day, that’s not really what I went to school for. Everyone that I worked with was lovely and I was sad to leave and not work with them every day. I am keeping Braxton there because his teacher is just absolutely fantastic and he is very settled there with his routine and friends. I have accepted another pre school teaching position at a Montessori school about three blocks from Braxton’s school and will begin there at the beginning of January. Every classroom is bilingual with two teachers in each class. I am in a French-English class and I, obviously, will speak only English in the class and my co-teacher will speak only French in the class. She has been at the school for over two years but only in the pre school classroom for two weeks so we get to make our classroom our own and start from the bottom together. I am so excited and can’t wait to begin! Braxton is aware that I no longer work at his school but is okay to stay with all of his friends and his teachers. He will be making a big transition in September anyway when he begins “big school” so we really didn’t want to move him at this point, just to move him again in September after such a recent big move to AD.

We are still going to TGI Fridays every Friday and this will be our 16^th Friday in a row J We now know all of the waiters and waitresses by name along with the store manager, local manager, and regional manager! We got them all a goody bag with candy for Christmas a few weeks ago and this past Friday we went and they had gifts for Braxton and both Zach and I. We are loving the relationships we are building. They give us a free appetizer and free dessert every time we go! Let’s just say we’re getting our “Freshman 15 of Abu Dhabi” in quite well here!

We met some friends from Indiana at TGI Fridays who have two boys- 1yr and 3yr- and we are getting to know them well. We have hung out many times and are hoping to take a spring break altogether to Thailand in March. They are home for Christmas and we miss them! I am so thankful God has brought them in our lives. You probably saw the picture we posted at Cheesecake Factory on Thanksgiving. As both of our first Thanksgivings away from our families, we spent it together eating cheesecake J

We are hosting a weekly group in our apartment complex that we call “The Hangout”. We invite everyone (over 1000) in our apartment complex buildings every Wednesday to just relax, eat, and chat. Most are ADEC teachers (like Zach) so it’s a good chance to chat with someone that is facing the same challenges in their day to day job. The first group we had about 15 people come. With the holidays and grades due at school, it’s been slim but hope to start back up full swing after everyone returns. Pray that solid relationships are built and the Lord’s light shines.

Our next door neighbor, Melissa, has her parents in town from Oregon for three weeks and it’s been great to hang out with everyone! Yesterday we went to the Al Dhafra Camel Festival together and it was so cool! We rented a 7-seater SUV so that we could all ride together. (Zach secretly wanted to rent it so he could go off-roading in the sand). Nonetheless we drove to the festival and saw TONS of camels. It was basically this huge piece of dessert with camels, tents, and the Bedouin Tribes with an obvious pathway to drive your vehicle through. Well there we went, all 6 of us through this desert looking at camels. Camels sleeping, camels bathing, camels walking in the “road”, camels everywhere! Be looking out for pictures! Braxton had a fantastic time. Now this place is so full of sand that they actually have assistance vehicles riding around in case you get stuck in the sand so they come and help pull you out. Zach did decide to go off-roading at one point to get up close to the camels and we got stuck. Not just stuck, but s-t-u-c-k. Like, all of our tires were half way deep in the sand. So much so that the assistance vehicle, police officers, and just plain people pulling over to watch this SUV full of white people , had to come help us get out. I was crying I was laughing so hard. This nice Emirati guy watching on the side just finally came up, Zach got out, and he maneuvered us out of the sand in no time. Then he introduced himself to Zach- Mohammed was his name- and gave him a quick 5 minute “driving in the sand” lesson. Hil-arious. But yall, these people are SO NICE! I got it all on video from the back seat. If I can talk Zach into uploading it, you can view it J

So ‘tis the season. I feel like Christmas is more of a “family” holiday than Thanksgiving for some reason. It wasn’t hard for me to be aware for Thanksgiving. Maybe because the newness of everything was still running high. But almost 4 months into AD, I am wishing I was with everyone for Christmas. Maybe it’s because most of the friends we have made here all went home for Christmas and I’m secretly jealous. I’m certainly not jealous of the long flight, nor the money that had to be spent on tickets. But man am I jealous to sit by the Christmas tree opening up presents together. I’m jealous of the cold, scarf-wearing, boot-wearing weather. And I’m jealous to not get to put my arms around my parents’ neck on Christmas Day. Nonetheless, our first Christmas in the dessert will begin tomorrow. Today will be filled with pictures with Santa at the mall, making homemade chocolate chip cookies to leave out tonight, cutting some carrots for the reindeer, and secretly getting to eat them tonight after Braxton is in bed. Tomorrow morning will be filled with excitement as Braxton wakes up and gets to open all of his presents. I can’t wait for him to see just what’s under that tree. Him and Zach are going to have a blast playing with the nerf guns and I know he’ll be so excited to race the remote control car down our apartment complex floor. I am so very thankful for Zach and Braxton and that we get to celebrate our Christmas together, once again. I love my little family so much.

To my Calhoun family, I love and miss you all dearly. I can’t wait to board that plane in July and get to run to each one of you as we come up those escalators in the Atlanta airport. The time will come. It will be here before you know it. Just a little over 6 more months. It’s really not that long if you think about it. I mean, it’s almost 2015! So crazy! And Braxton will turn 4 years old this year- what?! My, oh my, how time does fly.

(and please don’t say, “just come home”. Because the truth is, it’s just not that easy)

Merry Christmas to all. We love each and every one of you. And miss you all more than you know. Please know we are having a fantastic time. Really. We are loving it here. Loving the people, the culture, the opportunities, and more.

Love to all!