The day the UAE became the UAE

The story really is quite amazing. I am sure there are people who could make it much more interesting than I will, but the short of it is there was a man named Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. He was frequently referred to as the father of the nation.

He led the UAE through economic and political change which could not have been imagined when many were born.

Sheikh Zayed was born in Abu Dhabi around 1918 although the exact date is unknown.

As a young man he spent time with Bedouin tribesmen, learning about their way of life and the desert in which they lived.

His first taste of government came in 1946 when he was appointed Ruler's Representative based in the oasis town of Al Ain.

In 1971 he orchestrated the union of the 7 emirates, forming what we know of as the United Arab Emirates. 

So on December 2 each year there is a grand national celebration, referred to as National Day. 

In honor of this we were given Sunday and Monday off last week. And then of course that 4 day weekend was turned into a 5 day weekend because of the announcement that Dubai got the bid for the World Expo in, wait for it, ...... 2020.

On Sunday we got up and went to do some Christmas shopping that was supposed to have been done while we were in Abu Dhabi the day before.  I am pleased to report that we had some success. In the early evening we went to Cathy's and headed from there to the Hili Archeological Park for a picnic and fireworks that were supposed to go off at 8:30 pm. We met with yet another ADEC family there. And at about 9 pm when no fireworks appeared we decided to head home. Later we were informed that the promised time of 8:30 pm actually changed because the mood hit at 7 pm. We had heard but didn't see the fireworks. Oh well. 

Monday was National Day. We invited Cathy and her girls, as well as Fechin, Gemma and their kids over for dinner. We had an English roast dinner, which would only make since considering all guests were British. 

Tuesday we resumed school as normal, or so I thought. Of my 49 students, only 26 showed up to school. We ended up combing classes and I only taught 2 of my 6 classes. It worked out nicely for me because Jack's National Day celebration that he should have done last Thursday was rescheduled for Tuesday. I knew I would be able to go since we were most likely going to have no students anyway.  My principal is very accommodating when it comes to our families. 

Tuesday evening an tech guy came by to hook up our buffalo router and magic jack, both of which I know very little about. What I do know is now we can watch Netflix and Hulu Plus. Yahoo!

School was a little busier on Wednesday. I had one full class and was only missing 7 girls in the other one. I had to teach a whole 4.5 hours, my regular schedule. In the evening we tried to do a little more Christmas shopping. We ended up buying some decorations for our house and a lamp, all of which were wrapped in bubble wrap. Sherry Bollard, you will be happy to know that the only thing Jack was concerned about was whether he was going to be able to play with the bubble wrap when we got home. So as you can see, the answer was 'yes'. Thanks for that tradition. Although we may not do it at New Year and not running bikes over it, still we have claimed it as our own. 

On Thursday the majority of my class showed up for school but not until after we had combined classes.  So although we had a few too many girls in the classroom, I still only taught three classes that day. It was a great way to end the week. 

Thursday evening we went to the rugby club to hear the Al Ain choir sing Christmas carols. It was nice and put me a bit more in the Christmas spirit. But it does take a great deal to get in the spirit in 80 degree weather, which was the low that day. 

Friday morning we got up, I went to fetch Ms. Janet to clean our house, and off to church we went. When we got there we were surprised to find out that Jack was going to be a part of the Nativity. That was the entire service. It seems that two weeks ago they made animal masks. Jack was a cow. He sat in the manger so quiet and still. Then just when I thought he was going to get restless and need to come back to sit with us in the audience, he lowered his face to the floor. Obviously, the cows at the manger needed nuriousment. It truly looked as if he were eating hay. I started giggling way down deep inside. Then as the Christmas story was finishing, our little cow laid down for a rest, not like a boy would, but like a cow would. So stinking cute. Our boy was in his first, of many his mother hopes, productions. 

Yet again, after church, we headed to the mall for the last of our Christmas shopping, ate lunch and headed home for a much needed nap. Because Friday evening there was a Christmas party at Jack's school. Santa was there!

There were a number of activities for the kids to do, but Jack an Millie seem perfectly happy to just play on the playground. There was a tree and Santa came to deliver every boy and girl a Christmas gift (that needed to be delivered to the school prior to December 3, with names clearly marked on the gift. Oh, and no gift should be over 50 dirhams- about $14. Didn't want it to look as if Santa has favorites). Jack and Millie thought it was great. 

Saturday morning we got up and went to a gingerbread making party. Again, Santa showed up and brought everyone a .....book. Yippee! We could use these, St. Nick.

The gingerbread houses were all pre-made and we got to put the icing and the candy on. It was so fun. Millie ate more of the candy than she put on the house so our decorations were a bit lacking. 

After making gingerbread houses we decided to go to the Sands Golf course, where our church meets, to check out the farmer's market, which also had crafts from around the world. Jack just played outside when we went inside to check out all the crafts. Amongst the beautiful wares, Santa was sitting there greeting children. When we got ready to leave and got I to the car Stuart asked Jack if he had seen Santa inside the building. Here was the conversation.

Jack: Santa was there?

Me: Yes. Didn't you see him?

Jack: No. Was it a girl Santa or a boy 

         Santa. 

Me:  What?  What do you mean?

Jack: Some Santa's are girls. 

Me:  Why do you say that?

Jack: The one where we made our gingerbread today was a girl. 

Me: How do you know that?

Jack: Cuz I just do. 

Um......help!  We went on to explain that since the real Santa can't be everywhere at once, he sometimes asks others to help him out by dressing up like him. He was fine with that and kept on playing his Nintendo DS in the back of the car, while Stuart and I were secretly cracking up in the front seat. 

Just one more week of school and then we are off for three weeks and off to England for the entire break. I can't promise much of a blog for that time, but will fill you in if we do anything exciting.