She looks thrilled, doesn't she?
For a Muslim country, they sure do decorate well for Christmas.
Once we were finished with Santa, we went to get some coffee and the kids had a pastry as usual. When we left Wafi Mall we went to the Mall of the Emirates to shop a bit. We wanted Grammie and Pop to see Ski Dubai and then we knew we would have lunch there.
Both kids brought their wallets so they could buy themselves a toy. As much as I tried to discourage them buying before Santa came, they insisted. Jack immediately found a nerf gun he wanted and bought it, having money to spare. Millie then found a pair of Crocs with the Frozen crew on them. She decided she wanted to buy them with her money. When we got to the counter the lady told us the price and I started telling Millie which bills to put on the counter. By the time we were finished she had no more bills in her wallet. She looked up at me and said, 'Hey, I don't have any more monies.' So then I asked, 'Do you still want them?' And she said, 'No!' She wasn't willing to give up all her money for a pair of shoes. The lady paying next to me looked at her boys and said, 'See, sometimes you have to give up one thing to get another,' and looked at me and said, 'Thanks for that lesson for my boys.' It was funny! We have never really let the kids bring their wallets out to buy anything, so I was shocked that Millie wasn't willing to buy the shoes in the end. Maybe this is the beginning of a sensible child.
After we ate lunch we went to another toy store where the kids saw another Santa. Then they looked around at different toys. Millie started riding this electric powered Ninja Turtle scooter. She rode it all over the store. She even rode it over by Santa to tell him that was what she wanted for Christmas, except she wanted a Frozen one. Whew! Santa will
come through on that request, I assured her.
Once we were home from Dubai, it was showers for everyone and a relaxing evening.
Monday we got up and got our car tags renewed. Grammie and Pop went for a walk with the kids and took them to Abela's grocery store where they picked up some apples and bubble gum.
After we were back from the tag place we headed to the mall to finish our Christmas shopping. Grammie and I went to the souq to get some more camel rug coasters and she found a unique bracelet she wanted. She walked away from it and we headed on to Toys R Us. As we headed on, Stuart lagged behind and bought the bracelet for her. The only problem was, she kept saying she thought she should go back and get it. I kept discouraging her until we ended up meeting Stuart in the front of the mall so we wouldn't go back by the souq. I don't think she had a clue we actually bought it.
Once the shopping was over we were back to the house. The kids had stayed with Pop so we could get the shopping done. We hid most of the gifts in Grammie and Pop's room, all except Jack's bike, purchased by Grammie and Pop. The bike was put in my car and covered with a blanket. He's going to be so excited.
For dinner we decided to go to the club with Stuart and eat while he trained for a bit.
Tuesday morning we got up and decided to go to the cinema. Star Wars had been in theaters for almost a week and Stuart hadn't seen it, which is unheard of. We arrived at the theater at 9:30 am and the movie started at 10 am. There was not one light on in the place. We walked around the mall a bit, baffled that the popcorn wasn't being made yet, really more irritated than baffled. The ticket counter finally opened at about 10 minutes until 10. We barely had enough time to get snacks. We were a house divided, not by my choice of course. Not ALL of us wanted to see Star Wars.
Stuart, Jack, Grammie and Pop went to see Star Wars.
Millie and I went to see The Good Dinisaur.
Our cinema selfie! Millie ate all of my popcorn.
After the movie we ate lunch at the food court. We happened to be at the mall where my mom had seen that bracelet. As we were walking to the car she said, 'Now is this the mall where we saw that bracelet?' I said, 'Yes it is,' and we kept walking. Again she said, 'I really think I need to go back to get that bracelet.' I told her we would be back to that mall at some stage. I diverted her one last time.
I was up Wednesday morning with Grammie and Pop at 5 am to watch UCA, my brother's team, play basketball. My niece, Morgan, is the team manager. Last week I was messaging her during the game we watched and she would do silly things when she knew the camera was on her. For some reason she didn't respond the first half of the game, but just before the second half started she skyped us. We even spoke to Russ. It blows my mind to know that we are so far apart but that I can communicate with her live and see her. Crazy!
We had a pretty chilled day on Wednesday. We walked to Abela's while the kids rode their bikes, we watched Christmas movies, baked some sweets, and then Grammie and I went to buy a new hair dryer because mine shorted out on Tuesday. Grammie also wanted to buy a couple more things for Jack to open on Christmas Day. Our kids are so spoiled.
We watched Elf with the kids before they went to bed. Then the adults watched Die Hard:Die Another Day. Not really a Christmas movie, but good all the same.
Thursday there was more baking and preparing for Christmas dinner at the Richardsons' on Friday. Here is the baking that occurred.
Star Wars and Frozen
Christmas morning Jack was in our bed at 5 am. Really? We stalled him off until 6 am and then he was waking up everyone in the house, much to Millie's dislike. She's a sleeper!
We went downstairs and when Jack went into the living room the first thing he said when he saw Millie's Santa gifts was 'There's my PS4'. It kind of made me sad. We went back and forth and in the end didn't think a PlayStation 4 was the best gift for him. He had also asked for a bike, a wrestling ring (never gonna happen), and a trash pack truck, none of which Santa delivered. However, Jack did get an IPad mini 4. Have we lost our minds? We justified it by writing a letter from Santa telling Jack and Millie he had picked out the perfect gifts for them and he knew they would listen to their Mama and Daddy when rules were applied. He wasn't as excited about his iPad, initially, but later in the day he said, 'Mama, Santa knew just what he was doing when he gave me this iPad. I'm so glad I got this because I can take it with me when we go on trips and the PS4 would just have to stay here (meaning our house)'. Whew!
In the end, my parents got him a bike and the track pack, and since no one would ever get him the wrestling ring, he made out really well.
Grandma and Grandpa bought the kids JDBugs, little indoor scooters. And all had a very merry Christmas. Even I got a surprise. Stuart had heard me talking to someone about whether I would ever want a Pandora bracelet. In the conversation I stated that the only way I would want one was if I could get all the charms I wanted at one time. Well, looks at my new Middle East themed Pandora bracelet.
Once we had cleaned up the carnage from the morning festivities, I went to the mall to exchange my bracelet for a larger size while Stuart got food ready for lunch at the Richardsons. After the 8 vegetables and the pork shoulder were ready, we were off for a feast.
Clearly the kids' table.
The food and company was amazing. We truly love the Richardson crew and Clare's parents and my parents had excellent conversation. It was really nice. We stayed until around 8 pm, then headed home to pack for Muscat. I kind of wished we had waited until Sunday to go to Muscat, but I thought about that too late.
I had washed all the prep dishes before we went to the Richardsons' so that was one less thing I had to do once we got home. The kids were in bed about 30 minutes after we got home and we went shortly after them.
We were up and out of the house by 9 am. The trip to Muscat, Oman was a little over 4 hours, with border crossing taking up about 30 minutes of that time. I got a bit car sick and Stuart got a stress headache from driving in different roads that were two lines and had big trucks on them. In the UAE there is a separate road for trucks.
Once we arrived at the apartments we checked in and went to the Grand Mall that was attached to the place we were staying. We ate lunch at the food court and then went to Carrefour, a supermarket, to pick up something for dinner and breakfast. Once back at the apartment the kids got cleaned up and we started playing card games. Uno and War are the current popular games.
The rest of the evening was filled with games and laughs.
Here are a few photos here at the end of some Elfvis antics.
Toilet papering the Christmas tree
Jack's creations.
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