We woke up early to speak with Rony and Brittney and the kids. My parents were in Oregon visiting and we haven’t seen the kids since Nolan was born, and he’s almost two years old. Mya was chatty, as was Nolan. They were so funny. Jack and Millie enjoyed speaking to them as well.
Claire came over to babysit, while Cathy, Stuart and I headed to do some Christmas shopping in Dubai. We finished up our gifts and then went to Waitrose, a supermarket in the mall. It’s one of the supermarkets that has the best produce and meat, so that’s where we did a great deal of our Christmas food shopping. Stuart determined he would need to return on Friday and get our turkey because we didn’t have enough room in our freezer to keep it frozen until Friday.
While we were in Dubai, Millie went with her friend Abbey to Fun Block and Jack played outside most of the day, so Claire’s job was relatively easy. Once we were home and packages were away, we decided we would order Chinese food. Cathy stayed for dinner, but Claire headed home.
Monday Jack went to Bounce with his friend Adam, and Millie went to visit Santa. He was at a book store in the mall. She asked me who it was. I told her it could be the real Santa, but she said, ‘Naw’, but I think she did wonder. We shopped for and bought table gifts for Christmas Day, for the 15 people coming to our house. Once we were finished at the mall, we came home and chilled for a while before I had to go collect Jack at Bounce. In the meantime, Kayleigh arrived from the UK. Millie was so excited! Once I was back with Jack, we ordered curry.
Tuesday we went shopping with Cathy and the girls. We had lunch at the food court and then came back to their house for a lamb dinner. Sean came over as well. It was a late night, full of laughs.
Wednesday we headed to Abu Dhabi to a winter festival. We do whatever is offered to help us get in the Christmas spirit. The festival wasn’t open until 3 pm, so naturally a trip to Ikea and our favorite mall was necessary. We had lunch at the food court. I had tacos and Jack had his first chimichanga. He loved it. Once we were home the kids showered and had a chocolate roll up (Nutella in a tortilla), which is their ‘go to’ when they can’t think of what they want to eat and I’m too lazy to make them anything remotely healthy. It’s a bit shameful, truth be told.
Thursday the kids and I went to Abu Dhabi, again, with Clare Richardson, Henry and May. We dropped them at Adventure HQ so they could go to the skate park, and we shopped around for about an hour. We picked them up and fed them at Buca Di Beppo, where the best meatballs in the world are served. I ordered salmon and risotto, but then ordered a take away of two meatballs, anticipating having them the following day.
After lunch, the kids returned to the skate park, while Clare and I sat and had a cup of tea. At the end of their second hour, we all visited the toilet before getting in the car to head home. The kids were sweaty and exhausted.
Thursday evening we headed to the rugby club for dinner and for our chairman’s surprise birthday party. Once he arrived and we all sang happy birthday, we decided to go home and call it a night for the kids. Cathy came back to our house and had a glass of wine. It was a nice evening but the kids were wiped out.
Friday we got up and went to church. It was the last service of Advent. It was also the Cristingle service. A Christingle is a symbolic object used in the Advent services of many Christian denominations. Christingle means 'Christ Light' and is used to celebrate Jesus Christ as the "Light of the World". Used primarily for Advent and Christmas, it is also used for Epiphany. It was a great service, and hopefully now Millie knows we celebrate Christmas because of Jesus’s birth, not Santa’s birth, which is what she told me the first week of December.
We came home after church and just lazed around the house. Stuart got home from his food shopping trip just after 2 pm. He was very excited and felt very ready for his few days of cooking to come. Friday evening we went to the Richardsons for a lamb dinner. We ended up getting a cab home because we both chose to have some wine. Fortunately, Stuart had packed the truck with all the necessary things for the breakfast in the desert the following morning, except for the food of course. Millie came back with us, but Jack and Duke spent the night at the Richardson’s.
Saturday morning I changed the sheets on our bed, and we headed to the desert for breakfast. We sat up our shade structure and let Duke run and run and run, as well as the kids. The Richardsons and Davisons came with us. We had bacon, sausages and eggs on rolls. We had a kettle for tea and coffee. The kids rolled in the sand and made their own fun.
Once we were home, Stuart unpacked the truck while the kids, Duke and I had showers. Duke laid down the entire time I showered him. He was so exhausted from his morning in the desert. Stuart and I discussed that we had never had a dog that you could take somewhere, let it loose and know it wouldn’t run away. Duke is such a wonderful dog. He doesn’t bark, he doesn’t wet or poo inside, and he doesn’t jump on people. He does, however, shed like crazy and he eats camel poop. I guess no one is perfect.
Once everyone was clean and Stuart returned from some last minute shopping, I headed off to get a much needed pedicure. It was a couple of hours to myself, which was really nice. When I got home our cleaner was at the house. We found this a great opportunity to head to Cathy’s for gingerbread house making. As you can see from the pictures, the houses may have had some structural issues, but everyone had fun.
We ate dinner at Cathy’s and watched Santa Clause 3. We headed home just before 9 pm, when the cleaner was finished. The kids then went to bed. Stuart and I finished wrapping presents and headed to bed as well. We were ready for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
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