Party Of Five in Dubai: January 2019

For some reason it has taken me a lot longer to update than normal. Perhaps it's because the boys and I arrived a month later than we have in previous years. Perhaps it's because we jumped right back into our routine and I felt like there was nothing new to post. Then it occurred to me that I blog about our time in Dubai because I want to be able look back on our time here and reflect on all of our experiences!

Rod still came to Dubai early December, but we decided to let the boys finish out the semester in Texas. We had a jam packed fall with the twins playing flag football, Mason played his first year of Junior High tackle football and he started 7th grade basketball just before we left.

MASON - FAIRFIELD JUNIOR HIGH FOOTBALL

Mason with his buddies, Rowdy & Cameron

Mason and cousin Angie on game day! The boys have to wear a button down and tie to school

Pep Rally!

Mason's biggest fans!

Mason was even able to play a few basketball games, before we left for Dubai! (He's actually never played basketball before because we are always overseas during the season!)

CASH & JAKE - FLAG FOOTBALL

These two were beasts on the field, which is no surprise considering they've been playing ball with their older brother and his friends since they could walk!!

We also had a house flood back in October, which damaged a large portion of our wood floors. Our entire house has wood floors, so we have to replace the damaged portion and refinish the rest of the house to match the new floors. Fortunately they are able to make all of the repairs while we are away, but unfortunately I had to pack up our entire house and move everything out while also trying to pack for Dubai. All in all, I was thankful for the extra few weeks, and the boys enjoyed all the numerous Christmas activities during the month of December! We've always been in Dubai during this time of year, so it was fun to attend all the various Christmas parties, school dances, family gatherings, Christmas with the cousins, numerous visits with Santa, etc.

The scene of the crime: The handle on Mason's toilet got stuck, so the water continued to run. Normally this would not be an issue, except for the pump on our septic tank also broke, which caused the water to overflow! It ran over for more than 8 hours before we got home to discover what had happened!

Mason's bedroom

The hallway to the boys' rooms

The after: we had to remove the baseboards in attempt to dry out the subfloor

HOLIDAY TIME IN TEXAS

Visit with Santa and the Olin Cousins

Christmas party with Grandpa G! (my dad)

Boys with GranBobs and the Judson cousins

Another visit with Santa

Mason shot a mature buck on our place over Opening Youth Weekend

Trampoline Basketball: Enjoying some down time before we fly out for Dubai

Christmas nerf guns and live Fortnite games!

We were scheduled to depart out of Houston on December 20th. This was also the boys' last day of school, but yours truly came down with a stomach bug that morning :( This pushed back our departure date to the 23rd with an arrival in Dubai Christmas Eve night. The boys did great on the 15 hour flight, which left Houston at 6:30 pm. They even slept 6-7 hours on the flight, so they were bright eyed and awake when we arrived in Dubai at 7:30 pm (9:30 am Texas time!) Rod had already been in Dubai for a few weeks, so he had a friend help him set up all our Christmas decorations and our trunks of toys and personal items were already unpacked. We had to order take-away from our favorite Krush Burger, I attempted to unpack our 8 suitcases, and then I finally convinced the boys around 3:30 am to go to bed so that Santa Claus could deliver their presents. Santa had to wait for them to all fall asleep before coming, so my guess is that Santa was exhausted ;) However, the boys were so excited for Santa's arrival, and basically took a 2.5 hour power nap and were all awake by 6:00 am!!! The excitement and adrenaline must have kept us going strong because we continued on our Christmas celebrations at our friends house, The Rae's, along with the Winkler's and Finnegan's. The 11 kids had their own gift exchange, the adults did a white elephant gift exchange followed by a traditional turkey and ham Christmas dinner. I have to admit that a Christmas Eve arrival was not ideal, but we were so blessed to all be together as a family on Christmas Day and spend it with such a special group of friends :)

Christmas Day!

The boys had two weeks of winter break to relax and recover from jet lag before starting back to school, so we spent time at the beach, went to various trampoline parks, afternoons at the baseball field and time with friends! We also got to experience New Year's Eve from a different view point this year. We stayed with the Rae's, who live on The Palm and got to see fireworks from the Marina, the Burj AlArab, the Atlantis and the Burj Khalifa in downtown!