Merry & Happy Everything!

Merry & Happy Everything pretty much sums up the holiday season here!  Dubai is a melting pot of cultures and religions with people from all over the world!  Dubai has opened it's arms to everyone and celebrates everything!  It seems like Dubai is always celebrating something: whether it's UAE National Day on December 2nd (The UAE was formed in 1971 and just turned 43!), the Christmas holiday season, Happy Kwanzaa, New Years Eve, and they have even dedicated the entire month of January for the "Dubai Shopping Festival!"  I feel like Dubai gets even more into the Christmas spirit with every year.  Hotels, shops and restaurants are decorated to the nines, Christmas music is played on the radio and throughout the grocery stores, the schools have a "Winter Holiday Concert" with Christmas music and everyone wishes you a Merry Christmas, even if they don't celebrate Christmas.  It's not home, but Dubai is not a bad place to be during the holidays :)

CHRISTMAS ACTIVITIES AROUND DUBAI

 Photo with Santa at Hamley's toy shop in the Dubai Mall

 Followed by the dancing Hamley's bear and a marching band playing Christmas carols

 A unique Christmas gift called "A gift from Arabia"

 Cash & Jake snuggled inside a fury stiletto outside the designer shoe section of the Dubai Mall

Christmas carolers attempting their best at Jingle Bells just outside the Louis Vuitton shop ;)

 Mason and his buddy, Rohan, at their school Holiday Concert

 There is always a parent/kid dance after their performance

 I tried my best to get into the Christmas spirit, so I made my MaMa Nelson's infamous sugar cookies and let the kids decorate them! (Erin, Emily, Cash & Jake)

Caroline and I took the kids to a Christmas performance on the ice-skating rink at the Dubai Mall (Cash, Shyla & Jake)

OUR CHRISTMAS EVE AND CHRISTMAS DAY!

 Caroline and Bhupat fixed a fabulous Christmas Eve dinner 

(Jake, Cash, Emily, Erin, Edith & Shyla)

 Nothing like a little iPad time at the end of the night

 Apartment living helps us keep things simple with our little tree and a few presents from Santa!

 Christmas morning: Cash and Mason love to sleep in the same bed and Jake is perfectly content to sleep in his own bed!

 Mason playing Madden on his new Playstation 

 A complete set of Baseball cards

 And football cards, including Johnny Manziel's rookie card

 Dr. Jake with his new medical kit

 The boys are learning to play the Batman game

 Now it's the twins' turn

Aggie Football Guys

 Christmas Lunch at the Meydan hotel (Erin, Emily, Cash & Jake)

 Jake discovered the ice cream!

 Yummy!

 Christmas music sang by the Philippino carolers 

 No Christmas brunch is complete without a bounce house

 Not everyone was thrilled about the photo op in Santa's sled ;)

 Our good friends the Franco's were also there!

Face painting and lollipops!  Now the day is complete!

Up Up and Away!

It's hard to wrap my brain around the fact that this will be our 7th year in Dubai!  Every year it gets harder and harder to leave home, but with that being said, Dubai also becomes easier to return to.  This year our flight over to Dubai was by far the most exciting!  We flew on the Airbus A-380, which is a double-decker airplane and the world's largest passenger airliner!  It was beyond impressive, with expanded seating room, a lounge with snacks and drinks, movies, games, etc, etc!  The boys watched hours of movies, ate, ran up and down the aisles, played on the iPads but slept very little! We took off at 11:00 am Texas time and arrived 15 hours later (2:00 am Texas and noon Dubai time!)

I say this every year, but for every hour of time change it typically takes us that many days to fully adjust to Dubai time.  There is a 10 hour time difference and it was not until day 10 until everyone was sleeping all the way through the night, not waking up at 3:00 am ready to play, having waffles at midnight and taking 3+ hour naps and unable to wake up from a very deep sleep.

Mason returned back to school this past week and had a very smooth transition!  His teacher from last year moved up to third grade and is his teacher again this year!  He has a lot of friends in his class and is already playing baseball!  He got moved up to the minor leagues for 9-11 year olds, and plays his first game with the Yankees this Saturday!  The twins are adjusting well too, and I hope to have them in a preschool starting in January.

Airbus A380

Mom and Mason before take-off

 Jake is ready to go!!

 Mom and Dad are ready to go ;)

 Rod and Cash before take-off

 Our personal cubby with drinks, charging station, remote for TV

 Our lunch menu in English

 And in Arabic

 Hundreds of movies to choose from

 Jake running off some energy in the lounge

 Say Cheese!

Jake never slept!  As we approach the end of our flight, they serve breakfast to help get us on Dubai time 

 Cash finally caught a few hours of sleep towards the end of the flight

 Baggage claim area at Dubai International Airport

9 suitcases + 2 car seats + 2 carry ons + 1 double stroller!

 We found Cash asleep under the dining room table and listening to Stoney LaRue on the iPad

 Jake couldn't fight off the sleep either!

 Cash asleep on his daddy's lap (they are so sweet when asleep!)

Waking up at 3:00 am allows us to see the sunrise from our window!