Early Christmas

Due to our trip this year to Vietnam, we celebrated Christmas a bit early. We had our Christmas celebration on December 18th (also on Robert's birthday). Our departure to Hanoi, Vietnam was on December 20th at 3:30am on Emirates flight EK394. So technically we had to head to the airport at about midnight on the 19th.  This made December 18th our best option for an at home Christmas celebration.

Christmas was lovely and, as always in Dubai, feels a bit strange in t-shirts and shorts. I had put up the tree this year before Thanksgiving which I have never done before but as we found a lovely large artificial (slightly white to give it a snow dusted appearance) tree, it was easy to do without all the maintenance of a live tree. 

With all the kids now knowing the 'truth' about Santa and his magic, the presents started to pile up under the tree in the weeks and days leading up to our Christmas celebration on the 18th. This heightened the excitement and made it all easier and more fun to celebrate early.

The hardest thing for the kids (mostly Ali and Mia) was that I didn't allow them to wake up on the 18th and open presents right away - as we always do on Christmas morning. Part of the reason why was it was still a work day so Curt left before they all woke up. I did my usual 'mom' activities and hit the gym then finalized shopping for all the food items, breakfast treats (knowing they wouldn't wake until late morning when I was due back home), and last minute holiday necessities (including a few last minute stocking stuffers I had forgotten).

When I returned home, I only heard a bit of shuffling from our trio upstairs so they were all treated to a special breakfast in bed. I wish I had taken pictures as their breakfasts were all served up on Christmas plates and included all sorts of yummy foods that they all loved including some delicious fresh fruits, freshly baked croissants and donuts (from Baker and Spice) and for Mia her favorite avocados. She can eat avocados all day and night. 

Normally on Christmas morning I make home made cinnamon rolls but with all the travels I had been doing and about to do and Christmas presents still to wrap and dinner still to prepare, the Baker and Spice treat seemed like the perfect breakfast treat and they were all very happy!

Curt returned home at about 4:30pm with the last of the presents that just arrived via post. Phew, that was a close call! I was still at the dentist with Ali (really not a normal 'Christmas day') but made it home just after 5pm to do a quick 45 minute packing job and dinner preparation. 

Dinner consisted of amazing grade 11 wagyu steaks prepared by Curt on the charcoal grill, mashed potatoes, broccoli, green beans, tomato salad and home made dinner rolls. We all gobbled it up and the kids were bouncing around ready to open our presents before we even had a chance to clear the table.

We decided to leave our dessert of homemade Angel Food Cake for after our present opening. 

Below are some of my favorite photos of our tree and the kids. In the next post (may work out to be previous post as it's been a while since I blogged), I'll post a few more pics from the day. 

South Africa Butterfly World visit

Okay - while in South Africa we hired a driver and a van one day to take us up the Stellenbosch wine route to go wine tasting. In order to also satisfy the kids, we stopped at this amazing place called Butterfly World. Our driver suggested it and it was magnificent! It is a 1000 sqm green house filled with butterflies. There are a few other animals as well but there are 10,000+ butterflies just flying all over the place. It is magical. If you sat still for long enough (which our kids couldn't do) they would land on you. I just read on their site that they bring in 500-800 butterfly pupae every week all year around. This is how they have so many. I have thousands of photos of our amazing South Africa trip over x-mas so I'll slowly play catch up. First, here are our photos from our visit to Butterfly World - a must stop for anyone in the Stellenbosch, Western Cape (just north of Cape Town) area.

they also had these adorably tiny and friendly monkeys climbing all over the place. we loved them. you could pet them and our guide even managed to get one on his shoulder. they are mischievous (like the one in Night at the Museum) as they try to pick pockets.

hand feeding the birds

and, now the reason we went. check out a few of these snaps of the main attraction.

on the right is the famous Owl Butterfly - meant to be the largest butterfly around.

The video below is all the Pupae hanging and the butterflies actually being born. We could sit there and watch them. Incredible! We were most surprised to find out how short their life spans are - only about 1 week. After all this work they go through to hatch, they only live about a week long... shame.

Birthday Marathon week

Hello. I'm BACK! After a very long break from blogging, I have returned and am happy to be back journaling our family's life and where-abouts...

The long break has not been at all intentional. Life has kept all of us busier than ever. Curt and I are working many, many hours but, at the same time, loving it. The kids are busy with school, making new friends, exploring this incredible city and taking part in many new, fun activities.

On top of all of this, we have visitor after visitor after visitor after... I think you get my point. It's been a great pleasure and many of my Dubai friends have told me that this is a very popular destination for friends and family to visit. Especially at this time of year as the weather is perfect!

Our visitors have so far included: Julie (Curt's cousin), friends Sue and Peter, my dear, dear friend Kim and her family and then Curt's parents and 2 sisters. We have only 1 week in our home alone. But, if you know my personality, I love playing hostess of the mostest. Last night was our first night with no visitors and we ended up having company for dinner! So, I'm not one to ever rest...

Next visitors on the agenda for February and March are: Curt's fantastic Uncle Tim, our Hungarian friend and tennis coach (for kids) Bea - she's coming for 10 days for the Dubai Open, my sista (like a sister because I love her SO much) Nicola and her family, the kids' French tutor and our friend Rafael and his cousin. After that I am hoping we'll get a visit from my kind, handsome brothers and our dear, dear friend (and Ali's godmother) Margaret. The best part about Bea and Rafael visiting over the next month is the kids will have to be practicing their Hungarian (with Bea) and French (with Rafael)!

Okay - so the birthday weekend has just come to an end. For those of you that know us well, know that this week in January is crazy with 3 Clements' birthdays. Mia was on Jan 22 (8), Ali was on Jan 24 (5) and Curt just turned 46 on Jan 26. It was a busy, fun-filled weekend and we were oh so pleased to have Curt's parents and 2 sisters here to help us celebrate each one.

Here is a photo of each during their special days:

Mia's birthday - per her request - was to the Old Souk in old Dubai and then on an Abra on the Dubai Creek followed by the movies. There was a big group of us that took up nearly 2 rows in the movie theater. Here she is at the front of our 50 dirham private Abra (there were 10 of us).

2 carloads of family went to pick Ali up from school on Monday, Jan 24th. Curt surprised her with these 2 helium balloons. At first, I thought he got the letter S but then realized it was the number 5! She was so thrilled and I got a snap of her in front of her school holding them. More on her birthday afternoon as that has to be a blog post all to it's own!

Then, last but not least, was my very handsome husband on Wed, Jan 26th. We both worked until about 7ish and came home to Curt's mom's famous homemade mac n cheese! It was delicious and flavorful with hidden peppers and other yummy ingredients. I hope to have the recipe soon. We tossed a huge salad, some broccoli and lots of delicious Australian red shiraz vino. We filled up our table with friends and family and had a lovely, chilled evening. Here he is with little Ali (and her balloon) waiting on the birthday cake.

Halloween in Dubai

Had a fantastic Halloween in Dubai! Our neighborhood actually participates in Trick or Treating! Can you believe that? Here we are, all the way on the other side of the world in an Arab country and our kids are trick or treating. They were so excited. They started their Sunday, October 31st with school as the work / school week here is Sun - Thurs (it used to be Sat - Wed, so I am not complaining). T was bummed about Halloween at school and even more so about not having a day off on Monday, Nov 1st. I tried explaining that it is not a recognized public holiday and even if we lived in the US, he'd still have school the day after Halloween... funny guy.

Since our neighborhood is full of trick-or-treating participants, we invited our good friends the Bicknells (4 children) to join in on the fun. It worked out perfectly. We started with Spaghetti Bolognese. It's funny cooking with a new stove / oven and only a few of my kitchen gadgets. I've slowly been collecting new ones here but forgot the can opener. Did you know that you can open a tin of tomatoes with a screw driver??

The spagh-bol was great as we get minced everything here and I added beef, veal and pork! The kids gobbled it up, threw on their costumes, paused for a minute for me to snap a few shots and then hit the streets with the dads. Luanna and I stayed behind to hand out candy. It was so fun and we seemed to get 100s of kids. Some came alone (poor things), some came with maids, some came in groups of 10, others came with both their parents (maids must have been left behind to hand out the sweets). It was quite a smorgasbord of characters. We asked each child where they lived assuming they were neighbors and potential new friends for our bunch. However, many were driven in from other non-Halloween-participating areas to take part in the festivities.

All in all, it was a great evening filled with lots of sweets, warm weather, flip flops, fun costumes, great friends and a bit of red wine. Ali keeps asking when we can go trick-or-treating again. Poor thing has to wait a YEAR! Next year we are going to try and get more into as I have yet to unpack ALL my Halloween gear. I told the visiting kids to watch out as I will try and make a haunted house next year. Aunt Lisa and Nana - look out for any post-Halloween sales on decorations for us please!! Excluding cobwebs as I have plenty!

Ali had a wardrobe malfunction on her first costume so had to return with Curt for a quick change! They sped back on the electric scooter to catch up with the gang...

Ali's friend, Alberta, was dressed as a jack o lantern so had to get her next to Curt's fab carving job...



Moms handing out candies...

Eid Weekend

Shortly after our arrival to Dubai, the end of Ramadan arrived and we had a 4 day Eid weekend. It was lovely. One of the things we did was join some friends with all our kids and go to the Atlantis' hotels Aquaventure park for a 6-11pm evening adventure ending with fireworks. It was fantastic. The kids all had so much fun and Mia got to experience the Leap of Faith water slide for the first time! We were all shocked when she asked to join the big boys and daddies up to the top. We thought for sure she'd chicken out after waiting in line and climbing up to the top but my little dare devil went through with it!!

It was a great way to spend a very hot evening.

Trick-or-Treat

Just a few photos from this morning and yesterday evening. I love how Mia went to school today. We put a strip of orange into her hair and she wore this fantastic shirt that our friends Tammy and Craig sent over. Terence also had one (minus the pink heart and butterfly) but he chose not to wear it. Ali opted for a ballerina costume as her grade was dressing up in costume today. Tonight, we will have trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. We have some friends coming over to join us as our neighborhood is supposed to be one of the most active trick-or-treating areas in Dubai.

Pumpkin carving time.

The kids always leave the parents to finish up the work. Finished product will be posted later today or tomorrow. Curt did a fab job!

Our Short Atlanta Visit

We spent 2 nights in Atlanta on our way from Charleston to Virginia (then Maryland). While we were there we stayed with our friends Stacy and Joe and their 3 grown kids (only one of the 3 live at home still while he is on summer break from U of Georgia). We had a great time in their unbelievably lovely home in Roswell, GA. Here are a few photos of our weekend.

Above is their trio with our trio.
Below is their lovely home.

Below is Stacy and Joe with their 3 kids.

Our kids loved their home - especially their piano.

I adored Stacy's decorating style. Most of it has been found from her flea market visits while sourcing for large clients such as Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware as well as many smaller stores around the US. If you are interested in buying from Stacy, you can find her through her company name Europe2You.