Christmas 2 of 4

Part of living out here is sharing our cultural events with our friends. We've had our family Christmas and now I am planning our times with our neighbors to share what we do/eat/sing/play/etc during Christmas time. I was expecting to have some full-time help during this month but alas, those plans have fallen apart so I am rather daunted but will just pursue it all anyway.

Here is what happened last night which was totally crazy because I forgot that Layla had ballet before these friends came over. So I lost an hour of prep/clean up time which in my world of two young kids is ESSENTIAL.

These neighbors are our closest friends - she has three kids but the oldest who is a daughter is studying for her major exams.

What went "right":
They came.
On time.
I gave them bigger and better gifts than they gave me (first time EVER...she always out-gives me. This is an important cultural value and not just a shallow American consumerism thing).
I had something hot and cold to drink in matching cups on a tray.
Ryan did not tip the tray though he tried to grab everything on the tray.
I had a great time catching up with her as it as been ages since we've seen each other.
Her two boys played really really well with Layla and Ryan.
We decorated Christmas cookies
We ate Christmas cookies
I explained the meaning of the shapes of the cookies (star, angel, tree, etc)

What went "wrong":
Did not have drinks ready when they arrived.
House was not picked up...they had to step over toys to get to the sitting room.
I did not sit peacefully chatting and catching up while the maid got all the food and drink ready. Oh wait. I don't have a maid to do that. yet.
Instead, I was also trying to cook dinner for the kids while still chatting so they wouldn't just eat Christmas cookies for dinner. Again.
When I passed out their Christmas gifts I asked them to open them right there. They usually do not acknowledge gifts and put them aside until after you leave.
She sat in my kitchen (you never never do this. again the mythical maid is in there doing everything for you. Hah.)
She found Layla's old pjs and underwear on the chair next to her (pretty sure this is unacceptable in any culture.)
Kitchen floor was crunchy and dirty
Didn't read the Christmas story (this is the only thing that went wrong in my opinion)

See the next post for the photos (= She looks about 50 lbs heavier than she is because of wearing so many winter layers. 57 degree is oh so cold out here (=

Camping near Fins

We went camping for 2 nights with 2 other families. We had been gone from the house for 2 nights over Christmas, the house was a mess and our water had been shut off. It was a bit of a crazy scene as we were leaving the house, but it was a great time camping!

Ye Olde Christmas Photograph

 

Across the border they actually have Christmas trees decorating the mall! We were so surprised....much is changing out here (= It used to be super taboo to have Christmas decorations up at all (=

There is so much in this video that cracks me up:

the cough/nose/sneeze things
"I love you" Ahma and Baba
Talking like she is an adult...she often will say things like "i'm busy with my things. You do your things and don't disturb me!" Sure, honey.
Also Ryan toddling in to see what is happening (= He is such fun these days.
Too tired to write more. Enjoy (=

Christmas week

I've been telling folks that I just haven't had time on the computer recently to be blogging and I'm not quite sure why other than Layla being sick with Mono for 7 weeks and then Tom has been sick for a full 2 weeks. Toss in Thanksgiving and Christmas and it is just a busy season (=

We had a nice Christmas this year - spent Christmas morning together as a family and then driving an hour away to a Jon and Vic's house for the main meal. We stayed 2 nights with them and the kids just played and played together. They are all at a great age and there were a minimum of fights (= We went to see the new Tom Cruise movie (their town has a theater!) so the moms went one night and the dads went the next night. It was a great couple of days.

We came home to our TOTALLY MESSY house as we just left all the Christmas stuff everywhere and only cleaned the kitchen. They kids are wiped out and still sleeping.....hence I am blogging. Scratch that....Layla just woke up (=

Well, Merry Christmas to all! We should have some pictures to post though we didn't take much on Christmas morning....trying to keep Layla from opening everyone else's presents (=

Gifts

http://simplehomeschool.net/best-educational-games/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SimpleHomeschool+%28Simple+Homeschool%29

Just an idea for gifts! These look so great. We actually have the story cubes already....thanks mom!

We are also big fans of:

Highlights for Kids (Thanks Nana!)
National Geographic (Layla loves to sit and "read" these with me...we flip through and talk about the pictures etc.)
Gods World (haven't tried this yet, but it comes highly recommended!)
Read To Me stories for the Nook or on CD. Layla is into this genre these days.

Catching Up

I thought I had posted these before, but I think I forgot to in the midst of everything else going on. My apologies if you've seen this before on the Picasa web albums...

Sweet Days

 

These are sweet days - Ryan and Layla are really playing well together. Other than the usual fussing at times, they do a great job. They love to play "train" which is Ryan hanging on to Lj's waist while she basically drags him around the house (= They love to take baths and I can get a good 30 mins to clean up the house at the end of the day while the splash around....another great reason to have tile everywhere in the bathroom!

She can feed him in the backseat which is super helpful. He is able to hold a small bowl with stuff in it but eventually it ends up on the floor in the car. We can get a nice bag of popcorn for about 30 cents from the grocery store and she loves to give him one kernel at a time.

When she is feeling responsible for him and talking to him about things she likes to speak in Arabic (= very funny. She's doing great with Arabic at school. She only has 45 mins a day but the teacher knows I am quite interested in her learning as much as she can so I know she is encouraging her. Hopefully it will last (=

Mono correction

I just looked back on my post from Nov 1 and realized that Layla had been sick already and we hadn't diagnosed the Mono yet. I didn't think that 6 weeks had gone by already! Man. Anyway. That was the post where I said I was on a blog-hiatus for a week. More like SIX weeks (=

So now we are in that zone before Christmas where there are lots of little extra things to do and plan. I'm trying to think of a party or something I can do for my local friends here. We are around a lot more kids because of Lj's school so there are some fun possibilities!

Mono

 

There was a lot of this at our house the last month or so. Layla was diagnosed with Mono the day we were supposed to leave for a big three-day camping trip on a beach about 5 hours from our house. We are glad we got the diagnosis so quickly but it was a bummer to miss the big camping trip!

Thankfully she did not seem to have a bad case of Mono. She was not in pain though she was pooped, not very hungry and had stomachaches almost everyday. We had a great dr who helped me understand what was going on. Love it when you can find a good doctor out here!

The doc said she was still able to go to school as long as she felt up to it. The only restriction was not to share cups, utinsels etc. She is old enough to be aware of that so we sent her along to school though she was about an hour late each day.

About three days ago she skipped her afternoon nap and her appetite shot through the roof so we think she is all better! What a relief. I had no idea 4-year-olds coiuld get Mono! For the curious....mono presents just like Strep but does not respond to antibiotics and after 2-3 days there is still fever and general feeling icky.

So hopefully I won't be having to step over Layla while she's laying on the kitchen floor anymore (= It was sweet to see Ryan lay down next to her (=