Pizza Anyone?

Some pics of the kids making their own pizzas at our new favorite pizza place here.

YUM!!!

Baseball Season Begins...

 After almost a year an a half off from playing baseball, our family was really excited about the opening day of baseball season! 

I LOVED seeing the boys with their Daddy, out on the field again.  The boys both got big hits, scored lots of runs, and just enjoyed being back in the game again.

The boys played great and we all had fun!

It was fun watching E throw the heat from the mound again!  It was REALLY fun listening to the parents beside me exclaim when they saw his speed, "Man, he's cranking' it!  Who is THAT?"  That's my boy!

Some things are much the same here, as they were in the U.S., while other things are very different.  For example, there's not a baseball field in every neighborhood. In fact, there's only one in the whole city, about a 20 minute taxi ride from our house.  But once you get there, it feels like "little America", cheering for the kids alongside folks from all over the U.S..

Our team name is S'mores & More, after the restaurant that sponsors us.

And after the game you have the same tough decision, "Burgers or doughnuts?"

 But when you are playing baseball in the Middle East, it's not that uncommon to pass a herd of camels and several herds of sheep, on the way home from the field.

Clean windows

One thing that we have been amazed to see is the number of times we have seen people standing on the ledge OUTSIDE their window to clean the outside of their windows.  I can count at least 6 times we've seen this in the last 11 months.  We once had our language instructor pull the curtain on our classroom, because we could focus on nothing but the man in the building across the street, standing on the ledge outside his 5TH FLOOR WINDOW with squeegee and window cleaner in hand. 

Our friends know that we could never be accused of being "clean freaks", and that we deeply admire those with a house full of kids AND a neat house.  But we don't think we could ever risk our lives for clean windows, and it gives us pause to wonder about the mindset of the culture here.  We have observed the "inshallah" mentality, meaning "if God wills"...I will live...or I will die, so what I do doesn't really matter.  

"The Texas Grandmas"

Over the winter break we enjoyed a wonderful visit from Mema and Nana.  It was so much fun sharing our new life in the Middle East with them.  We all had a great time and took the opportunity to see a few sites with them while they were here.  

Petting a camel named, "Daisy".

Eid Milad Majeed!

M's class had a party, too, and we enjoyed meeting some of his friends.

We enjoyed hearing traditional Christmas songs in English and Arabic and were happy that even the latter are becoming familiar.

We are so thankful that our children are in a school where the birth of our Savior is celebrated!

Eid Milad Majeed! Which means 'Glorious Birth Feast', or Merry Christmas!

Little Mary

M played "Mary" for her class's Christmas production.

Her classmates wore traditional Arab dresses.

So SWEET!!

Christmas Parties

 K's Christmas party was last week.  

We were proud of our baby, singing Christmas songs in English AND in Arabic.  

A sweet wave to Mom and Dad.

A smile we were happy to see, while the poor boy in front of her cried through the whole show.

The best part was when her whole class took off their necklaces and gave their "hearts" to the baby in the manger!

K reminding her classmates to "be quiet" between songs.

K getting a hug from the kids' wonderful Arabic tutor, who is one of her teachers.