'Tis the Season

I love this time of the year, when we begin preparing for the Christmas season. Where we live, there are no overt signs of Christmas. It is kind of an odd feeling, but it makes the meaning of Christmas even more special to me. Admittedly, we have had our tree and some decorations up since the day before Thanksgiving :). Here are the boys helping decorate the tree.

And you can guess what happened next…

We cleaned up and moved on.

Our tree is top-heavy with breakable ornaments, but there are plenty for the boys to play with down low, and in the middle too!

 We enjoyed putting some of our holiday favorites on display.

 And this year we got an Advent calendar to count down the days till Christmas.

Stockings are hung.

And some accents are out and about around the house. Christmas movie watching is in full effect. Tonight we watched Polar Express for the first time, and the boys loved it!

I love walking into our decorated home during this time of year. Feeling thankful for the start of this season, and enjoying spending evenings together in our cozy home.

Runq8 10k

This morning, a group of us participated in a 10k run, benefitting different non-profit organizations in Kuwait. Our family did the run last year, and we were glad to do it again this year with some friends. The weather was fabulous, there was even a little chill in the air. It was a great morning for a run!

 The runners at the starting line were anxious to begin the race. The announcer had to hold them back, this was about 10 minutes before the official start :).

Nathan's foot is still injured so he walked with the boys and I ran with a girlfriend. He and the boys walked part of the course, stopped at McDonalds for hash browns, then met us a few kilometers from the finish and ran in with us. The boys had a lot of fun watching all the runners, and they also got medals for crossing the finish line :).

 We did not win the race, but we couldn't resist pretending we did. Haha!

And we were extra proud of our friends' twins who finished not only their first 10k, but their first race ever!

We were glad for the fun run with friends and nice weather today!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving has always been a big holiday in my family. Growing up, it was a tradition for my dad to cook a big turkey, and we would have family and friends over. When I moved away for college, I came home almost every year. When I moved to Virginia, my parents and brother started coming up most of the time, and a couple of times we went to Florida.  Now we live overseas, and this is our second Thanksgiving away from home. Today is just another day for most people here, but we do feel thankful that we got to celebrate with other Americans today. The list of things I am thankful for is endless, but most importantly is for our loving God, my husband, boys, family, and friends. Thankfulness is a part of my everyday life, especially being at a place far away from home, where life is very different. Today, I was glad for how we spent this Thanksgiving day.

Our day started with parent-teacher conferences at the boys' preschool (more on that later this week). It was good to talk to their teachers and hear about their progress. Afterwards, we participated in a Turkey Trot 5k at the Embassy with some friends. We even convinced Tes to run and she had a blast. Caleb ran about half of the race too, and he won a race car afterwards. We enjoyed some home baked goods and fruit with everyone then headed home. It was a fun way to start the morning.

This year we hosted Thanksgiving at our home. We had our American friends, and also shared the day with friends from the Philippines, Mauritus, Canada, and Lebanon, some of who never had a traditional American Thanksgiving meal. Another friend cooked the turkey, stuffing, and some delicious apple crisp and jello desserts, and I cooked the pork roast, salad, some sides, and pumpkin cheesecake bars. My entire menu was thanks to Pinterest - for which I was very thankful this year ;). Everyone was guinea pigs for my first time recipes, and I think they all turned out really good. This is a chicken, walnut, pomegranate salad that tasted great and looked so festive.

 Garlic and onion roasted brussel sprouts.

 Butternut squash with cranberries and feta cheese.

 Honey and brown sugar glazed baby carrots.

Pumpkin cheesecake bars with whipped cream

 The spread!

While the adults enjoyed lots of food, good laughs, and sharing Thanksgiving traditions, the kiddos watched Stuart Little and ate their meal.

The plasma cars from Grandpa Mark and Grandma Betty were a hug hit today. At some points we would see 3 kids piled onto a car!

 Caleb loves our friends twins, he followed them around everywhere!

 And we caught them cuddling with their little sister too :).

 Showing their tough guy and gal faces.

It was a fun day with our family and good friends, and for that I am always thankful. Happy Thanksgiving to our family and friends around the world. We love you a lot and are thankful for you every day!

Ben the builder, songs, and snowmen

Benjamin loves to build. He'll use blocks, boxes, sponges, just about anything.  At any time you can catch Benjamin sitting by himself stacking away. Here's one of his sponge tower creations.

The boys like to sing their ABC's together on the way to preschool in the morning. Tonight I finally caught it on video :).

Once a week, one of our neighbors comes over to craft with Tes, the boys, and a few other neighbors. She runs a craft class at the Embassy, and she likes to use the group to test the craft, which we love. This week they made adorable snowmen out of socks, rice, pipe cleaners, and decorations for the face and clothes. In the background you can see the thanksgiving hats they made last week. 

Loving the holiday season! Happy Tuesday :).

New Places

I recently returned home from a trip to a neighboring country. It was an interesting place to visit, though life there is quite different. I enjoyed the opportunities to see the city and explore a couple of markets. One  market we visited was the Princess souq, and is known for the royal princesses donating their gowns. I didn't get pictures of the gowns, but they were quite exquisite.

Here are a few pictures around where I was staying. The were a lot of open spaces for kids to run around. And a lot of kids out and about.

There was a nice 10 mile long trail that another lady and I enjoyed long runs on the weekends. There were nice views of the city and some valleys from the trail.

We stopped at a couple of trail-side parks along the way.

Another weekend we visited an famous square, where public executions are still held. It was interesting to hear one of the shop keepers perspective on how the laws are implemented in this country. It is very different from my beliefs, but quite fascinating to learn more about the culture.

The square was connected to the city's main souq, which was fun to experience. In this country, it is required that women wear an abaya, the traditional women's dress.

Heading out of town to the airport.

It was an interesting experience that I was thankful for, and very thankful for the freedoms I have. And the best part was coming home to my hubby and boys!

Feeling Thankful

I've been away for the last couple of weeks for work, and was so glad to get home to Nathan and the boys last night! When the boys saw me pull up in the taxi, they hopped right in, gave me huge hugs and kisses, and it felt so good. Daddy daycare was a lot of fun from what I hear. They took lots of walks, went to many parks, and ventured to the aquarium this weekend. No pictures, but great memories and fun. 

The boys had some fun at pre-school the last couple of weeks too. The week I left they both went to the zoo, and the following week they had an animal theme. Throughout the week they made masks for an animal parade on Thursday. Benjamin was a monkey and Caleb was a panda. Their pre-school does a nice job taking pictures and posting them online, so here are a few I found of the boys making their masks and at the parade.

 

 Once a week Tes takes the boys to our neighbor's house to do a craft. Last week they made a Thanksgiving tree, and it made me smile to come home to this! There is one very important leave I saw was missing….the daddy leave. We are all so thankful for him!

The boys fall crafts are decorating our walls :).

Today, I am thankful to be home with my 3 boys!