Christmas Is Comin'!

Muslim country and all..Christmas has arrived in Dubai.  There are decorations out in the stores and Christmas tunes are playing while you shop.  There are even mangers for sale! Thought I would take a few pictures to show you how Dubai does Christmas...

I bought one of these cute little mangers at the Carrefour. 
 If you look closely you will notice that Joseph is holding 
a lantern and there is a chicken in the manger?

These were at the Ace Hardware.  Notice how they hung the
wreaths on the tree..

I actually thought these were pretty!...For Fall-

These SIX peanut butter cups were over 8 US dollars!

And silly string...because we all love our silly string at Christmas!

And what is Christmas without a creepy chocolate Santa!

To get us into the spirit the kids and I baked some Christmas cookies.  I found a cute recipe on the back of the candy cane kisses package.  You just make sugar cookies and when they come out hot you press the candy cane kiss into them.  Of course it called for you to make homemade sugar cookies but Mama has no time for that!  These Betty Crocker sugar cookies are DELICIOUS and easy!  The recipe also called for you to roll the dough balls in green or red sugar before baking.  How cute would that be?  Too bad in Dubai there is no red or green sugar to be found! They still turned out cute and YUMMY!  The kids loved pushing the kisses into the cookies..as you can tell!

This is what happens to your favorite Christmas candle 
when it is packed in a box, shipped across the ocean,  
and sits on a dock in the desert.  It melts.  Still smells good though!

Christmas for the Bryants brings a special visitor every year on December 1. Our "elf" comes and watches over us to make sure we are behaving! Here is our Texas elf hanging in our kitchen last year with a note to the kids! This year though our poor elf had a little problem.  He did not have a passport and therefore did NOT make it to Dubai!!!  This was very stressful to the Bryant children (and to mama!) when he did not show up on December 1.  Luckily though, our elf must have sent a message to Santa about his predicament!  December 3 a new elf showed up in our villa!  He was different looking...like most things in Dubai! He left us a little note!  It read:

TEXAS ELF NO PASSPORT HE HAD

FOR THAT MISTAKE HE FEELS SO BAD

SO SANTA SENT ME TO WATCH WHILE YOUR HERE...

TO MAKE SURE YOUR HOUSE IS FULL OF CHEER...

MY NAME IS DUBI....A DUBAI CHRISTMAS ELF

I AM WATCHING YOU ALL UP HIGH ON MY SHELF!

I WILL ONLY BE WITH YOU FOR YOUR TIME IN DUBAI..

NOW LETS HAVE SOME FUN AND SOON SANTA WILL FLY!

I have to say that home is on my mind right now!  I miss my cozy house all decorated for Christmas.  I think this is the first time in our entire 13 years of marriage that I did not put up a tree the day after Thanksgiving!  We did put some Christmas things out around the villa but nothing major since we are headed HOME!  That thought makes it all worth it but I do love my Christmas stuff...So here's a walk down memory lane to make me feel better..CHEERS!  TEXAS HERE WE COME!

2002..1 kid and bad mommy hair-

2003..2 kids and one 2 year old who loved her  bink!

2004...still 2 kids and a new state!  Chicago year 1

2005- 3 kids and year 2 in Chicago

2006- Year 3 in Chicago...We actually went home
this year for Christmas but I still put the tree up!
No energy for that anymore!

2007- Back in Texas...the dreaded rent house

2008-First year at Northview..still 3 kids but
didn't know that would soon change!

2009...4 kids!  Didn't know this was our last Christmas at Northview for a while...

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES!