Learning to Trust and Lean: December 2019

As you may or may not know, expat life is actually a lot like regular life. I deal with oddities like no Amazon, signs and menus in another language, and some uncertainty about what I will find at the grocery store. But, I encounter those as a part of normal things like shopping (in my case more "window shopping") online, eating out, and grocery shopping. It can be quite mundane. With that in mind, December started like any other (though admittedly warmer). The kids went to school, they had some typical end of term days of assessments and reviews, and they had a Winter Fair and program. We decorated the house for Christmas and enjoyed Christmas decorations as we would see them at hotels, restaurants, or the grocery store. By the way, Christmas decorations in hotels is what "it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas" means here in Oman as well as many parts of Asia.

For school, J had an explorer day where he dressed up like an explorer (space explorer in our case because I already had the costume) and did fun recaps of what they had learned about Tudor Explorers this term. E had a decades day where all the kids dressed up to represent a decade of the 1900s to wrap up their learning about the 20th century. E went as a boy from the 30s, and he took a cool board game we made with trivia questions dealing with the 30s.

E ready for 30s day at school.

The Winter Fair was a crazy afternoon for us. I helped to set up Santa's Grotto during the day. I was admittedly a grumpy elf at the time. Then the boys had Christmas concerts, but they were each in different concerts (we were one of the few families that had children in different concerts). But the concerts were so cute! The children sang and played instruments. I really liked their version of "The 12 Days of Christmas" complete with hand motions and special instruments. E played instruments for day 6 (eggs) and 12 (a lollipop drum). After their concerts, E visited Santa. He said he asked for books for Christmas. Good thing Gigi and Pa bought him a number of new books. J refused to visit Santa, but he also received books that he was very excited about. My kids are nerds.

J playing the bongos.

E singing with 2 of the year 6 classes.

J singing with 2 of the year 4 classes (lots of kids were already gone for break).

It was also a busy month for parties like everywhere else. I had 2 different BSF fellowships (1 for leaders and 1 for classes). We attended a fellowship for our new "Jesus Family Network" family. One weekend we had 2 birthday parties and 2 going away parties to attend (1 birthday for a friend of each boy, 1 going away party for a friend of E, and 1 going away party for us adults). It's still weird to think I'm living in an Oman without Paige.

The crew of our "Farewell to Texas" party.

Sad to see these 2 go

We celebrated Stephen's birthday, though we admittedly did that a day early. He received gifts (Dr. Peppers from the boys because that is a special treat here in Oman) and chose our dinner location (Doner Kebab). We celebrated a day early because we were flying to Singapore on his birthday.

Opening a Dr. Pepper from J.

Opening a Dr. Pepper from E. He also received that table next to him so he has a table next to "his chair", a nice shirt, a new fitness watch, and a bike tour of Hoi An (from his parents).

Then it was off on a not so typical to non-expat life: a grand adventure. I will do a full write up and update later. But for now, enjoy a few (unedited) pictures of our family in Singapore (where we boarded the Celebrity Millennium), Thailand (visiting Ayutthaya, the old capital), Vietnam (visiting Ho Chi Minh City, Hoi An, and Ha Long Bay), and Hong Kong (visiting Disneyland and also the location of our disembarkation). It was 2 weeks of no internet, endless adventures, laughing, smiling, relaxing, and eating amazing food. Definitely one of my favorite trips ever.