Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Even though we spent actual Christmas Day during our ski trip, we were fortunate that Santa Claus managed to visit Abu Dhabi while we were gone.  And even though I started my new job over the Christmas break, we managed to have a lot of fun while the girls were off from school

The big, bed-head reveal

Legos!

A new phone (and no, that's not an iPhone!)

Legos for Anna, too!

Christmas dinner for our family

Regan got some knitting yarn and made herself a charging pocket - the phone hangs from the outlet while it's charging

Jane modeling a new outfit from Gammy

Doing the 'melting snowman' craft

School's off. Weather's nice.  Let's head to the park with friends!

Good buddies, Jane and Maya.  Maya moves away in just a couple of weeks.  They will be missed so much!

Wet Mere.

Jumping Jane

New Panda jammies from the grandparents!

Trying out the new skateboard

Another shot of them coming in to see what Santa brought.  The brown box in front of the TV was a gift for Mom and Dad (a nespresso machine with a warm milk frother - yum!!)

New Year's Eve!  We usually stay home with the kids and work on our goals.  This year went to a black tie masquerade ball. 

Happy New Year!

We could see 3 sets of fireworks from the party - quite festive!

Annual tennis tournament - so much fun to sit so close to the famous players.

First attempt at beer can chicken as we send off our friends who are moving back to the States

Verdict?  Two thumbs up!

Ferrari World

A 'tame' roller coaster

The whole gang of kids - the Puryears, the LaBraches and the McIntyres (minus one - where did he go??)

So-ooo, want to ride the fastest roller coaster in the world??  Well, I finally did it.  And you can see what I thought about it - I'm in the black shirt near the back on the right.  Looking completely and absolutely terrified.  Roller coasters don't usually even scare me much.  But you can tell this one did!  Meredith is to the left and Regan is in front on me next to her friend, Sophia.  And, yes, I do realize that it looks like everyone on the ride is having a blast.  But me.

Another shot of our car - you can see Jane (in bright blue) in this one with her friend Maya on the left.

Good night Ferrari World - it was a lot of fun even if I did get scared half to death.

If you don't live in the UAE, you may not realize that brunches (that aren't really "brunches" because they start at 1 p.m. or later!) are the social thing to do on the weekends  - decadent and endless food, champagne, etc.  Jake and I were a bit proud that we had never been to one before, but we broke our trend by sending off our good friends before they moved away.  This the adult table and you can see the kids beyond ours  Although we won't be hitting another brunch anytime soon, we sure had a great time with this great bunch.