Christmas 2010

These are pictures from home, because we didn't do Christmas here. It was just too weird. Didn't feel like Christmas and since we didn't have any kids to decorate for, we didn't even put up one thing. I have bought a couple of things for myself and those are my Christmas presents. But here's the girls and families. Nick is missing because he was at work in Va.

Brandi's Anna in her favorite purple color.

Our oldest daughter Nikki with nephew Nolan

Aunt Wessie snuggling with Nolan

The two Chubb/State girls

All four of our gorgeous girls

Hector and Whitney.

Whitney's Lily. She can thank her daddy for her beautiful curls

Whitney's Maya throwing gramma a kiss!

Maya looking adorable as always

Brandi's Nolan and Anna and Whitney's Lily and Maya.

Weslynn's husband Brannon playing with Nolan

My only

The real personalities come out

A line of beautiful girls

Whitney's Skylar. The oldest grand.

You need the biggest mall to fight the biggest depression

I was feeling blue because of missing my family at this time of year so being the wonderful husband that he is, Wesley decided to take me to the biggest mall in Dubai, the UAE?, maybe the mideast?? Anyway, here are the pics, and yes, it worked, a little.

This bookstore is as big or bigger than Books-a Million. I bought two Dr. Seuss and Where the Sidewalk ends.

To the right is a sidewalk cafe area for different restaurants.

Only Glenn in Pennsylvania can beat this store.

Wesley getting ready for the mall walk.

Wesley in front of the tallest building in the world. Inside the mall you can buy tickets to go to the top. We weren't even tempted.

The sign clearly says Gold Souk, that way, but did he go that way??? No.

A waterfall and part of the mall.

Me outside the mall near the cafes and water.

A picture of the water show. I am hoping to download a video, so check at the bottom.

Much bigger ice rink than the Al Ain malls.

You know where I am!

Tallest building, yada, yada, yada

An indoor walkway that feels like it's outside. Very cool.

More waterfall

oh look, more waterfall

It's all about the camels.

Yes, it's Christmas Eve here in Al Ain and what am I doing? Visiting camels. We walked from our apt. to the little camel farm down the road. Some of them were very sweet and came to be petted. The baby camel was only a few days old and still had its umbilical cord. It was a fun experience. As for Christmas, we may go out to lunch, but that's the extent of our plans. Enjoy the camel pictures and after we go to the camel races, I promise, no more camels!

Like mother, like baby

Camel kiss.....not.

Feeding time

Not quite steady on its legs yet.

That's the spot, right there.

Shopping in Dubai

I was very surprised to see this in the mall.

 They moved all my desks out and put in these tables so the high school teachers could use our rooms to grade exams.

Then the next day I came in and the desks were back. They had moved the tables to the Arabic teachers rooms. No one ever said why.

Beautiful buildings.

 

Possibly the reason why the allergies are so bad now.

Public bathroom. Yes you had to squat. Arabic people use a sprayer to clean off. I don't know how they dry, but I was glad I had tissues in my purse. Elaine I know you remember seeing this in Europe.

 Heidi and Tandy browsing the market.

Tired but happy. Eating Shawarma, which is like a chicken pita. Really yummy.

She's smiling here but was not loving the driving in the city.

We drove to Dubai for a day of shopping. It turned into a long, long drive and we never found the artisan market we were hoping for, but we did find the spice market and finally we were able to spend some dirhams.