Happy 2012!

Happy New Year Everyone! 

This post is brought to you by pictures from Christmas Day and Boxing Day. :)

Ian took 3 days off, the 24th, 25th, and 26th, and with the way our week works here the weekend was on the 22nd and 23rd so we had a wonderful 5 days together. We relaxed, played, went for bike rides, listened to Christmas music and enjoyed the Christmas feel. On the 24th there was an evening "candle lit" service on the beach. There ended up being no candles though it was so windy, those of us who attended though still enjoyed the time to sing carols and read the Christmas story together. We also had our traditional sweet and sour meat balls dinner.
On Christmas morning we had fresh cinnamon buns for breakfast and then we dug into our presents. Before that though I had the kids sit on the couch to take pictures of them in their festive pj's (which were purchased here in Jeddah).
Darn cutes kids! And looking so grown up!

I took about 10 pictures the rest all looked pretty much like this. :)

We then moved on to opening our gifts. The kids were all very pleased with their presents, they got quite a few books and wanted to read them all as they opened them, so we did. :) Well except for Marin's chapter book, last year she got the Rainbow Fairies, and this year she got the Weather Fairies. We are reading through that together she reads 2 pages, then I read 3. She is very pleased with herself, that she can read it, we are of course very proud of her!
Here she is with her new Barbie, and looking more like she is going to be 16 not 6 soon!

After lunch, and putting the turkey in the oven, we opened the stockings. We had kind of forgotten about them, but Marin reminded us.
Corban was pleased with his magnifying glass.

Here is Jeriah with Ian's peppermint sticks.

My dear husband also bought for me a new camera! The picture of Corban and Jeriah(above) were taken with it. I am excited to learn to use it! :)
The afternoon was spent relaxing and enjoying our new gifts. We then had a very tasty turkey dinner together. It was a really nice Christmas, just the 5 of us.
On Boxing day (the 26th), which when we call it Boxing day we get funny looks from most people as it is not something celebrated in all countries, we headed to the beach. Jeriah had been asking to go, he wanted to play with trucks in the sand and water. While we were there we walked out to the little island that is off the shore of our beach, on the way out there we saw a small stingray. Jeriah is still talking about it. " You have to be careful not to step on the tiny stingray" he will tell you as he points his little finger at you.
See how happy he was to be at the beach.

Corban always loves a trip to the beach, and never really pauses to look at the camera...

Marin of course had fun at the beach too, it is where they have her favorite slushy drinks. :)

We got back from the beach at about 2pm, and after a shower and a snack we watched a movie. Beach days are always fun relaxing days. :)

Here are some more pictures. I have plans to post about the rest of our "winter break", so more pictures are on the way.