--The cookie exchange brought women to our home from Europe, Middle East, and North America. All of the ladies enjoyed the new delicious delights and the goodie bags they were filled with treats for the year to come. For the ladies who were not able to attend, I was able to deliver goodie bags to their office. Their faces lit up and one lady was teary as I gave her the bag. Every step is a baby step in this region. Count that as baby step #1.
--A fabulous expat performer invited me to perform a few numbers at his Christmas concert held at the Ritz Carlton. This gave C and I a chance to dress it up a bit and an evening in a beautiful ballroom. This was my musical debut in our country and has hopefully opened the door for a few more concert opportunities for 2008. My favorite part of the evening was singing amazing songs with Mr. Man sitting at the front table. His support is an unexpected gift in my life.
--Curt had a week off from work and enjoyed down time at home. The week away gave him a chance to gear up for the upcoming finals and projects. One of his students turned in a paper. The first 2 pages were in English and the third page was in Spanish. The student doesn't know Spanish--he speaks Arabic and English. Oops! I guess someone copied a paper.
--Christmas week was a bit more emotional than I had thought it would be. I caught myself with watery eyes more times than I care to admit. Even though C&I are here together, we certainly missed all of our families back home. We spent time on Christmas Eve and Christmas day skyping with family so we could see their faces and hear from the nieces and nephews what Santa brought.
We spent our day relaxing around our home and then joined friends for a 'gift exchange'. C had his first taste of my family's traditional Christmas Coffee Cake. YUM! It was a hit and those we gave it to enjoyed it as well. Although we were not in the States with many of you, we were able to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas with each other and with many families living in our city.
