Ketchup!

It's been a while, but I wanted you to know I have not fallen off the face of the earth. I am here, alive, well, and kicking. I've really not had much to blog about lately. We have been busy working, being at the baseball fields, and Norma (Matt's mom) came for a nice 2 week visit.

I can't believe Christmas is in just a few days. How is THAT possible? We put our tree up earlier than ever, but it just still doesn't feel like Christmas here. Luckily, we at least have a tree. We stored our new, pre-lit tree before we moved to Germany due to the voltage issue. In Germany, it was easy to buy real Christmas trees and Matt and the boys enjoyed picking it out each year. When we found out we were moving to Kuwait, we panicked because we didn't know if one would be available here. I bought a $40 tree off of a website (total rip off!) and the tree is just tiny, but we figured it was better than nothing. Matt went to True Value one day here in Kuwait and called me because he had found a 7 foot tree. We bought it and now have 2 so our home is more festive than I had imagined. I brought a lot of our Christmas decorations as well, even though we were only limited to 4000 lbs when we moved here.

I am off work for the next 2 weeks and get to spend some time with the kids. I am really wishing we were on a plane on the way back to spend some time with our family. However, we just really didn't even entertain the thought with 3 kids and the jet lag.... maybe next year we will venture back. I can't believe I've spent 4 years away from my family on Christmas. I've really let it bother me this year...

Let's see. I'm going to post some random pictures. We found our first camels while Norma was here. That was fun! We drove and searched and saw many in the distance... then on our way home, we found several right beside the highway. They are big and we were a little nervous to get out of the car, but we braved it and got some fun pictures of us.

I'm also posting a picture of the girls I work with at the school. They are really a nice, fun group of girls. It's amazing at my comfort level between now and the first day of work. Some of them speak English extremely well, and others - not so much. We do spend a lot of time translating between staff members and parents of the children. These ladies are from America, England, Canada, South Africa, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, and Iran to name a few. Just a tidbit that I learned yesterday in case you ever need it.... if you are from Lebanon, you kiss on the cheek 3 times and from Egypt, then 2.