Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! (imagine Christmas picture inserted here) Yesterday Alison and I celebrated our first Christmas as a married couple. It was sad not to be with our family, but it did leave us free to start a tradition or two that we might not have if we were at home. Here are a few that we will probably continue.

• Peach French toast for breakfast. Alison makes this wonderful dish that consists of sugar, peaches, french bread and then the french toast mix (egg, milk, vanilla and cinnamon). It was quite scrumptious.
• Duck for Christmas dinner! I'm not sure I've had duck before, but it was excellent. Quite succulent. We also had garlic roasted potatoes, this cheese/cream cheese/sour cream spinach and broccoli dish. Lastly, home made cranberry sauce.
• Giving gifts (duh). I got some starbursts, some malt beverages and some dark chocolate. Alison got some great gifts as well! Some really Christmas albums with really bad cover versions of bad Christmas songs and a french coffee press.
  

Some things I would rather NOT continue:

• Me doing my Christmas shopping at 11am on Christmas day (I think this was the main reason that the Christmas albums were so bad).
• Me not doing my Christmas shopping before Christmas day.

Why, might you ask, did you wait so long to do your Christmas shopping!? I have good reason. Alison and I took a holiday in Malaysia. We saw a lot of cool things, gawked at some jungle animals and had an all around good time. As usual, you can see some of the pictures at my picasa site. Enjoy!

Winter Vacation

Winter vacation has started and its a chilling 60 degrees Fahrenheit with cold winds whipping across Bahrain. So Alison and I have decided to escape the frigid weather and warm up in Malaysia. It should be pretty fun. We'll be able to spend a few days in one of the worlds oldest rain forests and then we'll spend a few days seeing the sites of Malaysia's capitol, Kuala Lumpar. We'll be back in Bahrain just in time for Christmas.


Below is a cartoon that I think will tickle the economist in all of us.

National Day and Thanksgiving

Today at school, our last day before break, the school had national day celebrations activities, and students could wear red and white (national colors) or wear national clothes (thobes and habiyas). So Alison and I decided to go to school in Bahraini clothes. I wore a thobe and gutra, while Alison wore a habiya. We were quite the talk of the school, I think.

You can see some more National Day pictures here, at my picasa album.

I learned that I was not wearing traditional Bahraini clothes - at least not dress. More like bedouin clothes with an Emrati style gutra (head piece). But I learned all about the Bahraini style of clothing.

Not only this, but thanksgiving was last week! Alison cooked two turkeys for 14 people and 2 babies. It was quite the feast. A few other people brought food, silverware and drinks. A few people from church came as well as some of our neighbors. It was quite a good time.

Of course, you can see some more Thanksgiving pictures here, at my picasa album.