Merry Christmas!

We had a lovely Christmas here in Beirut. On the 23rd, I hosted the infamous Turkey Dinner for 14 of our friends. I ended up cheating and ordering the actual turkey from a catering company because I wasn`t confident about our gas oven or my own turkey roasting abilities. I did, however, make all of the side dishes and deserts as well as a delicious mulled wine (thanks for that recipe Leylao!). ANYHOO, everything turned out well and a good time was had by all!



Christmas eve was spent doing some last minute shopping and then having dinner at our favourite pasta restaurant. It is a teeny tiny place that makes their own pasta and deserts. Then we went home and let the kids open a few presents. They got some wonderful art supplies from auntie K (thanks auntie K!!!) and a craft set and bb gun from Tigerpapa`s friend (thanks M-san!), as well as the present from Tigerpapa and I. Tigergirl got a digital "Barbie" camera and Tigerboy got "WOW The Visual Encyclopedia of everything".



The kid`s made some gifts for each other and for us so we opened those as well. Tigergirl made Tigerboy this picture of Sponge Bob:


Tigerboy made Tigergirl a Magic Wand Finger:


Christmas morning was spent opening our stockings from Santa Claus. The Tigerkids asked for 2 or 3 small things each and were happy to see that Santa complied with their wishes. We try to keep it simple and low-key. After the stockings were opened we went to our favourite cafe, PAUL, for brunch. They have a gorgeous real hot chocolate drink served with homemade croissants and other yummy breads followed by a fluffy cheese omelet. It was delicious! The rest of the day was spent playing with new toys, watching movies, and then driving down to Saida just to get out of the house for awhile.

Tigerpapa and I got presents too in case you were wondering! I get to go to London for 5 days at the end of December and Tigerpapa just ordered a new watch that he`s been eyeing for the last few months. We also got a beautiful snowflake chime to help decorate our home (Thanks auntie K!).

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!!!

Happy Birthday Tigergirl!

Happy Birthday Tigergirl! I am having a very hard time with the fact that you are SEVEN years old. How did that happen?

I don`t have any pictures of TG as a baby on this computer so we will have to start here, just before she turned 2. We were staying at my parent`s house for the winter holidays. This was her "Christmas Dress":


After her first haircut (at a salon):


Here she is a few months later, in February 2004:


Continuing through the years:








In Okinawa right after we moved (May, 2005):


Her first time wearing Kimono (for 7-5-3 festival):


Her first Undokai (Sports Festival):


Her 4th birthday:




5th Birthday:


6th Birthday:


First day of 1st Grade:


These last photos are from Tigergirl`s birthday party. It was so much fun!










For the past 2 years Tigergirl has been asking to get her ears pierced. We decided that it would be a good birthday present for her this year and so that is what she got. She is so happy and proud that she can now wear earrings!

Tigerboy`s Open House

A couple of weeks ago I went to Tigerboy`s school for Open House. He loves his class and his teacher (and his teacher`s teenaged daughter...but that`s another story!) and so he was really proud to show me a typical day in his life at school. We made a snack together and then he showed me the "kitchen" area.

He really likes those rubber gloves!

Next he showed me his plant. Each child brought in their own plant to take care of over the course of the year. As you can see in the following picture, some of them are not doing very well. TB`s plant is the one with the little red flowers....still living but not exactly thriving. :)


Here is a lovely drawing for fall:

Tigerboy learned all about trees and leaves and how they fall off when the weather turns colder. After he drew his picture, the teacher asked him about it. The commentary below the drawing is what Tigerboy had to say about his work;

"There`s a guy watering the plant, this is water. There`s an owl on the tree. These are the leaves falling down and this is the sky. It will drink water because the water is going up to the leaf from the roots. I am a leaf and these are the roots!"

I like that the owl seems to be upside down, much like a bat. Since I know Tigerboy really likes bats, I think he meant "bat" when he said "owl"....I suppose I will never know the truth about that.

Now it`s time for him to "read" me a story. His favourite part was holding the pointer but I really liked the story itself. The plot was to the point and the pictures were interesting and very expressive!


And here is his lovely pumpkin:

As you can see, it`s much the same as all the other pumpkins in the class although, if you look closely, you can see Tigerboy`s "exacting" personality shining through. His little orange blobs are all in a neat line!

I also like this Scarecrow:

I love that he says, "Maybe it will scare a crow"! lol.

There was a whole section of the classroom dedicated to Arabic learning and I can`t believe I didn`t get any pictures of it. Tigerboy can write his name in Arabic, count to 20, and read 18 syllables. Pretty impressive!