Imagine a Stamp & Envelope...

Early P.S. Why oh why can't we cut and paste into blogger?! GRRRRR.

Last year, I wrote my first ever Christmas letter. This year, we have not had a shortage of noteworthy events, but in my blogging, I feel I have covered the big ones, so this year's letter will be filled with the little things that have made this year different than all the rest.

In Arizona, in the almost 4 years we lived in our house, we almost used one whole (Costco size) bottle of dish soap. Here in Dubai, we are already on our 4th bottle. We miss our dishwasher - and on a side note, I never imagined myself owning - and using - a pair of yellow rubber dish washing gloves. I'm on my second pair.

In Arizona, when we had company, it inspired a wave of tidying up piles of clutter and long needed deep cleaning of bathrooms. In Dubai, we don't expect much company, and we have our nanny/maid to clean bathrooms and tidy up after us. We are getting pretty spoiled. We have been trying to get to know Calista a little better, and found out she has a 13 year old daughter who lives in Sri Lanka with Calista's mom. As we were Christmas shopping, we bought a t-shirt for Calista to send to her. With the language barrier that still occurs in long conversations, when I asked her daughter's name, she replied, "My name is Calista", which made me sad that she thought we needed a reminder. But when she figured out we wanted to know her daughter's name, she told us. Unfortunately, we still don't know her name, because even after asking twice, I still didn't understand and I didn't dare ask anymore...

In Arizona, we lived in a single family dwelling, with neighbors we knew, and a small, but lovely backyard. Apartment 203 here in the UAE has mostly treated us pretty well (well, except that the plaster on the walls in our front entryway is flaking off because of some water issue in teh wall, and there is water leaking out of the a/c in our bedroom, and we worry that next time Will leans on the window as he looks out, ours will be the next apartment to have a window fall out - yes - literally, fall out onto the street below - happened on the 7th floor a couple of months ago). As one of our friends here observed, it's kind of like being back in a college dorm - friends just down the hall or up a floor or two who you can visit in your slippers. And since we are all living the expat life, we can commiserate and help each other out.

In Arizona, Will was a little baby, rolling and crawling and keeping us entertained, but now he's a toddler who runs everywhere with his arms stretched out behind him like wings. He babbles constantly and shows off his animal sounds. His vocabulary is growing - boat, ball, turtle, water, camel, and he also uses a lot of grunting and pointing as a preferred form of communication. Every once in awhile, he shows his stubborn side - like yesterday when we were trying to take a picture on the beach to accompany this post. Whatever direction we wanted to walk, he had to go the complete opposite direction. (Fake smiles may be included in picture...)

Finally in Arizona our animal encounters were limited to the dogs of both our neighbors, the lizards who lived in the walls of our house (they eat crickets, so I let them stay. That and the fact that they are so fast, I never could have caught one!), and that one time we saw a wild burro out in the desert. I don't think I will ever get tired of seeing the wild camels in the desert here, and one of these days, we will find a safe place to stop and get a picture of some. On that note, I also never imagined we would have such a large collection of toy camels - but they are irresistable to all of us! So from the desert of the Middle East, to wherever you are, Merry Christmas. May your upcoming year bring as many adventures as we have had in 2010!