San Francisco Christmas Stroll

Posted by Kanga.

Saturday evening we took a stroll in downtown San Francisco to enjoy the sights.

An excellent steel drum band was providing atmosphere.

The figures skating around the tree in this window display included a skating dog.

Union Square was all decked out.

Macy’s had a wreath in every window.

Tiffany had tasteful decorations in the windows.

A San Francisco cable car. I found it interesting that there is the sound of horse hooves clopping. It is the sound of the cable under the surface of the street. It beats against the conduit and sounds like horses.

Then we looked for dinner and chose Maru Sushi. It was quite delicious.

There’s a bag for everyone in this store.

Even the dog.

It was a pleasant, cool, rainy evening. Helped to improve my Christmas spirit.

Happy Festive Celebratory Season

Posted by Kanga.

This is the plastic grocery bag from an Indian store in an Arab country. Christmas isn’t overbearing, flashing everywhere, blaring from speakers, and assaulting us from every media source, but it is nice that no one objects to “Merry Christmas.” No war on Christmas here.

[And, yes, that is Oliver sitting on the bag because, just by spreading that bag out, clearly I was making an invitation for him to sit on it.]

Christmas is in the Air

Posted by Kanga.

December is here and the weather is beautiful. Here’s what the weather stats are like.

It is Christmas at the malls. Every year the decorations are new. I wonder where the old ones go.

Nice, subtle decorations.

With the “cold” weather comes the winter wear. These are not just meant for wearing in Ski Dubai. People wear them outdoors.

I took the picture below just for the little, understated number in the middle.

Once again it seems that the manikins have been partying too hard.

Merry Christmas from Athens Greece

Posted by Kanga.

Christmas decorations have been somewhat reserved. This is due to the economic crisis. However, I have a few pictures to share.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Christmas Day

…began with a brief exchange of gifts.

For me, two strings of pearls – one white and one “black.” Natural black pearls are actually shades of purple, blue and brown. Very beautiful.

For DaddyBird, a handmade wooden dhow.

The day ended with a pleasant dinner with 22 of our friends.

(The one mugging for the camera is Mali.) More pictures can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/ivanbautista2008/Tweetmasparty2010#

God bless us, everyone!

Christmas Eve 2010

Last year we spent both Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve with friends at our favorite fish shack restaurant, Bu Qtair. This has become the tradition.

There were Christmas crackers containing a paper crown, stickers and a funny joke. (A corny joke, if you want to know the truth – How do you fix a broken pizza? With tomato paste. What does a doofus call his pet zebra? Spot. You get the idea.)

This was our toothsome dinner – hamour, pomfrit, two shari (not pictured) and two kilo of spicy prawn (also not pictured). It didn’t take us long to stuff ourselves.

We are a little concerned about our beloved fish shack. They informed us that they now offer rice AND they brought out malmac plates (instead of paper) and forks. Getting downright hoity toity. Maybe this is what happens to a great place like this after being featured on a cable food/travel show.

Great fun was had by all, especially DaddyBird.

For more on this fun evening, see our friend Micheline’s blog. (She writes a great blog. You might want to follow her regularly.)

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Time slippage

Where does the time go? I’ve been scolded for not posting more often (never make money with this blog if I don’t ya know – never mind that that has never been my intention). Not much has happened.

So, here it is:

i put up the tree.

The cats enjoy chewing on the artificial branches. (We did not even bother putting it up last year because they were still kittens.) It is currently encircled with a pair of toddler gates to keep them from grazing. Even though they could easily leap over it, it seems to be enough of a deterrent, so far.

We ate at pleasant little Lebanese restaurant with quaint decor (and good food, especially the freshly baked bread).

And I saw this in the store.

And, no, it will not be under the tree.

There you have December, so far, in a nutshell.

Lucky man

Daddybird, being a very lucky man married to a woman who knows where to shop and what to buy, got this for Christmas. And, as you can see, the castle is sometimes under the attack of a dragon.The dragons are now forbidden to get up on the table, but is it a hard lesson to learn. They do like to chew on the trees.

The castle is foam with interlocking pieces. Pretty cool toy. Of course, he wants another set so he can combine and make a bigger castle. Hmm… it’s already taking over my sewing table.

Kitties First Bubbles

Per Granny’s request, here is a record of Oliver and Bert’s Christmas gift. Had to split it into two parts.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, everyone. We aren’t doing anything too spectacular this year. Christmas tends to sneak up on us here. I fully intended to get decorations up and have a festive December, but it just didn’t happen. Our artificial Christmas tree is still in the box and the box is under our bed serving as a support to keep the bed from sagging. It is stuck there until we find a substitute. I fully intended to get some shopping done and ship presents home, but that didn’t come to fruition either. With Paul working all the time at his “part-time” job and me spending weekends struggling to make a dent in the housework and laundry, shopping just didn’t happen. Christmas eve we did manage to get to a mall and shop for presents for each other, but that is the extent of it.

I got up early this morning because there was lightning. I went to the living room to watch it with the cats. The storm was actually north in Sharjah, so the lightning and a little thunder was all we got here.

Daddybird is still sleeping and we are waiting patiently for him to get up so we can open presents. We got a bubble blowing machine for the cats. I can’t wait to see how much fun that turns out to be. Hopefully, it will entertain Oliver when he gets in one of his yowling moods.

Daddybird: “Merry Christmas!”

Kanga: “Happy Holidays!”

Bert: “mew”

Oliver: “MAH-WOO!”