After everyone was up and breakfast was over Joseph drove us to another beach to have an outdoor excursion.  The Hyatt Regency Hotel is along the beach, as are many of the International Embassys.  There were a few clouds in the sky, a slight breeze beside the water and lovely packed sand to stroll on. Joseph, Carrie, Trish and John, headed off at a brisk pace.  I lingered behind taking some photos and after awhile John returned and walked along with me.  It is obviously a popular walking and playing area as there were quite a few people – both Arab and European – wading in the water and sitting up on the grass. Two four-wheel drive trucks were being used to haul in a fishing net.  It was quite a process.  The net’s guide line would be tied to the front of the truck.  It would back up, pulling in the net, then drive forward to the water’s edge and the line on the net would be untied. Then the driver would move the truck over to a fresh sand spot and the net line would be re-tied at the new, shorter level.  The truck would back up again, thus drawing in the net several meters further.  The two trucks were connected to the two ends of the net forming a huge semi-circle that got smaller and smaller as the trucks moved closer and closer together pulling it in.  There was a series of parallelling tire tracks stretching quite a distance along the beach outward from each of the trucks that showed how wide apart they were when they started bringing in the net. We were on our return walk along the beach when the net was drawn in close enough for the men to wade into the water and gather the net.  The birds circled and dove, trying get some fish but it was in a bag at the back of the net and I didn’t see any birds lift off with a fish.  It was a very interesting process and many people gathered on the beach to watch the men gather the net. There was a truck parked further along the beach that had a large cooling unit on the back in preparation for the day’s catch. Joseph and Trish both wanted coffee so a detour to the Costa Coffee Shop was in order before going back to the villa for lunch and games.

Merry Christmas everyone!  I hope you all have a wonderful day with your families and friends.  I feel very blessed to have been able to come to Muscat and share Christmas with my family.  When Joseph moved from Houston, Texas to Dubai in 2007 he told us it would be unlikely that he would be home for Christmas again until he moved back to the US or Canada.  Christmas is a very stressful,  hectic, and weather uncertain time to travel and, being literally half the world away from us in Western Canada it would likely not be a very enjoyable journey.  He did come home in 2009, bringing his then girilfriend/now wife Carrie for a vist.  That is the only time in the last eight years we have all been together at Christmas.

John and I were thrilled that Joseph and Carrie were happy to have us come visit them for Christmas this year, and being able to bring Trish with us was a wonderful bonus.  To have all of those most dear to me together for the holiday has been very special and I enjoyed my Christmas Day in Oman very much.

We all wandered into the kitchen by 8:30 or so.  Joseph made scrambled eggs with green onion and red pepper (very fesitvely appropriate colors) and bacon (which cost $18 per pound in Oman) for breakfast.  After tiding up the kitchen we settled into the livingroom to open our gifts.

With impeccable timing we finished just in time to put the turkey in the oven.  We discovered that there was not a dish in the cupboards large enough to cook it in so John and Joseph headed to the store to buy one.  John actually took the dish they thought would be an adequate size to the meat department and put a turkey in it to be sure ours would fit.

While the bird cooked we played Russian Rails, a new game we gave Joseph and Carrie for Christmas, and again, with impeccable timing Joseph won just as the turkey finished roasting and we all set to in the kitchen putting the rest of our dinner together. Quarter to six saw us all sitting around the dining table to a feast of turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, whiskey glazed carrots, brussel sprouts, coleslaw and biscuits.  No one left the table hungry!After dinner I requested that everyone humour me for a family photo before the turkey coma set in .  Then John, Carrie and Joseph settled on the couch to watch a movie, Trish went to her room to message with her friends and I settled on the upstairs couch to write my blog.  It was a really wonderful, stress free, happy day.  Thank you family.

 From my family to your family, Merry Christmas. God bless you all on this special day.

We have been here for over a week and today is Christmas Eve.  The sun is shining, the temperature is about 26 degees C and we are lazing around the villa.  Joseph is at work, Carrie is on the couch feeling lousy with her cold and watching Grimm.  Trish is in her bedroom wrapping gifts and John and I are on our the couch in the upstairs livingroom on our computers.

Americans (well the ones Carrie is related to and knows) have turkey at Thanksgiving in November. That is the major ‘must-not-change’ traditional dinner.  Christmas dinner is often ham or roast or chicken; whatever the cook feels like making for the day.

Canadians have turkey at Thanksgiving in October and at again at Christmas and both meals are almost identical.  In the extended Hanna family, deviations on the traditional fare are frowned upon.  The only part that can be random is dessert at Christmas.  For Thanksgiving we have pumpkin pie.

It is an interesting dynamic to be away from Salmon Arm and the snow and cold for Christmas.   In our entire lives we have never been away from home for the holiday before.  All of our winter trips since we retired have begun in early January. We know it is Christmas tomorrow, we are making preparations for Christmas dinner and yet it doesn’t feel like Christmas.  It feels more as if we are just on a holiday to visit Joseph and Carrie.  I am not upset or sad about this, I just notice the difference.

Carrie felt better after her relaxing morning, put the Christmas music on to play and made Coconut Cloud Cake for tomorrow evening’s dessert while I prepared the dry ingredients for the stuffing so I just need to add the liquids before putting it in the turkey tomorrow.  John came in to help with the preparations and was put to work peeling and grating the carrots for the coleslaw and our carrot side dish.  Trish had been doing laundry today but offered her assistance too.  She did the slicing for our whiskey/brown sugar carrots.  Even the brussel sprouts were prepped, so we are all set for tomorrow.

And then….it was time to make the Christmas cookies. After dinner, while John and Joseph did the dishes that were not put into the dishwasher, Carrie made the frosting to decorate the cookies.  I think we all did a pretty good job!

Some days are just a lot more fun than other days.  Today was one of them.

Joseph took the day off work (I think it will increase his current workload by doing so – which lately, has been mounting – but it was great to have a whole day together) and we all went dune bashing.

Carrie had gone online and hired a six passenger van with an English speaking driver to take us to the desert.  Ahmed arrived with a brand new Land Cruiser at 8 am.  The two seats in the back had no seat belts so he said we would not be able to go dune bashing. This was a bit of a downer as that was the main point of the excursion, but we took it in stride as we would have an all day adventure to the dunes.  Trish and John, who were riding on fold down seats in the back, said they were willing to hold on tight if we could ride the dunes. Trish even offered to sign a waiver.

It was a three hour drive to the Sharqiyyah Dunes near Bidiyyah. For 24 km of the ride we drove through the  Hajar mountains.  The government is currently working on a new four lane road through the mountains that will cut this distance to 10 km.  The peaks are desolate rocks covered with loose rocks and an occasional scrub brush.  The mountains are home to foxes, some antelope and a few other small critters.

There were quite a few old watch towers along the route through the mountains.  In days gone by before the Sultan ruled there was a lot of tribal territorial squabbles.

Our driver Ahmed was a great guy and had a wonderful sense of humour.  He spoke excellent English and knew much about the areas we were passing through.  He owns his own tour company and rental car company and freelances as a guide for other tours.  He received many phone calls on our drive (hands free Bluetooth thank goodness as we were now riding with one of the crazy Omani drivers) and switched easily between Arabic and English depending on the caller. He previously owned a sport bike but his mother said he rode too fast so he swapped to a Honda Goldwing.  He also has a two-seater quad and drives a Porsche sports car (obviously he traded the two-wheel speeding for the four-wheel variety).  Needless to say Ahmed and Trish got along famously.  By the end of the day they had a dinner date for the evening to go to his riders club. That’s my girl.

Just before we arrived at Bidiyyah he asked us if we wanted to do mild or extreme dune bashing. (Apparently he was teasing us about the seat belt issue.)  After hearing a chorus of “Extreme” from the back seats he pulled into an auto shop and had air taken out of the tires so the vehicle could more easily navigate the dunes.

A short distance from Biddiyyah a golden-red wall of dunes rose up in front of us.  Ahmid shifted down and hit the gas.  We flew over the top of a dune and then slid sideways down a steep slope.  This was our introduction to Omani dune bashing.  What a blast!  We spent over an hour riding around in the desert, then stopped on the peak of a dune for a photo stop.  Below us at the base of the 45 degree dune was a Bedouin camp.  This was our destination.    I Photoshopped a ‘pencil’ line to give you a little bit better idea of the angles we were traversing. (I hope)

You can see the path we took across this dune – most of which was done by sliding sideways while going forward. We stopped at the peak of a dune for an overlook of the desert.  You could see a moderate-size community off in the distance and set up below us was a small Bedouin camp that, after our photo taking was finished, we went down to visit Inside the large stick and palm-frond ‘house’ the sand was covered with various sizes and colors of rugs, there were cushions and hangings around the perimeter and our hostess had set up coffee and dates for us.  Ahmed instructed us on the proper etiquette for having coffee in a Bedouin house.  (Wash your fingers before eating the dates, then wash them again before consuming no more than three small cups half full of cardamon coffee.  It is bad manners to drink more than three cups.) After our dates and coffee we checked out some of the craft items and cloths available for purchase. Ahmed had told us that there was a lady who would do henna tattoos if anyone wanted one. This was something on Trish’s to-do-list so the lady was asked to come over and Ahmed gifted Trish with a Henna tattoo. First, however, she had to be draped like an Arabian lady.We piled back into the van and made our way to Wadi Bani Khalid, a popular local and tourist oasis. There is water here all the time; even in the heat of the summer months.  It was easy to see why people came here, it is a beautiful and tranquil spot.  After we ate a delicious buffet lunch Trish and Carrie took a swim.  In the water there are fish ranging from an inch or so to about 5 inches long that like to nibble the dead skin off your feet.  It is a very ticklish, and somewhat freaky sensation. The ride back to Muscat took about three hours (the light of the setting sun on the mountains produced a lovely pinkish hue) and we arrived at the villa at just after 6 pm, two hours later than a ‘normal’ tour schedule.  Ahmed was in no rush and neither were we. We gave him a good tip and he came back at 8 to pick up Trish for their date.  Joseph, Carrie, John and I played a game of Agricola and then we went to bed.  Considering we were sitting in a vehicle the majority of the day we were all exhausted.

It was an all together fabulous day!

We spent a quiet day at the villa.  Everyone slept until about 8:30, except Joseph who had left for work by then.  Last night Carrie mentioned that she wasn’t feeling well and was worried she was coming down with a cold.  She rested on the couch this morning re-watching Season 1 of Grimm, then went to bed to get some extra rest.

Trish spent some time on her phone checking Facebook and various other things, John worked on  Sudoku puzzles and I caught up on some of my online games.  Obviously it was a high stress morning!

At 11 or so Trish suggested we go for a walk.  As Noel Coward wrote, “Only mad dogs and Englishman go out in the noonday sun,” – and, I guess, Canadians – but  to us it was pleasantly warm, although we did work up a ‘bit of a glow’ by the end of our second lap around the neighbourhood route Trish has been using.There are many villas here; some are duplex units like Joseph and Carrie’s, some are large private residences. The Honorary Consulate of Rwanda is nearby as well and there are several buildings under construction.

 Joseph and Carrie’s villa. Number 369 is the one on the right. Every house is surrounded by a high wall.   This isn’t so much for security as for privacy so the women of the house can go outside into their yard without having to be covered with an abayah as they must do in public places.

John, with his 40 years of service as a volunteer firefighter in Salmon Arm is always interested in the fire fighting apparatus and systems wherever we go.  He wasn’t quite sure about these hydrants. We even saw some Christmas decorations on one of the fences. They had a wreath attached to an upper balcony railing as well. Clever folks live in this house.  It is three stories high and the lift would be very helpful to raise items without having to carry them up all the stairs. The neighbour had green vines entwined in their balcony.  I have no idea if they were real or plastic, but it looked nice.

After a bite of lunch, Trish went up to the roof to work on her tan and John and I read and checked photos (and I worked on this blog).                                  Pretty bougainvillea in front of one house.

After dinner each evening, when dishes are done and things are tidy we all sit down to play Empire Builder. We have been working on the same game since the night we arrived due to the short amount of time we have in the evenings with Joseph having to work late most days plus the interruption caused by our four day jaunt to Dubai.  We may finish the game tonight.  I think.

Once again Trish and I were awake early.  She turned on the coffee pot at 5 am (Trish is clever enough to prepare it the night before so all that is needed is a switch flick) and I wandered out of our room somewhere near 6.  The sky was just lightening with the dawn and within an hour there was a lovely golden glow on the lower level of the Burj Khalifa. We were packed up and on the road at 10.  While stopped at a traffic light I commented on all the large concrete columns along the cross road.  I  thought perhaps the Metro rapid transit system was being enlarged to service the area.  “No,” John said, “They are going to dredge the Dubai Creek to the ocean and all this section of road will be torn up and flooded.  That is where the road will go over the Creek when the project is completed.”  Only in Dubai does perfectly good infrastructure get torn up or re-routed to accomodate a new idea.  I don’t know if there is actually a City Planner in Dubai but if there is he must be bald by now.

There was only one MUST DO on our list before leaving the city – according to Trish anyway.  I don’t think the rest of us cared one way or the other, but she had two specific objectives if she made it to Dubai during our visit: buy a pair of Converse runners (2 pair for the price of one – success) and visit the Harley Davidson shop to get some T-shirts for herself and her friends.

Our daughter loves to ride (I think she got that from John) and her Harley is her most prized possession.  By the time we found a parking spot and braved the continuous traffic stream to cross the street she was almost vibrating with excitment.  The three of us patiently humoured her as she drooled over the bikes, looked at the accessories and novelty items, and selected the shirts she wanted to buy.  Yesterday at the souks she mentioned a couple of times that she would love to come to Dubai with an unlimited budget.  Today it would all have been spent in the Harley shop.  So….success on item number two.  Well done Trish.  And thank you Carrie for navigating through the traffic maze to get her there.

After we pried Trish out of the Harley shop we hit the road for our return to Muscat.  Traffic was definitely lighter than our journey up here but the usual traffic issues cropped up now and again.  Trish and Carrie shared comment duties.  The animal count on the trip home was 57 camels and 71 goats; still no donkeys.  John also counted four chickens, a dog, and 2 Brahmin cattle. The sand drifts across the road and builds up against the meridian.

We went off-roading for a half mile due to road construction.  Carrie was very careful going over the ruts and bumps in Joseph’s BMW. Both sides of the highway as you enter the city limits of Muscat are lined with palm trees, flowers and grass.  The sprinklers were running when we drove up to Dubai and were on again as we came back down. We arrived back at Joseph and Carrie’s villa just after 4 pm.  We had a bit of a delay at the Oman border crossing as Trish needed to purchase another 10 day tourist visa. We had discussed the visas with Joseph and Carrie before coming and knew there were 10 day and 30 day visas available.  John and I are going to be in Oman for 30 days so when we entered the country we bought 30 day visas.  This turned out to be a bad decision.  And if I had thought for a moment I would have realized it.  Unless there is a multiple entry visa available for the country you are visiting the visa you purchase is a one time entry.  So….our $20 rhial ($60 Cdn) visas (each) were no longer valid for re-entry into Oman. We had to complete the forms and purchase two more 30 day visas to cover the rest of our visit. Oops.  But we arrived safe and sound.  Joseph bought steaks on his way home from work and the grill worked its usual magic.  We had a great time in Dubai and look forward to a few more jaunts during our stay.  I don’t think any of them will involve six hour drives though.

We set out on our second day of touring Dubai after a leisurely morning in the apartment. Since there were now five of us Carrrie called the taxi service for a van.  We were let off on the main street near the Gold Souk.  It only took about 10 minutes to walk into one of the most opulent and blingy places I have ever seen.  Shop after shop after shop after shop with windows crammed full of gold (and silver) jewelry.Up and down narrow alleyways and through wider, more populated aisles we wandered, pointing out items that caught our fancy or our sense of whimsy.  The mind and senses actually blur after awhile.  Joseph told us that 24 tons of gold are on display in the Dubai gold souk on any given day.

In the window of a corner shop at the end of one of the aisles is the world’s largest ring – with the Guiness Book of Records certificate and description to prove it. It contains 5.17 kg of precious stones set in 58.686 kg of 21 carat gold for a total weight of 63.856 kg.   (2016 Update:  this ring was purchased by a fellow and was being loaded – with great difficulty and much ado – onto the same plane Carrie was boarding to fly back to Muscat after visiting friends in Dubai. The fellow was making much of the fact that he had bought it.  Why would anyone want to is my question?)

You can get a soother for your infant (pink or blue) that has a pure gold base, gold playing cards, a paperweight Euro note replicated in gold and sealed in fiberglass, solid gold key chains, trinkets and all manner of bright shiny things.

Once we had blinked away the bling we walked through the nearby spice souk. Trish has a foody friend and she purchased 2.5 grams of saffron (which would just fill the cupped palm of your hand and is so light you would not notice it) at a cost of 25 dirhams (about $8). Pound for pound saffron is the most expensive spice on earth. There was ground fennel, sunflower stamen used for facial cleansing, blocks of salt, kernels, roots, barks, powders and dried fruits like lemon or leaves of other plants.  A cornucopia of olfactory bliss. Then we boarded a water taxi to cross The Creek to the textile souk and strolled amidst fabrics and dresses and pashmina scarves and, and, and….

  These shoes, left outside the mosque, belong to men who are inside during one of the five daily calls to prayer.

By this time it was food time and we flagged down a couple of taxis to take us across town to one of Joseph and Carrie’s favourite restaurants: Barasti Beach Bar, which is located near the Marina and has a gorgeous white sand beach in front that is used by the guests of a neighbouring hotel. Once again there were Christmas decorations and an entire ‘tree’ made from bottles of Stella Artois – which you can enter to win.  All the staff T-shirts had silly Christmas sayings on the back.  We enjoyed an excellent lunch then found two more taxis to take us back to the apartment where we all rested our weary feet.  Joseph worked on work, then packed his bag and took it down to the car.  At  5:30 he left to find a cab to take him to the airport for his 8 pm flight back to Muscat.  The rest of us will drive back tomorrow.  Hopefully the return trip will be one of the four hour versions.                           Poor Joseph is just ‘over’ having his photo taken.

Neither Trish nor I slept well.  She was awake when I got up at seven.  I think we each got about 4 hours of sleep if you total all the bits together.  The coffee was on and the morning light was lovely on the Burj so we didn’t mind – too much.

We were sitting in the living room waiting for the coffee to perk when Trish glanced out the window and saw a stream of neon yellow-clad runners going by on the street below us. Turns out the 10 km Nike Run Dubai started at 6 am.  Over 25,000 runners participated last year and this year must be similar.  Below us and between the buildings we could follow the entire route.  The roads had been closed to traffic and the runners kept coming around the distant corner from the marshalling area for over an hour!  Pretty impressive!  And that is a lot of T-shirts.

Once the majoirty of the crew was up, washed and fed we were off to explore.  (Carrie didn’t come along – she was probably not wanting to venture into traffic again so soon after yesterday.) Joseph took us to Madinat Jumeriah where there is an indoor souk patterned after the world’s longest-running covered souk in Damascus.  From the promenade at the river’s edge there are lovely views of the Burj al Arab; the world’s only seven star hotel which has become the iconic symbol of Dubai.

                                   A nice setting for a photo or two.

Joseph then drove us to the Dubai Marina to show it to Trish.  He lived there for 6 years and this is where we stayed when we visited him.  There are many residential apartment towers in the area, lovely view-scapes, shopping opportunities – both necessary and exotic – abound and there are a large variety of ethnic restaurants.  The Dubai Marina walk is very popular with both locals and tourists and parking is always an issue.  Joseph very ably navigated a few deep holes in a construction zone lot and parked the car within an easy walk. Oops – Someone else did not navigate the sand too well.All is well in this travelling Canadian’s day!
This is my favourite building in Dubai.  We have been here just often enough to see it progress to completion.  I think it is brilliant.

Then we were off to the Dubai Mall where Carrie was to meet us for lunch.  This is the largest mall in the world based on total area and is ranked 14th in leaseable space with over 1200 shops.

There are four levels of stores, 10 levels to the parking arcade and many people from many cultures with diversely different styles of dress.  Trish was happy, she didn’t need to keep her shoulders and knees covered as she does in Oman. Tank top here we come. Again, Christmas decorations galore.  Trish even got wished a Merry Christmas by a young man in the coffee shop.  We wandered around, just idly looking – except for Trish who was on the prowl for a new pair of Converse shoes. The Dubai Aquarium and Underwater Zoo are located in the center of Dubai Mall but we did not take the time to check them out.   Next trip maybe .

The main event of our touring today was “At The Top,” a ride to the 124th floor of Burj Khalifa – there are 163 in total.  The Burj is 828 meters tall (2722 feet).  The ascent and descent take 1 minute exactly.  Now that is a FAST elevator; it makes yours ears pop.  No glass windows.  I am sure people would not like to see how fast we are moving.  They regulate the number of people going up so there are not hundreds and hundreds milling around at a time.  There is an enclosed platform that juts out from one of the sides of the building and an open slat at differing heights in each window so whether you are tall or small you can stick your hand out, or your camera if you are very careful to have the strap wrapped securely around your wrist. The endless view was incredible and it was surreal to realize that we were looking down on all of the tall buildings that stretch skyward from the ground.  A really, really cool experience.

                                               Mother-daughter photo op                 Selfie time                                   John gives a selfie a try with his SLR. One of the staff potographers posed Trish for a shot on the window sill. The access to At The Top is inside the Dubai Mall so when we came down from the tower we carried on with our mall wandering.  Malls over here put all the stores of similar products together so if you need electronics you can find all the stores near each other.  We located the shoes area and continued the Converse search (which was very successful, two pair for the price of one. Trish was thrilled.
                                             A gold Lambourghini.

The Waterfall. A fountain with sculpted divers on the face.  The wall behind the water is dark so it makes the water flow look the same color as the divers.

To cap off a fabulous day in Dubai we reserved a terrace table at Thiptara, the Thai restaurant Joseph and Carrie had taken John and me for my 60th birthday dinner a few years ago.  The palm trees along the street are all strung with fairy lights so it made a lovely walk from our apartment to the restaurant. The lovely Dubai Fountain plays every half hour and we were close enough to feel the mist from the massive water propulsion.

                             A fountain bowl of poinsetta petals

                  All in all it was a fabulous day with my family.                                       (There has to be some perks for a $600 dinner – Canadian!)

Today we took a road trip.  Trish has never been to Dubai and had said she would like to go if we could arrange it.  Joseph and Carrie had already considered taking a ‘long-weekend’ trip to their former home city.  Work weeks in the Middle East go from Sunday to Thursday with Friday and Saturday being the weekend.  Carrie drove the car with John, Trish and me, and Joseph flew up after he finished work.

The drive from Muscat to Dubai can take anywhere from 4 to 6 hours depending on traffic.  Today was one of the six hour drives.  Driving styles over here are very aggressive and very spontaneous – lane switching, tailgating, speeding, and cutting across lanes are frequent occurences.  It is a stressful drive but Carrie did well.  Her comments and mutterings about the other drivers were never very loud, only contained an occasional expletive and were generally quite mild compared to how it may have been if some of her passengers had been driving instead.

We saw two mild accidents, 17 camels and about 175 goats.  The roadside shops parallel the road for miles out of Muscat.  The towns just run together.  Round-abouts are used and the middle of the circles are often filled with flowers and shrubs or a sculpture or a small building.

There is lots of roadwork being done along the route. Once through all the check points at the border crossing (there were two going out of Oman and four going into the UAE) the scenery changes dramatically.  Suddenly there are sharp craggy peaks, followed by bright reddish-golden dunes which give way to almost white sand and scrub trees and then, just over a small rise, Dubai.

    Desert camping is very popular.  The Burj Khalifa dwarfs all the other skyscrapers.

We rented a three bedroom/two bath apartment with a folding bed for Trish.  The apartment belongs to a family currenly away in the UK.  The couple has 16-month old twins so there are baby toys and paraphernalia stored in corners.                         We have a pretty nice view from the apartment living room.

After we found the apartment we drove to The Lime Tree Restaurant for a bite to eat. Well, we really went there so Carrie could have her Triple Chocolate Brownie, but it was time for food anyway.  Dubai is an ever-changing city and it was quite a challenge to navigate at times.  Carrie kept having to re-envision the city map in her head to get us where we wanted to go.  The final stop of the day was Mall of the Emirates, home to over 560 shops, 90+ restaurants, and the ski hill and winter fun center.  The Mall and the ski center were beautifully decorated for Christmas.  Dubai may be in a Muslim country but they know a commercial windfall when they see one. We arrived back at the apartment a little after 9:30 and Joseph’s taxi dropped him off about half an hour later.  We all had had a very long day so there was no late night conversational lingering before we hit the sack.

Today was a quiet day.  Joseph and Carrie went for their morning walk before he left for work.  Trish woke up at 5:30 and turned the coffee on, then enjoyed her first dose of caffeine while reading on her private balcony.  I got up at 7:30 and sliced up all the fresh fruit we bought yesterday before making myself some breakfast.  John slept the longest – lucky fellow.

The morning was spent with all four of us on computers/phones doing whatever it is we all do.  I do know Carrie worked on her ArtistThink website.  She has been posting creativity inspiring articles and interviews with artists and educators for a few years and is now branching out to create an online creativity-course. Trish kept an eye on the sunshine streaming through the window at the top of the stairs to the roof and when it looked high enough in the sky she settled in for some tunes and rays.The neighbourhood looks pretty good from up on the roof.After lunch Carrie, John and Trish went to a different mall to buy bread and a few items to make Christmas cookies.  I stayed at the villa and wrapped all the presents we had brought from home.  More work for Carrie – trying to set up a telephone number online for her new business.  This is not easy to do for an American registered company when she lives in Oman.  Three and a half hours later she was successful.

Joseph leaves the house about 8:30 or so each morning and gets home between 6:30 and 8 pm depending on work and traffic. (Oman has crazy traffic.  Normal rules of the road are universally treated as suggestions – even stop signs.)  He grilled the steaks when he got home and dinner and dishes were finished about 8.  The game we started last night was played until 10 and then everyone was off to bed.  This type of routine will be quite common while we are here; interspersed with some days of sightseeing and activity.  Tomorrow is a travel day.