Travel Stories | Expat Life
39 years young!
Today is National Day here in the UAE. It’s a big deal. A real big deal. In fact, we’ve been celebrating the holiday at school all week.
I’ve celebrated it so much in fact that I’m perfectly comfortable spending the official 39th UAE National Day holiday in… Oman.
xo, jill
aka Real Thanksgiving
Canadian Thanksgiving last month was the perfect event to get me in the mood for our Thanksgiving. I can’t think of a better time to eat mounds and mounds of mashed potatoes.
A similar crowd came together to celebrate the American side of things.
The Canadians did a fine job of decorating the place with an American twist and providing mind boggling Thanksgiving trivia, complete with pictures.
It was another fun and delicious evening.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone celebrating at home!
xo, jill
Put it up!
The other day I was hanging a new display outside (it doesn’t rain so our bulletin boards are open air) and chuckling a bit to myself. I was thinking about how this exact bulletin board posted at home would certainly earn me a reprimand (or firing)…
Do you see why?
Here’s a closer look.
You see it, right?
xo, jill
Dance dance dance.
Our friend Shera hosted a Halloween/Housewarming party this year. The theme was REDRUM, but she allowed costumes that strayed from the dead genre. I’ve never been one to wear a “scary” costume, so I was happy to hear I’d still be allowed to enter dressed as “French toast.”
Hannah was a bag of jelly beans and Molly was Waldo! And Mike was that jerk of a backpacker you always seem to meet while traveling.
Here’s a shot with the kids who wore full body costumes…
Bwahahahahaha…
My mustache made the rounds…
Hope everyone had a very enjoyable Halloween!
xo, jill
Still proud to be American.
If you’re not Canadian, maybe you didn’t know that Canadian Thanksgiving was October 11th this year. (Unless you pay attention to the holidays marked on most calendars).
In honor of a few of our favorite Canadians, Hannah and I cooked up a (Canadian) Thanksgiving feast.
The best part was going over the top with Canadian decorations. You would have thought it was Canada Day with all the flags, maple leaves, maple syrup bottles, and moose in full hockey gear.
We even arranged for a few special surprise guests to arrive.
Clockwise from left: Stephen Harper (Prime Minister), Robin from How I Met Your Mother, Dave Coulier (don’t try to tell me he’s from Detroit), and Tim Horton (or a “Tim Horton”).
And there was trivia!
Oh, the meal was pretty delicious too!
I think we were all thankful for the friendships we’ve developed (Canadians and Americans alike).
Now I’m all the more excited for American Thanksgiving in just a few weeks!
xo, jill
