Christmas Overseas

I didn't quite know what to expect this year for Christmas since we are spending the holiday in a Muslim country. I was hoping we would be able to keep Christmas somewhat like the way we celebrate it in the states but also enjoy a new twist on things since we are in a different country.

Abu Dhabi did not disappoint us. All of the malls were decked out from top to bottom in Christmas decorations and Artem was able to sit on Santa's lap at every mall, even if Santa was wearing capris, rain boots, and spoke with a Filipino accent.


On Christmas Eve we baked cookies for our neighbors, set out milk and cookies for Santa and left carrots for each of the reindeer.


Santa's elves GROSSLY misjudged the size of Artem's gift this year and had to completely rearrange the family/dining room area in the wee hours of the evening to accomodate the big gift. Clearly a rookie move on the elves' part!




I love this age, especially at Christmastime. The way Artem believes that Santa ate all the cookies and drank the milk, makes me laugh, and it makes me realize the long wait for him was worth every minute.




After spending our morning opening presents and playing with new toys and goodies, I dressed us in our Christmas outfits, mine trimmed in a faux fur, snubbing our noses at the 76 degree temperature outside so I could finally get a Christmas with us in proper festive clothing. If you recall last year, I was disappointed that I didn't get to dress Artem in his cute little Christmas outfit and instead he spent the day in mesh FSU basketball shorts. But by golly, this year, we were going to wear our Christmas clothes, even if we had to turn on the car's air conditioner.




We went to the Sheraton resort for Christmas brunch...delicious and I didn't have to do any dishes afterwards. The resort was beautiful and they really put on the spread.



I ate roasted chestnuts for the first time...and I can now say I've checked that block in my life as once was enough to last me for the rest of my life. Besides roasted chestnuts, we ate like kings on crab, beef wellington, salmon, turkey and stuffing, and much more that I can't even remember to list. It was wonderful!

See the silver tube on my plate below? Each of us had them on our plates. I wasn't quite sure what it was but I gingerly peeled it open and discovered a teeny tiny screwdriver gift inside along with folded blue tissue paper that I assumed was packaging material. After a few minutes we heard popping noise throughout the room and started seeing people wearing tissue paper crowns, not knowing where everyone was getting the hats and what was making the popping sound. After a half hour we finally figured out that, A)we were the only non UK'ers in the room, B)we were the only ones that didn't know you pull the ends of the tubes quickly and they pop open, C)the little piece of tissue paper was the crown, and D)it must be a Brittish thing to wear a little hat or crown at the Christmas meal because the ones that weren't wearing the crowns had brought their own creative hats to wear throughout the meal.

We received a few strange looks from folks throughout the meal. I thought it was because we weren't wearing our tissue paper crowns but it could have been the fact that I had my son dressed in long sleeves and a sweater vest while others were coming in from the resort pool in bathing suits and flip flops.

But then again, wouldn't you stare at this little fella, vest or no vest??



After a much needed post Christmas meal nap, we shed our Christmas clothes, changed into something a little more weather appropriate, and walked across the street to the beach spending the rest of our Christmas day playing in the sand, eating Cinabons on the boardwalk, and drinking hot cocoa and coffee.

Who needs cold weather and snow to make it feel like Christmas when you have sugary sand beaches to play in? Merry Christmas from Abu Dhabi!

Adventures in Traveling

Artem had his best flights ever. He truly was so easy to travel with on this flight. It’s never easy being on an airplane for 15 hours with a three year old, but the little guy was a real trooper this trip.

We weren’t without drama though and our five hour Atlanta layover almost pushed me over the insanity edge.

A year ago, Artem pinched his finger on our wrought iron staircase in Abu Dhabi. It was a very small pinch that he barely noticed. The finger became infected and we had to take him to the doctor and have it lanced to drain the infection.

Last week I was walking Artem into his classroom on Tuesday morning and he told me not to hurt his finger. Thinking I had scratched it with the Velcro on my coat sleeve, I didn’t pay much attention until I went to remove his coat in his classroom and again he told me not to hurt his finger. I looked at the finger and the cuticle was swollen and looked like puss was beginning to form around it. By the time I picked him up that day he had a red line running up his finger into his hand. I didn’t panic too much at that point because he didn’t have a fever and was already on Amoxicillin for an ear infection (his first since he’s been home from the orphanage) the week prior. I had an errand to run after school and by the time I finished the errand I looked at his finger and discovered a second finger on the other hand was swelling and turning black.
I called his doctor and was told I couldn’t get him in until the next morning at 10:45.

On the way home it started to really worry me so I drove to an urgent care where they said they couldn’t treat him because he was only three and their pediatrician was off for the week. I found a second urgent care and the nurse on duty said it was a very common infected cuticle but there was nothing she could do for him there, to keep the appointment the next day, and since he wasn’t running a fever, he would be okay until the next day.

On Wednesday morning (we were leaving for UAE on Thursday) we saw his doctor. The doctor wasn’t very concerned and said the infection was very common and put him on Bactroban topical antibiotic cream, took him off the Amoxicillian and put him on another oral antibiotic Bactrim. The doctor knew we were leaving the next day and said everything should clear up soon. I asked if his fingers needed to be lanced but he said they did not.

We were on the two hour flight from our town to Atlanta and twice he caught his fingers in the buckle of the seatbelt. Lots of tears for a couple minutes but he recovered quickly. Once in Atlanta, we went to TGIFridays in the airport to pass the time on our five hour layover and when I pushed him up to the table in the high chair I smashed one of his infected fingers between the chair and table edge. He was inconsolable, crying and writhing in pain and I couldn’t get him to calm down. I left the restaurant and went to information to find a doctor. There was no way I could travel any further with his finger in this condition. Both were turning black at that point and the finger I smashed was turning black into the knuckle. Information said there wasn’t a doctor in the airport so I decided to go to Delta and book a trip home to Texas to have him seen rather than continue on.

The wonderful lady at Delta led me to a mini hospital in the Atlanta airport and within ten minutes Artem was meeting with a surgeon about his fingers. The surgeon was examining Artem’s finger, telling me it needed to be lanced and with that he took a pair of scissors and cut the tip of Artem’s finger off. I FREAKED!! Artem is screaming, blood and puss are oozing out and the doctor tells me the other finger will need a needle to drain the infection. I beg the man to numb it but he assures me Artem won’t feel it. Sure enough, he put the needle into the infection and drained it and Artem never felt a thing. Whew! The doctor put the Bactroban directly into the open holes, wrapped them with Band-Aids and then put a cushioned metal splint on both fingers so he couldn’t hurt them anymore. I gave him some Ibuprofen for the pain, paid the $90 bill and we were on our way with two hours to spare on the layover.

As much as I hate to say it, I think smashing his finger at Fridays was a blessing in disguise. I kept the fingers wrapped and splinted for the flight and Artem didn’t have any more problems. He was a trooper watching Bolt and Cars on the plane and then I folded his seat flat into a bed and he slept for seven hours.

I was hoping his fingers would be healed by now since they had been drained but we are four days past seeing the surgeon in Atlanta and Artem’s fingers are worse. We saw another doctor today in UAE and he said they are infected but he said it’s caused by eczema and it’s very common. He did not lance the fingers again, told us to put the Bactroban on the fingers three times a day and switched his antibiotic AGAIN! Now he’s on Augmentin. Hopefully this will do the trick.

In Artem’s medical report from Russia, they did note that he suffered from “Dermatitis”. The doctor here in UAE noted his red “flush looking” cheeks and said its eczema (not knowing what his Russian medical report contained) that is causing the infections and that he should grow out of it. This is three fingers now and if it happens again, we are going to take him to a specialist to get to the bottom of it. The fingers hurt him so badly and they get terrible looking ulcers in them and the finger starts to turn black. Randy and I are afraid he’ll lose sensitivity in the finger or the infection will go into the bone. But for now, we’ll try the third round of antibiotics and hope they get better or Artem and I will cut our trip short and return to the states to see a specialist. Hopefully it does not have to go that far.

Below are pictures of his fingers that I took last night.

Left hand:


Right hand (notice where the doctor cut it)

Steal This Idea!

Need a quick, easy, and cute teacher gift idea? Steal this idea that I used to make Artem's teachers' gifts.

Start with a bucket of popcorn, a bottle of 7 Up and some plastic popcorn buckets. I found these at Target for $1.00 each.

I put some red shredded paper inside the popcorn tub and then placed the bottle of 7 Up and popcorn buckets inside. I placed the popcorn tub inside an opened sheet of decrative cellophane (I bought this at Michaels, it's Wilton brand) and pulled the edges up.

I tied it all together at the top with some ribbon and tied on a clump of curly ribbons.

I made some tags from cardstock and attached them to the ribbon. The larger tag reads, "Pop Pop Fizz Fizz O' What a Great Teacher You Is!" I wanted to do a RedBox gift card to go with the movie and drinks theme but Redbox doesn't sell gift certificates. I opted for 5 brand new $1.00 bills and attached them with a lime green (allthough it doesn't look lime green in the picture) money clip paper clip.

Put it all together and you've got a simple but adorable gift for a teacher you love.

That's My Son!

Artem's preschool put on their Christmas program this evening and it was my first time being in the audience rather than directing my students. I've heard Artem practicing his songs a little here and there but never heard him sing a song all the way through or do any of his moves. His teachers assured me he was ready and did great at each practice. Randy and I were making bets on whether Artem would ham it up in front of the crowd or freeze in his tracks. My money was on freezing.

Before we left I wanted to capture the moment where his shirt was still tucked in and his hair still in its place. I told him where to stand but I didn't tell him how to stand. I admit, I got a little teary eyed when I saw him posing. I offer no apologies for the following picture...so stinking cute!

I could spread him on a cracker and eat him up!

At the Christmas show, he did GREAT! He sang all of his lines, he did all of his moves, even if he was a few beats behind the rest of the group, and he didn't cry and come running for me. Success!

I could eat him up I tell you!!

But I PRAY he doesn't put THAT on a cracker and eat it up!!

That's my son! He keeps me humble and brings me back down to Earth!

Salmon Recipe

I love salmon. Randy does not. Salmon is good for you and Randy has been told by his doctor that he needs to eat more foods that are "good for him". Randy will now be eating salmon.

I came across the yummiest salmon recipe in all places, Parenting Magazine. It was extremely easy to make and Randy could not get enough of this salmon, even eating seconds.

Sesame Roasted Salmon

cooking spray

2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced

2 tsp soy sauce

2 tsp Dijon mustard

2 tsp honey

1 1/4 lb salmon fillet

1 Tbsp black sesame seeds

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking pan with foil. Coat with spray.

2. In a small bowl, stir together garlic, soy sauce, Dijon mustard, and honey.

3. Slice salmon into four pieces, then place in the pan skin side down. Prick the surface with a fork. Spread honey-mustard mixture over the top of the fish, sprinkle with sesame seeds.

4. Place the pan on the middle rack of the oven and bake for 10 to 20 minutes, until the fish flakes evenly when pierced with a fork. The total cooking time will depend on thickness.

It's good, no? Let me know if you make it!

After helping me bake the salmon, Artem spent the 15 minutes waiting for the timer to ding by doing some cooking of his own.

Fried watermelon anyone?

Oh dear, I'm afraid the health inspectors may frown on this!