To the bat cave...

okay...we finally found the vave! can i just say again though that we live in such an amazing place? we were on our way to hike and we stopped to look at this herd of sheep. tons of baies. so sweet. annie was quite disappointed that they wouldn't let her pet them.

we bumped along the road and saw the beautiful overlooks and then stopped at this creek bed. the car ahead of us tried to cross...they didn't make it! so no worries if you are a kurd. the men head out and walk to the nearest village where they are bound to find a relative or friend or just a person willing to help. someone will know someone with a tractor and away they go! no one was dismayed or worried...i love this culture and these people! we headed out and followed the creek to the cave.

toby and jesse waiting to go in and discover!here we go...not a lot of head room and we pretty much got completely filthy and wet...but it was so fun! even i didn't mind anyone being dirty!

this is not a mega zoom...we were really this close to this bat. we accidentally bumped him a couple times because he was hanging right where we were walking, aparently he was a sound sleeper. he stirred, bur never flew out. thankfully...i think it would have freaked us all out!
toby and tim in the heart of the cave...
here we all all! the cave totally opened up after a bit and we were in a huge cavern!
we found this fun specimen from water dripping that had formed up a wall. you can't really tell, but it's very sparkly!
when we came out of the cave...the sun was beginning to go down and i caught this view of the snow peaks in the distance. seriously...when are all of you going to come visit??
here's the whole gang of us that went!

Majidi Mall

welp...we are no longer roughin' it...if we ever really were. but for sure we cannot hide the fact that we have a MALL! that's right...it's about an hour away from us, but nevertheless...it is a real deal mall. all the stores aren't open yet, but the decorations for Christmas came up the day after Christmas. ha.ha! they think that New Year's is Christmas. whatever...we went to the mall the day after Christmas...no big sales, but we still found a few fun things to look at and enjoy! Most of the stores are Euro, so i don't know them, but there is a Nike and Adidas store. Supposedly a Levi's store is coming. My new favorite is a store called LCWaikiki. so fun, kids clothes and adult clothes. sort of in between Gap and Old Navy, but a more Eddie Bauer style, but really colorful and euro trendy. i sort of like it...i must confess. no skinny jeans for me...yet.
this could be hours of fun right here going up and down...
however there is a real play place.
that has a ball pit...i remember now why these no longer exist in America, because kids almost get trampled and suffocate in these scary places. but with a little control...they are oodles of fun and probably oodles of germs too...
annie and toby exploring and having fun.
cute kid!
see...i told you i bought something! i know..i have sworn off hats, but i couldn't resist. this is the first clothing item i have bought since before we left 7 months ago. i thought i deserved it!
annie...if you can't tell.
okay...this could be our new favorite spot...PIZZA! it's not great...but who cares!? also supposedly coming soon is Burger King and KFC and Pizza Hut! we can't wait! i don't really even like any of those places, but because they are familiar...i can't wait!
so we bought a little treat at our new favorite store called City Center....it's like a mini walmart. i love it. i came out of the store tired and the kids were whiny, so i plopped them all down in front of this store and shoved ice cream in their mouths. i turned around after getting them situated and literally the entire hall had frozen and was turned and staring at us! i forgot that eating ice cream in the winter is bad here! so we ate on admist stares and people starting coming up to us left and right wanting to talk and take pictures with us. it was so funny. we get stares, but this was a new level of being stared at. i wish i would have taken a picture of everyone staring at us, but i lost my nerve. next time i will!

Christmas!

Christmas has been all over for us in the last 10 years! we realized that we have been either in a different place every year or with different people...but this is our first out of the country christmas. so in some ways, it didn't feel too foreign or strange, because Christmas has always been what we make of it and how we choose to bring Joy into our lives. we did miss family, but we were pleasantly surprised to not be inundated by too much stuff. we all slept together on Christmas eve! doesn't that look so cozy and fun?
aunt becky and NPF really came through for us and sent Toby this awesome new KNEX set! he has played with it non-stop!
here is Jesse clutching his gifts from NPF and wearing his new Spiderman hat! what could be better? maybe a red Teenage Mutant Ninja turtle? but once he opened that i couldn't get him to stand still long enough for a pic... i guess that was a thank you??
i think this face says it all...not mine in the background though...let's all pretend my bleary eyed self is looking fabulous! but annie LOVES crafts and beads! so she lit up for this one...even when i tried to remind her of our gift to her...this one remains her favorite! thank you NPF!
and for the grand finale...
"wiggle racers" for less than $20 each. hooray! now that we have our basement back, we also have a runway for them to scream and race their hearts out!
they each found their color and hopped on...wasting no time.
we ran downstairs and away we went!
here is annie with her new outfit, courtesy of Grammy and Aunt Becky! we are SO lovin' the hat!
Toby got some more beloved K-Nex and he and Tim put the "stunt jet" together. he does not want to take it apart now. he treats it with utmost respect. today he came upstairs and confessed he had not put it in a safe place and that he had broken some parts off and would tim please come help him repair it. usually he would cry and whine about it, but somehow he came upstairs and calmly explained that it was his fault. i was impressed.
we have more presents on the way...not sure when they will get here. but it was nice to not have too many in one day. plus it's always fun to extend Christmas...i am feeling a little sad, like every year, that it is all over. the anticipation and waiting are over.
our most fun experience this year, was making little packages of pumpkin bread and bon-bons with a book about the Story and going to our neighbors gates and caroling and presenting them with our gifts. they were so baffled all month by our silly traditions, but they thoroughly enjoyed this one and wanted us to come in and have tea. one guy even asked us to pray for him. he reported back today that he is feeling better. he says he always feels better when we pray.

Christmas Eve Fondu

We are full of fun traditions and always adding more...but sometimes we have to be a little taboo in order to achieve them. this time we snuck out and bought a bottle of wine to pull of fondu. however we forgot that we no longer have a wine corker...never fear...my mcgyver husband always has a solution...nothing a long screw and a wratchet can't fix.
see...uncorked just like that! he even surprises himself sometimes! was the wine good you might ask...was it worth all the sneaking around...
here we all are...well minus me...the lovely photographer...oh i was able to find a little tea light pot stand warmer thing for the actual fondu. it was so perfect!
there might have been a little left over wine after we made the cheese fondu...we don't want anything to go to waste around here...so YES it was worth it for sure!
we let the kids sleep in our room that night and they stayed up late with the anticipation of it all...i snuck in and caught this picture at one point. good ol' annie laying down and behaving and the rotten brothers up and making all the noise... but i hardly could punish them on christmas eve...who can go to sleep that night anyway??

The Office Party!

we threw a party at our office on the 21st and we each invited several families. we ended up with over 50 people altogether. it was great fun and lots of great food!
we even had a fun craft table for all the kids to work at.

here is annie with sweet friend Elaf!
of course us girls had to dress our best and wear our beautiful jili kurdis! sparkling beauties!
tim and jamal read the Story from the front while 3 amazing little actors silently (which you know is saying something nothing less than a miracle for my kids) acting out the play. Mary played by Annie, Joseph played by Toby and a shepherd played by Jesse. He is kneeling down in front of the "manger" or laundry basket looking at baby Jesus who is Violet, Annie's bunny! they did so amazing and i was so proud of them.
i am not too proud to admit that i did bribe the kids in the end with a cookie and a pinch or two to behave when they decided at the last minute that they would rather play with the glitter glue than perform. but in the end they enjoyed being the stars of the night.
and i played a guest appearance as "THE ANGEL"...my inspiration was my very own mother who always played "THE ANGEL" with such flair in our own family re-enactments every year! I wore the white sheet with pride!
here we are with one of our favorite families!
and our other favorite family...Nazeela and Zeelan and Lavine! it was a great night and many people got to hear!

Pajama Run!

Every year for a few years we have stolen a tradition from my dear college bud! You put the kids to bed early and then just as you turn out the lights instead of saying, "Good night!" you yell, "Pajama Run!" Then everyone screams with delight and runs for the door to grab shoes and out the door to get ice cream instead of going to bed! It's so much fun! we all used to wear jammies and go out, unfortunately here, i might get stoned if i went out in my jammies, so i can only go in my clothes, which isn't nearly as fun, but oh well. there is also no dairy queen here, but they do have little shops with ice cream. unfortunately it is also very taboo to eat ice cream during the winter and to go out with your hair wet. so on this night, we broke a lot of cultural rules, but we had a lot of fun doing it and i think everyone will forgive us this once. in december we like to get new jammies for our runs throughout the year. the jammies you can buy here are a little funky, so my mother-in-law hit the mall and sent us all amazingly great, new, cozy jammies! so we were so thankful!
we found this little lit up "tree" on our way to the store. seemed a small attempt at Christmas. so we had the kids pose. very festive i would say...
here we are digging for our loot...admist many disapproving stares. but the shop keeper was more than willing to take our money as long as we were willing to take our lives in our own hands and eat...horrors...ice cream when it is 50 degrees out! gasp!
here they all are attempting to do the unthinkable...and i am proud to say we are all still alive and well!
at home we can all wear our new jammies! hooray for new jammies and hooray for pajama runs!

Pre-Christmas Happenings...

when you are 3 and the youngest of the boys on one side of the family, you get a lot of hand-me downs and sometimes they just don't last all the way through, after they have already been through 2 other rough and tumble boys. these jeans blew out in the knees and so we decided to cut them off to get a laugh, of course Mr. Wittle Pants himself LOVES them and so now they are worn frequently! We love the 80's cut off look!
look at these crafty guys...sitting in our living room getting ready for the party we were having the next day at the office. okay, so there was supposed to be football playing, but the satellite wasn't working and we were watching the kurdish version of who wants to be a millionaire. so these poor guys were sucked into doing crafts instead. i think they really got into it though.
we got the privilege of keeping our sweet Zeelan for a couple of nights last week and so we did lots of fun Christmas stuff. we also got to share the Story with her a lot. She came in every morning at sat at our feet in front of the heater while we read our Word. She even started reading a children's version as well.
toby was one of my main helpers!