Santa!!!

On December 10th Lamiaa and Seema were going to do some shopping in Sugarhouse.  As I was dropping them off the Santa in the Santa shack was not busy so we stopped on in to say hello...

They told Santa they were going to California and that was a good gift.  He said he would bring them a surprise.  Can't wait to see that!! We have been good - so of course we would get a surprise.

Keep on counting to Christmas!!!

Miss Scarlet with a rope in the kitchen!!!

CLUE!!!

We loved being invited again to the Mackenzie / Loughridge house for dinner.  They are so much fun and Chip's salmon is perfect every time!

After dinner we played Clue.  Of course, Seema had never played and Chip was amazing at explaining all the rules and how you have to ask for clues from the other players and how sometimes players ask questions they already know the answers in order to narrow down the results.  He was really into it - really into it!!!!

Seema and Lizzie were really concentrating as well.

Guess who won????

Seema won!!!

Getting ready for the big guy in red....Santa!!!

First - in case Santa is reading, we have been good, very very good so please don't forget about us.

After surviving and laughing over our Thanksgiving we immediately started getting ready for Christmas.  There is a lot to be done - or I should say a lot of fun activities I want to do to celebrate.  The weekend before Thanksgiving I got our house decorated and mostly ready. Seema thought I has lost my mind, a thought she continues to have I am certain on a regular basis, but I knew what all was in our future. 

Of course we bought a chocolate advent calendar and Seema has promised to only eat ONE candy each day - I can't verify this, but I am pretty confident that she is sticking with the one a day.

We started off the first weekend of December with a trip to the Festival of Trees.  This annual event is a fundraiser for Primary Childrens Hospital where people donate a decorated tree, wreath, quilt, table top decor or gingerbread house and local companies and individuals purchase the trees etc.  Many trees are made in honor/memory of a loved one that died.  I am guessing there were 400+ trees along with holiday performances at the event.

We were excited to have Uncles Alex & Joe and Rebecca to go with us.  We started the night with scones, cinnamon buns and chocolate milk and then looked at all the trees.  AND GUESS WHAT - yup, we found a tree decorated with national flags... Paksitan and Morocco were both very prominate on the tree and Seema could not have smiled any bigger.

It would not be Utah without Quilts.  We love the crafts!!!

Look closely and you will see that the tree has HONEY BEES on it!!!

The next day we grabbed Lamiaa and headed over to Larson pad.  For years Gina, her mom Myra and I have made popcorn balls and a couple years ago we added pretzel dipping.  We also added Alex & Joe for the pretzels portion.  This year we dipped about 550 pretzels and made two batches of popcorn balls. 

I know they look tired, but at this photo we were only about 1/2 done.  Yes Lamiaa is wearing reindeer antlers and Seema is sporting a tree headband.  Dang, they are good sports!

 Ririe, our official bagger. 

I am pretty certain he counted to 4 (4 pretzel per bag) about 100+ times.  He is an amazing worker and sticks with a project!

We have lots of pretzels gifts ready to roll.  And the gift tags the girls made at craft day added the perfect touch. Be sure to click on the craft day link to read all about what we made!!!

911 Thanksgiving!!

Spoiler ALERT:  Everyone lives!  Well - except for those 5 turkeys!!!

I am a little confused how or where to start this posting - the begining of T day, the day before T day, dinner, or what...

Jumping in - a tiny bit of background.  First, Thanksgiving is not my favorite holiday - there I said it.  But, Seema had said before she even arrived in the USA that she was excited for "thingsgiving".  Therefore, I wanted it to be a good one for her...let's say memorable.

We were invited to a dear friends home with her daughter wanting to prepare all the food.  In preparation I ordered the halal (special dietary blessed turkey) for the group of 23 going to Merlines house. That accounts for 2 turkeys.  In the end we went with non-halal turkeys for the group - due to sausage stuffing - so that accounts for 2 more turkeys.  And then the one I picked up for the Duffin family. 

Well - enough about the turkey s and the day before... the morning of the big day, I get a call from DeeDee (Lamiaa's host mother) and she is having heart palpatations as the neck of the turkey is still attached and she is not certain about giblets inside.  She is slighty freaking out - so I tell her I will bring my turkey down and we will prepare them together.

DeeDee's turkey hanging out in a pot waiting for love and butter.

Our turkey waiting for the big reveal

Here is Bob working on getting the neck of the turkey!!!  Seriously - that looks so so wrong!!

DeeDee takes a look...for the giblets - for some reason her giblets were absent...

Up close and personal with the turkey...

That seems like enough turkey business...

On to dinner and fire.

We were thrilled to be invited to Merline's for dinner and her daughter Jan was kind enough to prepare all the food.  At 4:00 Seema and I headed up to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner with the Cindy Kindred clean, Leamings and Ingham's.

Seema and I arrive first to a wide open front door!  Once inside I realize why - the fire in the fireplace is roaring and smoking and the flue is NOT open.  Smoke is filling the house, there are no fire pokers in sight and Jan is wondering if it is best to just call the fire department.  In hind-sight I should have said, YES!!! But I thought, we can handle this ~ maybe???   I get on the ground to see if I can see the flue lever and if I can reach it without getting burned - cause that doesn't sound fun.  The flue opening is clearly a no go.  Jan says well it will just have to burn out... hhmmm....

Scott Ingham shows up a few moments after this and says you can't let it burn out - it will just keep billowing and filling the house with smoke and soot.  Fire extinguishers - NO!!!  Scott and Heather go to there houses to get extinguishers as the Kindred clan arrives with equally good suggestions. In the end, Marian calls the Fire Department.  We are told to leave the house and wait outside for our fire heroes to arrive. 

We do leave the house, the fire is put out and we move on to dinner  - but not without a bunch of photos with the fire truck...

Enjoy!!

Waiting outside for our fire heroes!!!

Serious fire fighter

More outside standing

Constantine, Hailey & Bella by the truck

The contents of the fireplace

Fire trucks up the street

And more fire trucks up the street

The HOT fireman with the HOT fire grate

ta da - fire grate...

Hailey's photo op in the truck - I am pretty sure, she could not drive away.

Seema's attempt in the drivers seat

Bella in the drivers seat

Scott Ingham party of 4 - Ryan is at soccer, maybe we can photo shop him in for a Christmas card!

Heather rescued Jan's dog Ginger from her walk-about down the street along with Seema and Aunt Peggy

The whole gang with the fire peeps.  Let me just say how amazing and nice are heroes were.  They showed the kids the truck and equipment, they were professional and kind for having to work on Thanksgiving.  It made me very thankful to live in a place where when you call 911 wonderful, well trained and kind people come and help you - whether life threatening or a small fire they are the best. 

I am thankful for being able to say all is well, no one was hurt - not even a bandaid was unwrapped. 

Saying goodbye!!!

Another MOVIE NIGHT!

We have been good so far in hosting a Movie Night once a month - and November was no exception!  Our busy weekend with Disney On Ice and horses was capped off with Movie Night. It is so much fun to watch these kids as they become more comfortable in America and with their families.  Truly a priviledge to have all of them in my life.

Seema and Cammie with too much candy!

Mimi and the girls!

And if the weekend was not busy enough, Seema had a Foods & Nutrition assignment due. It was to make soup.  I don't make soup - never found the right seasonings etc. So I enlisted Myra to help with this assignment as she is a champion at soup making.  They made cauliflower soup - and Seema liked it

 
Thanks MYRA!!!

HORSES at the Haglunds!

My darling friend Lori Haglund invited us over to meet the horses as both Lamiaa and Seema LOVE horses but can't ride in their countries.  We headed over with great anticipation to meet the horses, brush them, feed them and give them some love. 

Lamiaa at first was freaked out by their very active new puppy Watson and not sure if the horses were more interested in her fingers or the apples.  It took some time, but eventually both girls were experts at feeding them.

Watson would really like some of what the horses are getting.

One silly monkey, one horse

You can't really tell, but Lamiaa has a treat in her hand and getting her courage up to get a little closer.

Perfect - you have to kind have to shove the apples into their mouth keeping your hand flat so they don't find your fingers!!!

Even though this isn't the greatest picture - I love everyones faces.  The joy and fun on the girls and the patience on the horses.

More apples.

And then they brushed them...

Lamiaa and Layla

Seema and Taffy, Sandy,  okay, I can't remember.  Seema says Sandy - does seem quite correct.   I will find out so our blog doesn't have ANY inaccuracies.  HA

Amazing - the love of a girl and gentle, sweet horse.

They did try to ride Layla - but Lamiaa didn't quite get on and fell to the ground and Seema almost was almost on when Layla decided she didn't want to go for a ride that day and started to run and BOOM - off came Seema right to the ground.  The ending to that was that neither girls were hurt and they want to try again when Layla or Cactus is up to ride.

Roger Haglund and Layla...

Seema moment before the ride kinda and the fall.

Oh so close - and I was waiting to get the picture where she is on the horse... that didn't happen.

But we had a great time... thanks Haglunds!!! We will be back!!