It's not "Black Friday" everywhere

It is kind of refreshing not having the mad rush of shoppers the day after Thanksgiving, especially after hearing the horror stories that happened in the US this year. This is what our malls look like here the day after Thanksgiving. They don't even turn the lights on. (They are always closed on Fridays until late afternoon for mosque.) We were here because the TGIFriday's was still open for lunch. :)

Thanksgiving is a work day here...

Yep, Thanksgiving is just a normal Thursday here. But since Friday is the first day of our weekend, it's at least not a work day the next day. After James got home from work, we celebrated Thanksgiving evening at a dear friend's house. They opened their house to us for our first Thanksgiving in Doha two years ago and we've celebrated with them ever since. This year, the weather was really great - nice and cool - so we ate outside. I wasn't really feeling in the holiday spirit until we went to their home...Spending time with a large group of close friends really makes it feel like Thanksgiving when we are so far from family back home.

Levi loved his first Thanksgiving even though he didn't get to taste any of the yummy food!

The kids enjoyed watching cartoons on the wall!

Micah on the phone while in the wagon with her friend Priscilla.

Levi loved bouncing on the trampoline - until too many big toddlers started jumping.

Levi and his buddy Tolan checking out the movies.

Christmas comes before Thanksgiving?

Due to the availability of the hotel and the fact that most families are leaving for the month of December, we had our company Christmas party the weekend before Thanksgiving. They had a lot of good food and activities for the families. Many people went to a lot of work to make it feel like Christmas here, however it was hard to get into a Christmas mood when Thanksgiving hadn't even happened yet.

Micah enjoyed decorating a cookie and then later questioned where his head went. (Mommy enjoyed a small bite when Micah wasn't looking. I really didn't think she would notice! Should have had an arm instead!)

Not sure where she learned to eat popcorn with a fork.

I tried so hard to get a good Christmas picture of the kids in front of the tree...never really got a "portrait" of them but the results were cute anyway...

Micah tried so hard to hold her wiggly brother.