Rain!

We came out of church this past Friday to the wonderful sight and smell of rain! To those of you who are gearing up for snow and bad winter weather may not see that as a good thing, but to those of us who haven't seen rain in awhile, it is so refreshing! Unfortunately, it didn't last long but it was good to see. By the way, that is our church in this picture - it is really just a big house.

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.