The Holidays are upon us.
Thanksgiving has just past and I found myself very homesick not to being around family. As hectic and interesting as it may be to be home and running everywhere, I find myself missing it so much. We did not have a turkey this year as I could not bring myself to pay the outrageous cost for it. We did however have a ham that was smuggled in and given to us by friends. With Christmas around the corner, I can only imagine my feeling of wanting to be home more urgently. Our little one is still young but I love the fact that we are with family on Christmas and I hate that he is going to miss that. I will however keep in my traditions. Although we are in a primarily Muslim country, we have seen some Christmas decorations put up at the malls here. It just proves to us that Oman is open somewhat to other religions. I doubt many countries in the Middle East are as open. We put our tree up and it is visible to outside at night. We see Muslims stop and look but we know it is out of curiosity. We will also be keeping in my over 20 year long tradition of baking a cake on Christmas Eve and singing happy birthday to Jesus. I have always wanted my children to know what Christmas was really about and I could not think of a more fun way to do it. We are also starting to learn some of the language here. John will learn a lot more than I will as he picks things up really easily and I am more of a one word a week kind of person. But I will know a little by the time we leave here so I will like that. It will probably sound really bad as I still do own some southern accent still. We just want to take the time to wish everyone a happy and safe Holiday Season. May God bless every one of you..... The Grays
