rory and I made loads of sweats for all our friends here. Many hours of messy fun later, I give you....coooooooooooookies. Rainbow chip, Ladycroft's cloud cookies, Mississippi mud cookies, Grandma's orange crispies, peanut butter snowballs, caramel fudge brownie cupcakes, and gingerbread cake. Oh, and home made hot spiced cider too!




It's already 6pm here so all of Santa's presents have been ripped open. I have a collection of odd things from the crew including a penguin in an egg, which I'm really not sure what I'm supposed to do with it. But, from my wonderful love I got many super cool toys!

A GPS so I can stop getting so lost in Doha! Awesome! It's actually waterproof and shock proof so you can take it sailing (has nautical measures), bike riding etc. I'm super stoked. It will come in handy to take to UK in February too when we have to go driving around to visit his dad and friends. Yah...it's going to be a real adventure driving roundabouts the other direction.

Anyhoo....my other big giftie that made me so happy is a Wii Fit!!! I got myself all measured up and it's not good. Got some weight to lose (not that I didn't know this). This will definitely be a little support buddy to keep me on my toes in a fun way. It's just the type of reinforcement I respond to as a gamer - you have to accumulate so much time in your piggy bank in order to unlock new activities etc. Plus you can set goals for weight loss over various periods of time. It has strength exercises, balance/posture, cardio, and yoga!

Here are some pics of Wii Fit


rory about to get measured


ski jump


weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee (or should I say wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii)


soccer goalie (harder than it looks!)


my dinky doha tree

HAPPY CHRISTMAS (E:PEEPS)!

I held a little holiday dinner program (Eid, Christmas, New year all in one) for the few kids that are still on campus. Some of them made dishes to share, then we made gingerbread houses! Well, actually we used graham crackers because I didn't have time to make gingerbread.

Anyhoo...they kids had SO much fun making them. None of them had even heard of gingerbread houses. I love it when I get to share something creative, and tasty, with people and witness their first time experience with it. It made me really happy :)

What the heck did my ears just hear but that Secret Santa is canceled this year!???? Only four people signed up? FOUR? I was soooooooooooo looking forward to this. I'm traveling half way around the world to be there....and NO SECRET SANTA!???

Well, I still think the four of us should do something, even if we just draw each other's names and know who it is! I can deduce that Jenks is one of them, so who are the other two?

Just a few more days til Christmas! Woo! The cookie baking begins tonight. Making an appearance in LC's kitchen this year will be her famous strawberry cloud cookies, Mississippi mud cookies, pecan caramel brownie cakes, peanut butter snowballs, rainbow chip bars, gingerbread bars, orange cranberry crispies, and pumpkin bread. YUM! To wash it all down, some homemade spiced cider drink. It will be pure sugar rush central.

Of course the sad part is that I'm making all these delicious cookies for friends who will all be gathering together as 'family' to enjoy Christmas while I'm stuck here working. Granted Rory of course will eventually come over, but it's going to be rather lonely. I would simply make phone calls to fill my time with cheer, but the 8 hour difference kind of screws that plan.

So, if you haven't seen it yet, enjoy the Elf dancing clips in my post below, they are good for a giggle. Make your own too!

Ciao!

I wiped out incredibly hard this weekend during my sailing lesson. The wind was crizazy and next thing I know I'm booking' it with my sail about 1 foot above the water and me leaning off the other side of the boat to keep it from tipping over. While I managed to stay the course, I was not so successful in my attempts at gybing.

Holy crap that wind slapped my boom across so hard I got my main sheet (rope) tangled around my neck, the boat flipped and away I went...smacked my head into the boom as I went under with the rope still strangling me.

I finally surfaced after breathing in huge amounts of salt water. You know that lovely endless salt snot that just pours out of your head after an incident like that? Yeah. So I was able to right my boat while hacking up a lung and pull my broken ass back in the boat.

I jacked my left leg real good. Pulled my quad, swollen knee and leg covered in bruises. It kind of reminds me of the good old days in Tae Kwon Do when bruised legs was the norm. Anyway...I really enjoy sailing, despite it trying to kill me. That is all.