And so it was Christmas......

 A Christmas filled with love, laughter (toddler tears ;) and much happiness. No wonder why they sing; "It's the most wonderful time, of the year"!!
 

" If we are only willing to open our hearts and minds to the spirit of Christmas, we will recognize wonderful things happening around us that will direct or redirect our attention to the sublime. It is usually something small—we read a verse of scripture; we hear a sacred carol and really listen, perhaps for the first time, to its words; or we witness a sincere expression of love. In one way or another, the Spirit touches our hearts, and we see that Christmas, in its essence, is much more sturdy and enduring than the many minor things of life we too often use to adorn it. In these precious moments we realize what we feel and know in our heart—that Christmas is really about the Christ".

Elder Utchdorf - 2011 First Presidency Christmas Devotional

This was the first year that I haven't spent Christmas day in my parents home. EVER. It felt different and I missed my family (and Chad's family too), but it was so nice to celebrate in our own home and make it special for our little family! Old and new traditions blended in what I thought was a perfect mix! 

In true German style we celebrated Christmas Eve with dinner and then presents (which our kids LOVE because it means they get to open their presents a day early - and to be honest, I love it too! I could hardly wait to give the boys and Chad their gifts :)

We hope you had a wonderful Christmas filled with love, happiness and the Spirit of our Savior, Jesus Christ!!

Sultanate of Oman......

Otherwise know as, the country I fell in love with!

Chad has been telling me for a long time now that I would love Oman, and he was right on {almost} every level. The people. The smells. The culture. The most perfect sunsets and sunrises I have ever seen (yes, even more than the sunsets I adored all my years ago in New Zealand). The Juices (oh the juices) but above all, the warmth and generosity of the people is really what stole my heart (I know that is an incredibly cheesy thing to say, but it is quite literally true!

I have never experienced such genuine kindness from complete strangers. I can't imagine meeting someone in the streets of Australia, or many other countries for that matter, and taking them up on an offer to go home with them to meet their family and have lunch or to join them for tea. But in Oman, it seems quite the norm to receive such invitations. 

You'll also see from the photos that camels really do roam free in the desert. We had to stop our car on more than one occasion because the road was blocked with camels. It seemed quite novel in the beginning, but we did get used to it :)

A very typical scene.......

Don't be too shocked by this next picture - apparently it was "not real" but still.......I was a bit surprised when I called this little boy and he turned around like this....

Goodbye great Sultan of Oman. We miss your birth place of Salalah and its magical juices and hope to be back again soon{ish}!

China

Because our time in China was so limited, we planned on seeing what we thought were the obvious sights not to be missed - The Great Wall, Tianamen Square, the Forbidden city and of course, some markets. Unfortunately we ran out of time to see the forbidden city but managed to do everything else - which we absolutely LOVED!!!!

The wall itself is really something quite spectacular, especially when you consider the history of this man made wonder. Much like the iconic dragon that represents China with its power and great strength, the wall weaves up and down the mountains for almost 9000km, and really is a sight to behold.

We caught a cable car up to the wall and by doing so, were exposed to the breathtaking scenery that would likely be missed if you chose to hike up. Beautiful greenery surrounds the wall with splashes of Autumn trees glowing in their rustic glory. Add to that the morning son peaking over the mountains and it was quite the picturesque scene! If I wasn't slightly afraid of open air cable cars I would have taken about 100 more pictures :)

We visited a section of the wall called Mutianya. Not the most popular section (which means less tourists) but we LOVED it and loved that we weren't drowning in a sea of people. It's also the only section of the wall that has a metal toboggan you can ride down from the wall which was an experience in its own right :)

this next pic makes me laugh :)

 

At the base of the wall at street level, markets line the path and while you can get everything at cheap prices, it's not without some serious bargaining first (and I mean serious bargaining :)

oh how our kids loved the little trinkets and Chinese paraphernalia we got them!

One of the things I love the most about traveling is people watching (I realise that sounds somewhat stalker-ish :) but I find it so fascinating watching people from different worlds live their lives and the highlights are always meeting 'locals' and hearing parts of their stories. 

Tiananmen square was somewhat disappointing in that there was NO sign of any memorial AT ALL to the lives lost there (not surprising.....) - but we didn't have a guide so we may have missed it....I hope (but doubt)! That being said, I still loved the amazing detail in which things were presented there, even down to the words formed out of beautifully growing flowers!

After the square we visited some markets that offered 'delicacies' in the way of creepy insects and all kinds of bugs etc.

Some of the options were a bit disturbing.......

Snail soup anyone.....

Or how about some hairy black spiders......

Or some gliders......

Despite all the delicacies on offer, It was the scorpians that brought us to these markets and exactly what Chad wanted to sample (please don't ask me why :) In an attempt to be adventurous I agreed to eat one (shudder) and when I asked the guy selling them if they were dangerous, he smiled and said in his chinese english accent "yes, ob course, bery dangerous! haha. I assume he thought I meant 'delicious'!! The creepiest part was that when we chose our skewer, they will still wriggling around on it......eewwww! In the end they didn't taste that bad, but it was still creepy putting it in my mouth!!!!!

 

All in all we loved our day in China and look forward to going back and spending more time there. It's also no understatement when I say it's a miracle that we survived the day! Our taxi driver who we met at the airport, wasn't in an official taxi, even though he assured us he was. When we got to his car (which was completely black including the windows) we questioned for a moment if he was actually going to take us to the great wall or if he was going to take us around the corner to a gang of  'ninjas' waiting for us :) luckily he turned out to be somewhat legit, even though I have NEVER experienced such a crazy ride. EVER. I nervously laughed for most of the trip and at one point, when our driver almost crashed the car (the nearest miss) even he laughed maniacally at how crazy it was! I have never seen so many pedestrians/cyclists jump out of the way of a moving vehicle nor have I heard so many horns blown!

After our day in China, we boarded a plane bound for dubai, before heading to Oman!

Adieu

And so it is that I bid you Adieu. Not forever, just for 18 days :)

Tomorrow Chad and I embark on a journey that will take us to places like THIS and THIS and THIS and THIS.

To say we are excited is a little understated. I've been meaning to blog about it for months but time has slipped away far quicker than I thought and now we're leaving!!!!!!!

I'm praying for my sweet Mother (bless her little heart :) that she will survive the whirlwind that can be 4 children and hope our bribes sticker charts help them be on their best behavior (which incidentally didn't work tonight and I almost cancelled the whole trip......OK not really, but kind of :)

And now I leave with you a song that makes me ridiculously excited for our travels every time I hear it!!!

Did I mention that I'm going to miss my babies? In fact, I already miss them just anticipating the separation!!

Extreme Wishing

When I first saw this field of dandelions, I imagined capturing graceful photos with little wishes being gently blown into the air. But not so.

This is what I got......

Oh how I adore those chubby little cheeks and her 'extreme wishing' much more than a graceful little blow!