So let us start with a round up of activities in December.....
The second Eid (Eid al Adha) occurred at the beginning of December this year and as a result school holidays began early and lasted for almost a whole month, as such Becky planned plenty of activities to keep the boys busy.
Becky took Jacob to the British School Muscat for a rendition of West Side Story, which he enjoyed up to a point, knife point that is, and had to leave as he found it too scary (Never mind Ben 10 with Aliens bent on the destruction of Earth). The real notable point was with a lady in the audience who kept on scowling at, and shushing Jacob when he quietly asked his mummy a pertinent question. I'm sorry but what did you think you were watching? The Royal Shakespeare Company? If she hadn't made such an issue of it everyone could have enjoyed themselves much more, including her.
We also had the Spirit of Christmas fair at the ABA, a lot of effort goes into this every year and it was a great evening with things like carol singing, Christmas craft activities such as origami Christmas trees and cloves stuck in oranges and of course the ubiquitous photo op with Santa.
This was Oscar's first really aware meeting with the big man and he was none too sure about it, Jacob had to hold him down to prevent a speedy exit before the photo could be taken. Still it was more successful that Jacob's first time which ended in floods of tears! The only thing missing was the cold weather, there is something to be said for seeing carol singers with big coats, woolly hats and scarves, but you can't have everything I guess
Jacob's sixth birthday arrived on the nineteenth and whilst he had already had his party, we went down to Qurum Park for a play with some of his friends. This was followed up with a lunch a McD's and a Ben 10 birthday cake baked by Becky. Much fun was had by all.
The last pre-Christmas event was a children's party at the Dolphin complex (or village as they now like to call it). Fortunately, Oscar was having a nap at home for half of it, so Becky took Jacob up there first and I followed on with Oscar later. Imagine the horror on my arrival at seeing hoards of screaming children running around having fun.
Well, it wasn't so bad and both Jacob and Oscar had fun. I spent most of the time chasing after the beast and thwarting his plans to get in the swimming pool. Oscar, it appear has turned into a real water baby (Toddler really) getting wet at the drop of a hat and, he will have an absolute paddy if you try to stop him, quite a funny sight in itself.
As per usual Oscar was not interested in posing for the desired crazy Christmas hat photo, so this is our best hit and run attempt.
Christmas was at last upon us and after some in-depth analysis from Jacob as to where we should put up his stocking (He didn't think his bedroom was a good idea, as Santa might wake him, which in turn might jeopardize his present quota), Becky and I retired to the living room for some Pizza Express pizzas and the task of wrapping the presents.
Becky had thought it would be nice to do this together on the night before Christmas and I understand and agree with that sentiment. However, she failed to take in to account the scale of the task ahead of us and that warm fuzzy feeling was wearing somewhat thin at 1:30am!!
So the boys weren't too bad and only woke up at 6am (yawn), Jacobs excitement was palpable at opening his stocking, whereas Oscar was somewhat bemused and more interested in his brothers toys than his own.
On finding chocolate Oscar took after his mother and devoured as much as possible in as short of time as possible, he was none too happy when we cut off his supply!!
After a family breakfast of smoked salmon and scrambled eggs, we made our way to the Christmas tree and opened our presents. Both boys were really good at taking their time and appreciating each and every gift. We had two outstanding winners on the gift front as far as Jacob was concerned, Lego Batman for the Wii and real Lego StarWars toys, but the overall winner for both Jacob and Oscar had to be the Plasma Car
Since this discovery, walking has been 'so last year' and the plasma car has been the preferred choice of transport for going everywhere on the ground floor.
After present giving it was full steam ahead for lunch preparation, we had invited friends to join us for lunch and we had chosen to have roast goose with all the trimmings. The goose was cooked to perfection along with roast spuds, red cabbage, chestnut stuffing and of course homemade Christmas pudding and whipped double cream washed down with a few glasses of good wine.
What an absolutely beautiful meal and so much the better to have shared it with friends. Wishing you all a belated Merry Christmas from Oman.
More to come in Part II
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