Hip Hip Hooray for National Day!

The UAE is the on the "perpetual holiday" program.  Meaning, everything is cause for a celebration.  Add that to the fact that we celebrate all the American holidays and most of the British ones for good measure, and it pretty much equals a permanent party.  It reminds me a little of college, or maybe Vegas, when you get to the point where you just feel like you CAN'T possibly keep eating and drinking...until the next night.  Instead of the Freshman Fifteen I think I have the Expat Eleven.  And maybe then some.  But no matter, we're having a great time!

The latest entry into the Holiday parade was National Day - celebrated on December 2nd.  National Day denotes the day that the United Arab Emirates was formed - in 1971.  It is a very, very proud day for Emiratis!  In general, the UAE has tremendous national spirit and a great love for the rulers in particular, but for National Day they really pull out all the stops.  Check out the special vehicle flair:

Can you imagine if for the Fourth of July we all airbrushed the President and Vice President on to our cars?  I could turn the Escalade into a big Obama-Mobile, with Biden riding shotgun. 

We got into the spirit and had a National Day party, complete with UAE flags and Sheik flags.  It is still warm enough for a beach day here, so we had friends over for a little snorkeling, swimming and kite flying.  I looked for a UAE flag bikini, but was unsuccessful.  I did get Augusto a really sweet Sheik neckscarf though!  We even decked out our patio with National Day decor!

There were all sorts of events, fireworks and parties.  Even hot air balloon rides!  You can't tell in this picture - but guess what the balloon had painted on the side?  If you guessed The Sheik - you would be correct!

And we must introduce you to someone very important!  Four houses up the frond a new family moved in, and fortunately for everyone - they have a second grader at the American School!  His name is Sam, and he is from London (lots of different Expats end up at the American School).  Both girls adore him, and they spend many happy afternoons between our two houses and on the beach.  I encourage them to play Harry Potter as much as possible, because when Sam says "I am Har-ry Pot-ter" it sounds all adorable and authentic with his accent.  Sadly, he prefers to be Voldemort.  Meet Sam:

We also finally broke down and joined the legions of people who have extended their living space on to the actual beach and made a big purchase that had the girls LITERALLY jumping for joy:

And so yet another holiday was done, and now we look forward to coming home - and celebrating with all of you - our friends and loved ones we miss so dearly!  See you all soon!