Yay! The holidays are here!

I have been working VERY hard on my THREE scrap quilts.  I don't wanna show you until they are done.  I hope you come back and see them!  My goal is for Christmas as they are gifts.  I'm so pleased with the borders that I have put on them.  You can see which ones I am talking about here.

Moving right along....

Uki.  

I was concentrating hard while working on my computer one day and she pops her head up and scares me to death!  Of course I did not catch the first one but got this one with red eyes and all!

I went to the grocery store and December 1st EVERYTHING was out!  I thought I would share these interesting items that are so not American but British and have made their way into my home and stomach (some of the items!) for the first time in 16 years of living in the Middle East!

First, there are these locally made (versus British imported) Mince Pies.  Now hold on!  Mince pies are filled with dried fruit and not hamburger meat!  I don't like the inside but I LOVE the crust and the little-ness of them!  So cute!  They are gone three days later man!

These you find all year long but I caved.  Walkers is a famous Scottish brand of cookies or biscuits as they call them.  These are really nice for a quick treat.  However, you can taste the freshness but they are usually crumbled.  Still, I just throw my head back!

Here is Walkers again with these Stem Ginger Biscuits.  They are really light and spicy.  Very nice.  You can't always find them here.

Here is my set up.  My little 'light box' and the kitties couldn't contain their curiosity on what I was photographing!  So darn cute!  This is Peach making her way across.  Uki is there on the left!

I have heard of these Chocolate Orange balls for years.  My daughter mentioned it so I bought two for the kids' stockings this year.  I will post later on what they are all about and how we liked them.

The grocery store called Al Fair by my house has the best bread in town in my opinion.  I particularly love, LOVE these 'cheese baps' or cheese buns.  The English is very British over here.  I love this bread but I should not be having white anything.  If they are fresh out of the oven, as these were, and still hot; I can't resist.  I usually down them with Pepsi.  Shouldn't admit that either!  This time, I got orange juice as South Beach doesn't allow us and I haven't had juice in a long time.  God, this is heaven!

The ABA (American British Academy) where my kids go, put out a cookbook.  I picked it up Wednesday morning when I dropped the kids off.  Ali has a recipe in there, Snickerdoodles!  He loves those!

On Wednesday, there was a Book Fair as well at the school.  The books were brought from a company from Dubai.  I looked around and as I had already given Ali some money to pick up some books he saw that he wanted; I had a look and got this book on The Cooking of Malaysia.  Don't know the food but will give it a try.

I also bought for the first time ever two advent calendars imported from Britain.  Ali particularly loves Maltersers so this one is his.

I got Toy Story for Amal.  They are filled with little chocolates.  Milk solid chocolate.  They come in different shapes.  I never had these growing up in America and have never seen them in the States.  I have been away for 16 years so they might be there by now?

Ali had made me a little advent calendar.  It is so cute and the graphics are precious.  He has never done this before and it was fun.  He took the project from an origami book he checked out of the library at school.  You see the 'I'm Sorry' card my daughter made me for dipping into my Daim (candy much like our Heath bars) candy bars from Dubai.  They are sold in Ikea.  You also see a photo of my best friend Liz and myself many, many years ago!  We were at work.

Here is my attempt at getting a picture of my kids for Christmas purposes.  They are perturbed and I was even more perturbed!  Still, the lovely profiles and the sunset here in Muscat.  The weather here is just gorgeous!  I love winter here!

Thanks for stopping by and please give me a little time and I will have something(s) to show you!!  I can't wait!