Eid Mubarek - That means Happy Eid

Haj is the time of year when Arabs make the pilgrimage to Mecca. It is a 4-day national holiday, one of the two Eid holidays of the year. Typically we travel during the Eid holidays, but Brian is on call this time, so we are here to see the celebrations. Last night we went with friends to the events on our compound.

Typical Saudi dancing - all men of course.

Holidays & Oman

While hanging the Christmas lights, Brian was missing the large spruce tree in our front yard in Calgary, the tall ladder required, & doing the job with big gloves on typically the coldest day of the season - NOT!!! What he was missing, was help from the kids.

For American Thanksgiving we had a progressive dinner with 4 couples - ironically we are all Canadian. This photo is our main course. We eneded at our house with pumpkin cheesecake for desert. I love cheesecake but had never made one before - it was a hit.

The following weekend we traveled to Muscat, the capital of the Sultanate of Oman, for church business. We went early on Thursday. We stayed with a family and they showed us around a bit. These photos are of the corniche - the yacht belongs to the sultan.

We went shopping at the best souk I've seen. We weren't there long... but long enough for me to make a few purchases.

You can never own too many pashminas. Next we found the jewelry store.

Watching the people is almost as interesting as the shopping.