It's beginning to look a lot like PC-Christmas

Last night's Mass was something I hadn't seen before.  Rather than have our regular 3rd Sunday of Advent readings, a group of kids put on the parish Christmas pageant peppered with traditional Christmas carols.  I have to admit they were pretty cute, especially the little sheep.

Service began with the typical "O Come, O Come Emmanuel."  What threw me off, which happens quite frequently, was a change in wording:

O come, O come Emmanuel
And random captive people of good will
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear

Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O people of good will.

I thought I understood it, until a later song started, "Come O Long Expected Jesus":

Come, O long expected Jesus
Born to set your people free
From our fears and sins release us
Free us from captivity

Israel's strength and consolation
You the hope of all the Earth
Dear desire of every nation
Come and save us by your birth.

You can imagine our confusion, living in a land where a significant number of the people are of Palestinian descent.  Or maybe I'm just reading too much into it.

Hark, the Angel is singing

Hey, this is an adult work party, what's she doing?

The other evening was the Ambassador's holiday party for the Embassy.  It seemed nearly everyone was there, with a few notable exceptions (Donna?).  The morsels were tasty, the music was live, and the gingerbread house was awesome.  The Gluhwein was pouring freely in the chilly evening air.  The Ambassador's Christmas tree put our pathetic attempt to shame.  On that note though, I came up with a way to decorate our tree without fear of anything breaking by a fall from height or over-excited rolling across the tile floors.  We're decorating this year with Christmas cards.  So far... well, we're very light on the decorations.  I know that'll change.

Ah, she was part of the welcoming entertainment!
And one of the two holding her paper properly.

Fatty Dab's Burger Shack - Abdoun

Burger Shack is where all the cool kids hang out.

It's a postage size restaurant that serves burgers and real potato fries, and is easily walkeable from the Embassy or even from home.  It reminds me of Five Guys, minus the peanuts and the design-your-own-soda machines.  They do have a milkshake bar, which makes up for the lack of designer soda.

As popular as Burger Shack is (far more, apparently, than the Burger Joint down the street where we've heard tales of food poisoning), it's only been around for a year.  Run by folks who spent a good amount of time in the U.S. the food is familiar.  Burgers are prepared in view, the place is clean, the music entirely American and loud, with seating for about 20 at communal picnic tables, though during the warm months there is outdoor bar seating as well.

The kids have gone multiple times with friends, and we've ordered in once.  It's not cheap.  A meal costs around 8JD and milkshakes are almost as much.  But yesterday Jonathon, Rebecca and I went after school for Burger Shack's one year anniversary give-away.  Five hundred 100g burgers were for the asking.

In the States this sort of offer would be gone in an hour.  By the time we arrived at 4 p.m., serving since 11 a.m., there were 100 burgers left.  The place was busy but not packed.  Behind the counter was a beehive's worth of activity cooking meat, slapping toppings, and chopping potatoes.

And not just plain burgers either.  Any burger toppings off the menu... mushroom and Swiss... Chicago style.... inferno... with a side of fries and a soda or water.  I can see why the kids like it.  Though I don't think Ian and I will show up too frequently thanks to the many wonderful restaurants along that street we have tried and have yet to try, I can see why the kids like it.  It's a fun place to be, loud and boisterous, warm and smells wonderful.

It's an establishment working to emulate an American burger joint diner and it's doing a pretty darn good job.

And of course they're on Facebook.

2012: December 6-8

Let me start off with the fact that our new bedding just makes me smile. The last time we got a new cover was in Manila, the quilt that has been used non-stop since then for the past 8 years.  Our new cover is a touch more stylish and it has a bed skirt which means all those file boxes and such are no longer visible.  Yay for hiding stuff!  I also splurged on a new set of sheets.  Our last sheets were from our time in India, so that's about 5 years.  It was time and I like how it looks.  Don't the folk lamps just speak volumes about the decorating taste of the U.S. government? I'm not complaining, they just make me chuckle and shake my head when I look at them.

For many people Thanksgiving starts off their holiday season.  It doesn't seem that way for me.  I get into things when the stocking go up and St. Nicholas visits the evening of December 5th.  Our stockings are how we kick off the season.  Simple, small, unwrapped gifts are received.  This year's bounty did not include more kittens even though the cats seemed to think they might.


No, this year a big gift was cereal.  Cereal costs a fortune here.  I order it through Amazon, and our freezer is stocked with Kashi Go Lean Crisp and Kashi Go Lean Crunch.  They're delicious, but they are no Froot Loops.  So the kids woke up to Cinnamon Toast Crunch (I believe it's rated the Worst For You Cereal Ever), Lucky Charms, Pops, and Fruity Pebbles.  Each of them turn milk a truly unnatural color.  Jonathon, ever the optimist, said we had enough cereal to last for a year.  I told him I'd be surprised if it lasted until the New Year.  Other treats in the stockings were EOS lip balms, a box of personality related bandages (Jonathon - bacon, Nicholas - PacMan, Rebecca - Hello Kitty, Katherine - monkeys), and a new movie (Jonathon - Brave, Rebecca - Hunger Games, Katherine - How to Train Your Dragon, and Nicholas's didn't arrive on time so he'll get it for Christmas instead).  Ian received an RMNB tshirt and the first season of An Idiot Abroad.  Saint Nicholas brought me an assortment of chocolate.  I must have been OK this year.

In the evening we attended the Embassy tree lighting, with cider and cookies and carols.  It was windy. And cold.  None of us were dressed nearly warm enough to stand out in the gray evening with wind whipping around.  Even so, there were smiles.  And cookies. Cookies always make things better.  Eventually I handed my jacket over to Katherine, then stole Ian's suit jacket and shared it with Jonathon.  I believe we shivered while the temperature hovered around 50-something.  Thin-blooded people are we.

The tree lighting takes all of 2 seconds, so we didn't have to stay out too long.  That was good because we needed to drop the boys off at ACS for their first ever middle school dance, then pick up Rebecca from swim practice.  The boys... went.. to a middle school... dance.

I am getting old.

They dressed up.  I think one even brushed his hair.  At the end of the evening, Jonathon had a wonderful time. He ate, he danced, he danced with a girl (!).  Nicholas, not so much.  Loud music.  People.  Dancing.  Girls.  Not dancing.  Not dancing with girls.  It was all a bit much for him.  We've encouraged him to try again next time, but it's OK too if this just isn't his thing.  Really, really OK.

While waiting for the dance to end, we picked up Becca then the four of us had dinner together at Chili's.  I can't recall the last time we had that dynamic, parents and the two girls out at dinner.  It really was a great time.  The girls talked just about non-stop about everything and nothing.  The food was decent.  The service was Jordanian slow.  The mint lemonade lemonade with mint was pretty good.  We don't do that often, but it's nice when the timing works out and everyone is in a good mood.

Saturday was for groceries, dropping off Nicholas at ACS for a friend's birthday party trip to a paintball spot at Mountain Breeze Country Club, and then part one of the Middle East Triangle Sports (METS) swim gala.  Teams from around Amman and Beirut swam against each other at the lovely pool on the International Academy - Amman (IAA) campus.  Becca swam in 6 events.  Two on Friday and four on Saturday.  Sounds great, right?  All together, her meet time took up less than an hour.  With how few swimmers there were, today she swam four races in a 30 minute time slot, one of which was the IM. It was insane, and not in an especially good way. She was absolutely exhausted at the end.

Honestly, her team is at a disadvantage right from the get-go.  Swimming in a pool too small, with no starter blocks, and for only 3 hours a week, there's just no time or opportunity to truly improve.  So we were really impressed how well she held her own.  She didn't win, but she didn't come in last either.  Her coach had her take the role of Captain for the meet, and with that came the opportunity to hoist the participation trophy for her team.  We also learned that the ACS girls took 2nd place in overall girls scores.  Not too shabby for a team that has less than 50 active swimmers and only 8 available for the upper ages (several were out due to other obligations, like being in Kuwait for the Forensics meet and the soccer players in Qatar).  On Saturday, several of the 8 were missing too so it's a wonder we made the points we did.  It must have been the awesome younger kids who swam in the morning.

ACS U16 swimmers - 12/8/12

It was a good time.  Nothing like a Frogs swim meet, but fun even so to be back watching swimming.  Each year will get better and hopefully Becca will continue to be a part of it all.

Life is dull today, so I post pictures of cats.

Tandoori keeping an eye on Zaytoun.

Told you she likes to watch TV.

Such pretty colors. Such lazy cat.

"Argo"

If you only see one movie this year, let it be "Argo."  Of course there are plenty of good movies out, we've heard sterling things about "Lincoln" and of course we're looking forward to "Les Mis" and "The Hobbit."

But everyone should see "Argo."  Even if you know the story and how it ends, it's one that runs the gamut of emotions.  I cried the first 15 minutes.  Parts made me laugh.  The ending was tense and anxiety-ridden. The storytelling and acting were spot on.  And it's a story that we wish would never be repeated.

Our family has never been evacuated from post and this makes us almost a minority in the Foreign Service.  Honestly, it's how I'd like to remain.

Happy 15th (WHERE HAS THE TIME GONE!?) Birthday, Rebecca Noel!

There you have it, 15 years old and wise to the world.  But never too old for cupcakes and cake and lemon bars.

And presents.  Always presents.

Did I mention cake?

But eating cake just wasn't enough.