Rana is 4 Years & 7 Months Old!

At 4 years and 7 months of age, Rana is very much interested in crafts.  She loves to paint and color and cut and paste, and she was pleased to receive several crafting kits from her aunts and uncles for Christmas.  Her imagination and fantasy are flourishing and she tells us stories about each of her masterpieces.  

Writing in Arabic and English

Rana is getting better and better at writing her letters 

in both Arabic and English.

Najeeb made a couple of little tables for her to practice writing 

both alphabets and wrote in a row of each for her to copy.

We were quite impressed how quickly and comfortably she filled 

in all the letters - and she knows almost all of both alphabets!

Rana's Gingerbread House

With so many other Christmas goodies to enjoy 

over the last few weeks, we decided to wait until today 

to decorate Rana's gingerbread house.

She liked the whole idea and had a great time decorating it!

The gingerbread is wafting through our apartment

and Rana has already started munching on the candies,

so I don't think it will last long, 

but it sure is pretty!

Happy New Year 2013!

At 9pm local time here in Germany, we rang in the new year with the 

people of the United Arab Emirates, as it was already midnight there!

 We set off firecrackers and lit sparklers with our neighbors,

and enjoyed our traditional chocolate fondue.

We were quite impressed by Königstein's celebration at midnight, which continued on well into the night.  The church bells rang for a good 15 minutes and people set off tons of professional-like fireworks on every street, many of which we could see from
the comfort of our living room window!