Lately...

Censorship in Kuwait is huge. 

I was perusing this People Magazine in the airport the other day, and snagged this picture...

 Every magazine here looks like this. I keep waiting to meet the person whose job this is. 

"What do you do for a living?"

"Oh, I sharpie out Kim Kardashian's cleavage."

The kids and I had to make a follow up trip to the Government Health offices to have their PPD tests read, to confirm they do not in fact have TB, so that we can finally obtain their Civil ID cards. 

Inshallah, of course.

Dave's work sends a Mandoub with us (someone with Wasta) and in addition to helping us with the process, he is also our driver.

One our way back home, we encountered our first Police Road Block, where they were stopping every car and checking IDs. Having someone with Wasta with you is such an interesting experience...the police just glanced at whatever papers he showed them, and then sent us along our way. Didn't even hardly look at the kids and I in the back seat...

(You may have to click on the picture to make it larger to see the police inspecting the vehicle in front of us)

Storm Troopers have Wasta as well, naturally...

And I'm not sure what clout this little lady has in Kuwait, but in our kitchen, she's a master Sous-chef. She assisted me in making a gigantic batch of french toast this week...

We popped in to visit David at work, and caught him near the end of one of his classes. I snapped this picture of him explaining a homework assignment to a few students and never missing a beat, even though our daughter was trying to lift him...

I arranged a gingerbread house making party for our homeschool co-op this week. Everyone brought supplies, we met up at a park, and we had a blast decorating houses and eating candy and playing at the park and eating candy and talking and laughing and eating candy.

Because I arranged the playdate, I was in charge of explaining the process to all the kids. Here is me giving my official gingerbread house making tutorial...

 I know...I am very fancy here.

About half the group was able to attend, and the kids did a fantastic job being creative with their houses!

After the houses were constructed, the kids made their way to the play equipment...

When all was said and done, we ended up being there over four hours!

The twins had so much fun playing with the other kids, and I had such a great time talking with the other moms. They are such an eclectic group, and I'm fascinated by so many of them and their stories...how they ended up in Kuwait (there is only one Kuwaiti in the group), how long they've been here, where else they've lived, and how they ended up homeschooling. We talked and laughed, and it was SO good for my soul. 

The kids and I did some Christmas baking (and by "baking" I mean adding crushed candy canes on top of from-a-box brownies, as I have yet to buy a mixer or several other kitchen utensils/tools here) and also tried out our new camera...

And lastly, David and I got to attend a Christmas Party at the British Embassy last night! Our friends - we met through Tball - both work there, and were able to get us in. My sister Emily is here visiting (Hooray! and more on that later!) and so we snuck away to party on British Soil. We ate bacon and had alcohol. I have exactly zero pictures because we had to turn in our cell phones at the gate. But today when we were out we happened to drive by the Embassy again so we snapped these...

Looks inviting, no?

=)

But seriously it was really, really fun. We met some great people from all over the World and talked about everything from parenting to politics with them. 

So...there's a glimpse of Life Lately in Kuwait from our family ;).