Christmas in the Middle East

On Dec. 18th, Matt and I left America to spend Christmas with our friends- James, Blair and Roman at their home in the Middle East. My family was not too excited about me spending another Christmas in the Middle East but they were willing to give us up for J,B&R:) It was an amazing trip once we finally got there... if you would like to know more about why our trip was so delayed check out this post. After spending about 24hrs in Lebanon (I'll post about our time there next) we headed to their home with all bags (shockingly) except the one that was for J&B (with the Christmas presents!), with a promise that it would be sent as soon as it arrived in Lebanon. If you've ever lived in the Middle East you understand why i did not have a ton of faith in this promise. Insh'allah (If God wills) has a whole new meaning in the ME! Since people seem to like pictures better than words, i think i'll just post some and narrate.

So without further adieu...

First and foremost, we were able to meet this little guy- Roman Willis Weddington. Having a new born, Blair was definitely lacking sleep when we got there. I wanted to help as much as possible so we developed a little system where Blair would hand Roman off to me after his morning feeding around 7am. Depending on his schedule that day, we would nap together, play or just hang out. No matter what we were doing, i loved my time with this little man!

This was how Roman got around outdoors most of the time. Matt and I were always amazed at how Blair would wrap piece of cloth and tuck Roman right down in there. It looks so dang comfy. I definitely want one of those when i have a little one:)

Here is Matt and I in front of a traditional style gate. It is more appropriate for girls to cover their hair where we were, so i got to wear different scarves in different ways throughout the weeks. It was fun coming up with ways to make the scarf look stylish, but I'm sure it could get tiresome doing it all the time.

A shot from one of the rooftops in the Old City. Isn't the architecture amazing?? Who could have ever though a place smack-dab in the middle of the desert could be so beautiful...?

Spices, beans and rice for sale in the market.

Walking through the market. If you want to know what is in the side of that man's jaw, it is called Qat- it would take too long to explain what it is, just google it if you are interested.

We did our fair share of shopping in the market too. Looks like Matt found something really nice:)

Most of the time though, we just hung out and James and Blair's place and spent time together. The green in the back ground is the remnant of mine and Blair's tissue-paper-flower making. If you were at our wedding, you should know exactly what those are:)

A closer look. I love these things.

James and Blair's bag actually did come in as promised. And on Christmas night! We had such a good time exchanging gifts but the bag was mostly filled with things for the little man. Here is Blair getting excited about Roman's goodies the morning after Christmas:)

We decided the last night we were there, which happened to be New Years night, that we actually needed a pics of the 5 of us. :)

We were so tired that we actually rang in the New Year a few minutes early- haha! It was still such a fun night even though we are old.

One of my favorite pics:) James, you are hilarious.