The Stingeries: Eventful December

We stayed in Doha for all of December and while I thought the lack of traveling over the break would be relaxing and give us a chance to catch up on things around the house I was most definitely wrong, ha! It was a wonderful and jam-packed month and I can't believe today's the last day of 2019!

The first weekend of December threw us for quite the loop when one Saturday morning while we were preparing for a family bike ride we heard a scream and Evy ran into the kitchen holding her hand dripping blood all over. The poor girl slammed her middle finger in the front door and we knew immediately it required a visit to the emergency room. We messaged some friends from church for prayer and were so thankful when one of them offered to watch Madi and Liv so we could focus on Evy. They did an x-ray and determined she'd cut the bone off and would need to see a plastic surgeon (which we have an appt for at the beginning of January). They did surgery on her finger and also repaired the nail bed (and praise the Lord it looks like she is growing a new nail!)

This sweet girl wore an arm sling to remember to take it easy the last week of school and we spent the month going for follow-ups and re-dressings of the wound. Thankfully it's all healed very well!

As school finished we prepared fun teacher's gift for the sweet ladies that love on our girls. All of them have mentioned repeated times over the break how much they miss their teachers and are excited to see them again when school resumes.

The girls finished their Awana program and the twins were each asked to recite verses for their class. They did amazing and we are so proud of how well they've done memorizing Scripture.

1. Marli and I ending up with extra kids for pickup. 😅
2. Saying goodbye to some sweet friends that are leaving Qatar.
3. I got to help chaperone Madi's class to the playground at Museum of Islamic Art.
4. Bible study finished with a fun Christmas program and I've enjoyed working on the board with these ladies.
5. Family photo at the Awana Christmas program. [This was the day before Evelyn hurt her finger.]
6. Dinner and overdue catchup with this lovely lady!
7. The kids baked cookies and made a Thank You card for the nice guards at school who keep them safe.
8. 9. The twins' classes hosted a Celebration of Learning where we got to see what they've been working on this unit and they got to plant seeds.

1. Spending some quality time with this one right after her injury.

2. 3. 4. The girls school celebrated National Day early since they finished before the actual holiday. After school we headed to the hospital for a re-dressing and checkup.

5. Visiting Aspire park with Daddy.

6. 7. Feeding the ducks and scootering around the park!

8. Making a stop at the Wholesale Market for bulk fruit and veggies to make a batch of salsa.

9. Made, canned, and ready to sell for those in Doha!

Qatar hosted a couple different football tournaments this month and the Fan Zone for one of them was literally around the corner from our compound. We decided to try biking over to it and check our the activities. It was lots of fun!

We also started doing some fun Christmas-related activities starting with gingerbread decorating at the Ritz-Carlton hotel. The girls definitely ate more than they decorated, but we got them to semi-focused to stick some on. 🤣

These Melissa and Doug ornament gifts were presents from friends last year, but we didn't have a chance to paint them before our trip to Sri Lanka. They loved painting them and were even more overjoyed when hey realized they were going on the Christmas tree.

A lot of time was spent outdoors as well with trips to the Eye Rock and camping in Zekreet. The girls have also been enjoying their freedom to bike and visit the playgrounds at the end of our street.

1. 2. Ikea play area for this crew and a coffee catch-up for me and their momma.
3. Yoga classes in our compound.
4. Date night! We went to a favorite Indian restaurant and then saw Star Wars.
5. And would it really be December without a trip to see Frozen II? Nope. These three absolutely loved the movie, but did get scared at a couple parts. (We spoke with them ahead of time about those parts and they handled it really well in the theater.)
6. 7. It didn't take long for Evy to get back on her bike and we've been going for some family bike rides around the compound and stopping at the various playgrounds along the way.
8. 9. Visiting our favorite Al Legtaifiya park with friends!

1. 2. 3. This month brought some light rains and the girls took full advantage to splash in puddles and play in the water.

4. Enjoying a vegan popsicle from our favorite Superheroes Eat Plants stand at Torba Market.

5. Double date night!

6. We've been collecting corks and ordered a large wooden S back in Azerbaijan. We finally got started (~2 years later...) on glueing the corks onto it. Bets on how long it takes us to finish? 😆

7. Zoey took her seat on the "train" the girls had setup.

8. CeCe clearly loves the carpet I bought in Tbsili this last trip.

9. We took these kiddos for activities and delicious burgers at Craft Burger (I had the best noodle bun burger.)

We got our Christmas cards ordered and enjoyed spending Christmas together as a family with nothing to do but relax and watch movies in pajamas all day.

I've loved seeing all the memes about the "unknown time" between Christmas and New Year's and it definitely held true for our family as I double checked what day it was multiple times. One of the things we made sure to take advantage of was a special they were running at Baladna Park with unlimited activities for a set lower price than usual. We had never been before and we went with friends and spent over six hours exploring the park and doing so many fun activities!