Happy New Year!

Friends, we are back in London and the trip home was nice and easy.  No fits on the plane this time, phew.

Our temporary flat is much nicer than the one we were in prior to going to Egypt.  It's near Earls Court which turns out to be very handy as the District Line has been closed for engineering works for four days.  We would have been stuck in Fulham, or fairly near to Fulham, had we found a place in that neighborhood.  I also like our flat's location because I do loops in a cemetery for my runs and I JUST LOVE reading all the names.

Since we've been back, Lulu has had a tummy bug  While I confess to having momentary panics that she contracted something rare and fatal in Egypt, she now seems to be fully recovered and is back to her cheerful-yet-demanding self.

On Friday, Eli and I went out and Mandy took care of the kids.  On Saturday, I went to Vivian's for a bit to collect our things but mostly we took it easy for the Lula.  Yesterday (Sunday) we saw Seb and Inger-Line for a goodbye coffee.  It was really nice.  (Tommy will miss Seb as he is very good at playing with him.)

Today, we are seeing Vivian for lunch...And that's it.  You will not believe this but we are JETLAGGED.  It's a two hour time difference and on the first morning, Tommy came into our room and said:

"NOW, I KNOW I will have to take a nap.  I'm going to take a nap, today, okay? But can I please play playmobil?"

"No, Tommy, because it's 3:30.  Go back to bed."

So he did, and woke up his sister.

Yesterday and today he woke up at 5:00.  No, I'm not joking, and come 8:00 in the evening, I am dead asleep on the couch despite being in the middle of a novel I am really loving ("The Forgotten Garden" by Kate Morton).  This is -- for me -- one of the top three most frustrating things about parenting.

Here are my resolutions:
- 10 blog posts per month, each with at least one photo
- Finally, finally make the kids' yearly photo books (yes, that would be 9 by the end of the year)
- Stop swearing and I really mean it this year; it's tacky (but so satisfying?)
- Figure out our family "screen time" goals and stick to them (Eli has pointed out that I check my phone far too much in front of our kids and he's right)

I hope that all of my loyal readers have fun plans to ring in the New Year.  I will be sleeping.

Christmas!

We had a lovely Christmas.  The kids' gift highlights included the blue light sabre from Grandma Nancy, the Lego X-Wing fighter from Santa and for Lulu, the pink camera from Hanh and the box of stick-on earrings from ME because I think they are so freaking cute.  Eleanor's favorite gift was, I think, Tommy's blue light sabre but she also liked the puzzles she received.

Christmas Eve, too excited to get a nice photo:

Christmas morning, checking out the gifts and waiting for Baby Eleanor to wake up.

Lulu, upon opening her very own headlamp (thanks, Aunt Jan!).

 Realizing that he was opening the Lego X-Wing.

 Eleanor and her favorite present.

 Playmobil knights from Auntie Em and Uncle Sid, displaying the oh-so-precious 'triangulasword':

 Our gift to Hanh which she very sweetly received but which she already had.

 Ugly but alright-tasting cinnamon rolls made by yours truly.  I had to whip up a buttermilk substitute (how did people function before the internet, anyway?) and I think it didn't work so well.

 Eleanor liked the cinnamon rolls.

 A complete X-Wing.

 I love the pictures because it will forever help me remember the noises he makes while playing.

 Delish Christmas dinner made by Eli (and see Lulu's new castle tent in the background?):

Wadi El-Hitan (Desert Camping)

First:  An apology. This post contains more photos than I have ever slapped up onto the internet before in a single post.  But the pictures are worth looking at, you know?

Second, MERRY CHRISTMAS!  We totally miss you.  A lot.  xoxo

Hanh asked me shortly after I bought our plane tickets to Cairo if we would all like to go desert camping.  I believe that I asked if we would have to cook our own meals and when she said no way, I said that we would indeed be interested.

So on Saturday morning, we gathered our things and met our guides by Hanh's friend's parked car.  We borrowed the car because her Volvo wagon wouldn't work so well in the desert, she said.  Interestingly, this did not make me wonder what the hell we were driving over to get to our campsite. I mean, most people at this juncture may have given some consideration to this.  Also noteworthy is that the night before we left, we had mulled wine at Hanh's friend's house and she said that we should definitely put the kids in car seats when we were driving in the desert.  Interesting, I thought, but we always put our kids in car seats so what's the big deal.

We drove out of Cairo on the Ring Road (our tour guide the first two days in Cairo said that you needed a brave heart to drive on the Ring Road), following the two guides in a fully loaded Toyota Landcruiser and we in a 2001 Mitsubishi of some sort, with big tires.  We drove a while on perfectly good roads and then pulled off onto the desert to see some petrified wood.  They referred to it as a petrified forest, but while it may have been a forest at some point today it certainly does not qualify.  We went with a friend of Hanh's and Tommy told him confidently that 'wood always turns to rock' and refused to believe Rob or anyone else that this is not normally the case.

This is when the trip got really interesting.  From the road, we turned left and drove onto the desert.  It was bumpy, and our guides drove FAST.  Like, at least 60 km/hr.  Over bumpy sand.  And so that you all know, the desert isn't flat.  It has dunes and some rock formations and is, well, really tricky to drive on.  Hanh was driving our car and she did amazingly well.  But at this early point, I was solely focused on the following:

- how will anyone find us if we become lost?
- what will happen if one of the cars breaks down or is totally stuck or rolls over?
- what kind of mother am I to bring my children to the middle of nowhere in Egypt with two guides I don't know at all and with no working mobile phone or any other type of safety precautions (like extra gasoline)?

So we stopped for lunch and Eli talked me out of my anxiety.  He said that the desert camping was clearly going to be the most fun for the kids of all the things we do in Cairo and that I should focus on having fun with everybody and stop worrying so much.  (Hanh says that we are a good balance but I think I actually worry more than necessary to truly balance things out, you know?)  Anyway, he pretty much told me to buck up, and then the guides made our first meal (very good) and I perked up.  Also, as we went down more and more hills that felt like they were at 90-degree angles, I got more and more used to the driving and it was clear that Hanh was doing a good job.

 (Eli really enjoyed playing in the sand.  Lulu really enjoyed making sand angels.)

We arrived at our campsite after seeing some whale fossils (this was totally beyond my children ability to understand and I know they just thought we were idiots:  obviously whales never lived here, this is the desert guys).

Here is one of the driving over a cliff (called dune bashing):

 Our campsite was possibly the most beautiful place I have ever been in my life and that is a big freaking statement from this Washington state girl who knows about beautiful places.  Behold: