Another year of....

A couple of years ago today, my mom kinda gave me the greatest gift she would ever give me, and even though today is no longer the day I officially celebrate my birthday on, it was for 33 years so the day will always hold meaning for me. When I think about everything that happened in my life this past year, I can't come up with any other feeling other than being truly grateful.

Here are a few things dear to me that came with last year:

February - Chris and I moved in together and found the best place in Dubai to live - a home that I adore, cherish and love to fill with parties, friends and lots of cuddles:

I planned and executed my first corporate event and it went off without a hitch - thank goodness! More party planning plllleease!

March - Kathmandu, Nepal - lots of rain, we actually got "stuck" (happily) in this hotel due to not being able to go outside much, but the one day we did - it was quite the sight to see! Very colorful place.

Faraya and Beirut, Lebanon with Chrissy - love our trips together! Beautiful snow, amazing food and lots of kisseeees.

April - April was a busy busy month for busy-ness, with work meetings in Qatar and preparation of a business trip to Chicago, New York and Dallas in May. I hardly had time to look up from my desk.

May - May was wonderrrrful! Time with family to see my sister graduate from veterinary school; introducing Chris to my family and my US life - they fell in love with him - we traveled all over Texas, then to San Diego, then further to San Francisco and then I went on for work in Chicago and New York (I double heart NY):

I spent a lot of time with babies, kids and more babies - loving every cute little minute of it. So many of my friends/family members have had kids since I've been gone!

June, July, August - I lived through the heat for another year and through one more Ramadan! And really enjoyed the Iftars with friends...

September - London + Amsterdam and Scotland for my friends', Tami and Charlie's wedding in Edinburgh. Mine and Chris' first time to Amsterdam and Scotland. We absolutely loved them both. Both so unique and different from each other. Both INCREDIBLY beautiful. And the wedding was perfect from start to finish. Being with friends like these (and all of our other besties that came to the wedding from California) made me really, REALLY homesick, but mostly just REALLY, REALLY grateful. And happy.

October proved to be one of the most rewarding months of my life, when my volunteer work with the PCRF kids really became more and more prevalent. There hasn't been anything in a long time that has made me come alive and feel grateful and so full of love as those little angels and I'm SO happy that I got to be apart of their journeys as well as having them be apart of mine. Just look at these precious faces!!

November - We were fortunate enough to travel again for the last time of the year to visit my good friend Suzy and her husband Jose in Barcelona. A trip that words could do no justice for - visits to the Dali Museum and to Dali's house in Cadaques were the highlights of this ridiculously wonderful, very special four days in Spain with some of my favorite people on earth. But PS - the rain in Spain does NOT fall mainly on the plain.

In November, my lonnnng anticipated Canon Mark II 5D FINALLY arrived and changed my photography world. I fell even deeper in love with photography than ever before. Stay tuned for more on that - lots and lots of photo shoots this year. Want to do TONS more next year! :)

December - the Best things in my world waited for the end of the year - time with Chris' family for Christmas that I wouldn't trade for anything in the world - on Christmas Day we sat and just talked (no TV's no phones, etc.) for over six solid hours - I truly adore them. We went to some amazing holiday parties with friends; a very sweet Christmas day together cuddled on the couch watching Miracle on 34th Street and just enjoying the simple but profound pleasure of being held snugly in the arms of the one you love.

And just this morning, the sweetest, most precious gift arrived via my friend, Athena when she asked me to be the godmother of her precious baby boy, Grey Dunham Dole - which I obviously accepted with big fat "YES"! Check him out!

And as 2011 comes to a close, and I embark on another year of my life: another year of laughs.....smiles, travels, adventures, new friends, old friends, parties, births, celebrations and lots and lots of "i love you's", I want to thank any and all of you who are reading this who are a part of my life. You are loved and treasured more than you can ever, EVER imagine. Thank you for not only being IN my life, but BEING my Life.

Cheers to another beautiful year!

Humdiggity

After many of my friends have consistently written to me to ask for indie music advice and suggestions, I've decided to start a little blog (hum.) solely devoted to my favorite kind of music: the lesser known, underground, under-dog, diamonds in the rough. It's something I constantly dig out for myself, so I might as well share my findings with the few of you who read my blog.

I'm still working on setting up the new blog, but in the meantime, I thought I would share a new band that I'm listening to a lot lately, called "Colorfeels". Don't ask my why, but I'm in a Nashville rock kind of mood these days. I'm loving their new album Syzygy (their album vinyl funded by kickstarter.com - love that!),in particular this song....but just for starters:



Check them out at www.colorfeels.com.

Check back soon for the link to the new hum. blogpage - where I will be gettin' humdiggity-jicky wit ya!

Saturfundays

For the past few weeks, I've been working on filling up my portfolio with new work....i'm in "practice" mode, so these aren't as good as they can be, but I'm having FUN and that's all that matters. Here's a couple from my latest shoots.

Next weekend: Engagement photos - yay! :0)

UAE National Day in Photos

Sad to say, these are not MY photos, but I wanted to show you what this day looks like here in the UAE. My favorite part is always to see how the cars and buildings are decorated for this event. It doesn't matter if you're driving a Ferrari or Toyota - little of the car will be left untouched, masked, stickered or painted with UAE national colors and the faces of the rulers. No doubt a business in and of itself - just take a look!

Don't have a car? You can always just decorate your camel instead. :)

Or your kid...

The decoration of the cars is for the massive "parade" of cars that happens on one of the main beach roads here in Dubai. I use the word "parade" loosely, as its more of a parking lot where the locals attempt to drive up and down shooting silly string, confetti, water guns, candy, etc. out of their cars and onto neighboring cars.

There are no safety laws in the UAE (or very lenient ones, if any) with regard to children riding in (or in many cases) ON the cars. You will see this situation below, as common on National Day - children sitting and riding on the sunroofs or even in some cases, the hoods of cars. Luckily, as I mentioned before, its mostly a parking lot, so hopefully this minimizes the danger.

Dubai has a very small population of locals, in relation to the other cultures that make up the population of this city. However, on National Day, you'd be hard pressed to see anyone OTHER than locals. Its quite a special experience - even if its not my own National Day, I do love to see how other cultures feel about their own home country.

You can be assured that no expense is spared - most buildings are fully decorated, streets filled with extra lights, interiors of buildings decorated with UAE colored flowers, banners, you name it.

The photos could never do it justice, but at least you have a little visual history of how the UAE celebrates its National Day.









And of course......there are FIREWORKS. Lots and lots of fireworks.