Easter 2014

I am back and making a desperate attempt to catch up on blogging. With summer quickly drawing to a close I'm planning to make time to get caught up this fall. I know hardly anyone blogs any more but I still love it as a way to document our life so I'm back to it!

It was really interesting to celebrate Easter this year. We were able to carry on most of our traditions but also made a few adjustments and started some new ones. Since the holy day in KSA is on Friday we decided to kick off our Easter festivities a few days early.

The kids got some new clothes. It was so bright the morning this picture was taken so everyone is a bit squinty. 

 The kids got treats and other fun things in their Easter baskets that afternoon:

We dyed a bunch of eggs that evening in our teeny tiny kitchen. No matter how many eggs I boil, there never seem to be enough for everyone to color as many as they want.

For the past few years we have prepared a semi-traditional passover feast for our family to enjoy. Since we now live in the region where the actual Easter events took place we decided to go with some friends to a very traditional middle Eastern restaurant for dinner on Saturday night. We were able to help make bread:

Dinner was served at a table on the floor with lots of cushions. The food was delicious and plentiful and it was fun for us to have an authentic experience.

There was also a museum in the restaurant that had hundreds of pieces of history in it from this region. It is still fascinating to me that this area was largely comprised of tribal Bedouins until about 70 years ago when oil was discovered. My favorite thing that I have found from this area are the gorgeous, intricate silver wedding beads that the Bedouin women were given for dowries that were then used to purchase items for her family over her lifetime. Amazing!

Easter was just another work and school day for us so it was a little strange to think of our family and friends celebrating on that day. We were invited to participate in a community dinner and egg hunt that evening that made it a more special day and rounded out our weekend wonderfully. It was hot but we had a great time!