Ramadan feast - Rosa Eid

At the close of the month of Ramadan (رمضان) is a special celebration to break the 30-day fast! Many families will buy a single sheep that they will slaughter for the feast, to commemorate Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son. The meat is then divided into three equal parts to be distributed to others (1/3 to the family, 1/3 to other relatives, friends & neighbors, and 1/3 is given to the poor as a gift). This year we were privileged to share the holiday with one of our employees & her family. Here are some pictures of the yummy foods we ate!

You can see Polo (aka Pilaf = rice & carrot dish), some Pickled cabbage & carrots, and also Fifila (mutton & rice balls) which the kids love.

This is a famous Uyghur soup called Chuchura. It is filled with lamb dumplings, vegetables, cilantro & the perfect spicy broth!

We are always treated with the best hospitality - and wonderful times of laughter!

winter is coming!!

We had our first snow on November 10th this year....and the weather is getting quite nippy these days! Pretty soon we will all wear long-johns and warm, poofy jackets to stay toasty outside. Our winter weather is pretty consistent with Minnesota winters, since we are along the same latitude. We are making the most of this non-freezing weather while we can....since it will get way below zero soon. Our apartment is heated by radiators, which do a great job keeping us toasty indoors.

Here are the girls dressed up outside our door, for a walk to the market. This is pre-snow!
(Asia - 6.5, Eden - 4.5, Sydney - almost 3!!)

costume party 2009

This year we decided to host a Costume Party at our apartment with some of our friends. There ended up being over 25 kids and 20 parents that came! We transformed the house into a carnival - with different games and activities in each room! The girls also helped me make a pumpkin pinata and fill it with prizes.

Eden dressed up as a rabbit/lamb, Sydney was a dragon, and Asia was a princess for the 6th time. Here is Eden with her close friend Amina (as Spider-woman).
I was so busy running around that I didn't get many pictures - but we had 2 bean-bag tosses, pin-the-patch-on-the-scarecrow, darts, basketball slam-dunk, bobbing for apples, a tunnel/maze in our bedroom, fishing, and three mystery boxes (filled with slimy objects) which Justin himself created. We were so tired afterwards....but I think it was a success!!

This is one of my new friends (she came dressed as a tree). I tried to put together a cow-girl outfit!! If you haven't noticed....I really enjoy hosting parties at our home!