Welcoming the New Year

No doubt, 2018 promises to be full of new adventures and experiences for the Courtright family! If you would've told me 6 months ago that we'd be ringing in the new year in a new country, I wouldn't have believed it for a second. Yet here we are, and we are excited for what's in store.

For New Year's Eve, we didn't have anything special planned. We decided to go see the movie The Greatest Showman, which was really fun and enjoyable as a family. Since the theater was at the mall, the kids convinced us to swing by Krispy Kreme for a special treat. Yummy!

Back at our villa, we settled in for the night to ring in the new year. For me, that meant going to BED, haha!! But Jeff and the kids watched another movie and then went up to the 3rd floor rooftop deck to watch the fireworks all around us as the clock struck midnight. They could see the fireworks shows up and down Jumeirah Beach and all around the Burj Al Arab. They could even see the light show at the Burj Khalifa from our roof, but it was a laser light show this year instead of fireworks so it wasn't as clearly visible as the nearby fireworks. How cool to be able to witness the festivities from our roof!

As our friends and family back in the States were braving record cold and freezing conditions, we were here enjoying the gorgeous Dubai winter weather. We spent our first day of 2018 at, where else...the beach! It was an incredibly beautiful day!

Later that evening, we were invited to the home of our friends, Todd and Karen, for a New Year's Day dinner. It was so delicious -- ham and all the fixings. I volunteered to bring an appetizer and had a near disaster with my "famous" queso recipe, but luckily we were able to salvage the dip with a last minute run to Park n Shop, and the sausage queso tasted as yummy as ever. Phew!

We are so thankful for such a great start to 2018. Happy New Year!