Abu Dhabi ( A Boo Boo )

My husband mentioned today that his Passport is about to expire. I thought, "What? Those things are good for like, ten years!" Oh. I guess it has been 10 years. Time flies when you have four kids I guess. I'm really hoping some day I'll look like I did in my passport photo from ten years ago.......

He likes to bring home cool trinkets from his global travels. We especially like to collect Christmas Tree Ornaments for our tree and have built up quite the collection over the years. Porcelain egg from Belgium. A wood carved snowflake from Finland. He has also brought home cool stuff for the kids like wooden toys from Germany, flying helicopters from Japan and toys from China probably heavily laced in lead. He also buys Hard Rock t-shirts because it's cool to have a shirt that says "Geneva", "Tokyo" or "Amsterdam" on it.

He went to the United Arab Emirates for his MBA program a couple of months ago. He actually admitted to me that one day, he could see us living there. I reminded him how close it is to Iran and that any missiles shot would fly over our heads. Not to mention any residual effects of a nuclear bomb. Wind does blow.........

So when he returned from his travels, he showed us the cool souvenirs he bought. A couple of camels for the boys that played twangy, instrumental Arab songs I didn't recognize and wasn't too sad about it when the batteries died as well as a ceramic and jewelled camel for Lauren. Kirk bought himself a black Hard Rock Abu Dhabi t-shirt, a hat that says "Dubai" and a traditional Dishdashah and Gutrah which I recommended he NOT wear on the plane trip home. Kind of like how we have common sense enough not to say "Hi Jack" to our son while on an airplane.

He then showed me a cute little bag emphasizing the fact that even the UAE has embraced the "green" revolution.

And then he gave me this:

The first time I wore it, my three year old pointed out "Jesus" and "Heavenly Father".

In my defense, it was a Sunday. After we had just returned home from church.

And it wasn't until I wore it around the house one day that my husband commented to me that he can see why I wouldn't really want to wear it in "public". His Hard Rock shirt.....sure. It has a big flaming guitar with the word Abu Dhabi on it. Fairly innocuous.

A shirt with a couple of Arab guys laying around drinking next to a camel that has Arabic on it that could say, "Osama is cool" for all I know? Probably wouldn't be something I'd wear anywhere near an airport or touring Washington DC. I'm just thinking out loud here.

He did bring me home a pretty 50g Credit Suisse gold bar. Probably my favorite souvenir yet.