As you know, we spent Christmas in the UK with family and friends there, before returning to Riyadh on Dec 28 (Abigail's birthday) to spend New Year's Eve with Embassy friends. Although the modern and well-equipped bungalow that we rented for our UK stay did in fact have wireless broadband internet access, I resisted the urge to blog and instead took another brief blogging break to focus on relaxing and feeling festive; both of which I did very well!
My favourite Christmas present (from Karen) was my new flash unit. Flash photos are not usually very satisfying, as camera-mounted direct flash lighting tends to be very harsh, and you get the familiar problems of bleached out faces and red eyes. Not so with my new flash, which is superb and perfectly matched to my camera: read all about it here.
Here are some photos taken on Christmas Day (at my Mother-in-Law's), Boxing Day (at my cousin's), and on Abigail's birthday (at my Sister-in-Law's). They show what a good time we had, and also show off what my new flash unit can do!
Mum & Dad out for the count after their Christmas Turkey.
My niece Isabelle, with two new-found friends 
"What should I do Mum: Deal or No Deal??" 
Elliot & Abigail with Isabelle & Lucas (he doesn't always wear funny hats; it's a Peter Pan costume).
See? Told you.
Me & Abigail 
Karen 
"Abigail -- don't look now but you're being watched!" 
Laura & Karen 
Get ready for the bang! 
Typical Lucas: no trousers and a dagger in hand! 
Isabelle on her first driving lesson. 
My two.
Meet Luca, my cousin Ruth's little boy. Does that make him my second cousin or my great nephew or what? He's fourteen months old and this was the first time we had met him. He's so cute!
Lucas in his Sportacus costume (he likes to dress up)
...and here's the real Sportacus: the resemblance is uncanny isn't it?
Karen & Luca hit it off. 
My cousin Tamar's son, Josh. 
Isabelle with her Mum, Sian.
And finally, my favourite picture from the trip: Abigail & Isabelle together.
No comments:
Post a Comment