Happy 4th of July

Last night Savannah and I celebrated the 4th of July with a room full of other Americans. The American Business Council of Dubai sponsors a celebration every year at the Meydan Hotel. The celebration started with the singing of the UAE and USA's National Anthem and continued with hot dogs (a rare thing in Dubai), hamburgers, french fries, watermelon of course $10 beer. For the kids, there was a bounce house (except for Savannah and her cast), coloring, face painting and t-shirt decorating. There were a couple of tables filled with military men and women from the USS Enterprise, which was a great site to see and reminded me that I would love to get involved with volunteering for the USO. The night ended with amazing fireworks set off over the hotel's racetrack. (The Meydan racetrack is home to the world's richest horse race, the Dubai World Cup.) Savannah's reaction to the fireworks was priceless. She wasn't scared and added lots of commentary of "whoa" and "wow". She had great facial expressions, especially when the fireworks appeared to be curving close to the audience. Unfortunately, the 4th of July is a normal Wednesday for the non-American world in Dubai so Chris had to work and had a late dinner meeting so Savannah and I went with friends from our playgroup. As Savannah gets older we think it is important to still establish traditions and normalcy around our holidays, especially while living abroad.