The Foden's Christmas Extravaganza.. (Feb 3, 2010)

First Blog of 2010..............
Hi Guys, We hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and that the New year is a prosperous and healthy one!
For the holidays, Mark and I flew back to the Manchester to be with family and friends for 12 days. This was the first time we had been back to cold and rainy Manchester since we’ve been in Dubai. We were very excited to see everyone and knew it would be a hectic but fun filled (and quite boozy holiday)!
We had booked a flight through Amsterdam airport, so had to fly in and out of 2 very icy and snowy airports. Honestly we didn’t think we’d make it there because of all the delays and cancelations due to the heaviest and most prolonged snowfall to hit the UK and Europe for over 30 years. We had even prepared ourselves for spending Christmas day in an airport. Anyway, after lots of worrying and an awful lot of fingers crossed, we luckily timed our flights to perfection and landed 10 minutes behind schedule!
We were greeted with the cold crisp air, lots of snow, a Full English Breakfast and the first glass of alcoholic liquid as we walked through the door in little old Poynton (Mark's home village). It was such a nice feeling to have the fresh cold air take our breath away, rather than the hot humid air which we left in the Desert.
Throughout our time in England, we had a very busy and packed schedule in order to spend time with all our family and friends that we have not seen while we’ve been away.
Christmas morning was just fabulous - snow in the back garden, a big beautiful tree with lots of pressies, champagne with the smell of the HUGE Roast Turkey cooking away in the oven. The Foden clan headed over at lunchtime to enjoy a perfect Christmas Feast (where even the Sprouts were eaten by Mark).
Nearly every evening consisted of a dinner & drinks party with family and friends at the Foden house. We also had two Brilliant nights out with all of our friends. It was just fantastic to see everyone! Andy & Karen were fabulous hosts on one of the nights out, where Secret Santa was held, and a very civilised start to the evening ended at 3am with security knocking on the door! It really was amazing to get such a large group out to see us and we were humbled by the effort that everyone made over the Christmas period to come and party with us!
On New years eve, we booked in at this Middle Eastern Restaurant (Graham wanted us to feel at home), where we had a sambuca soaked scrumptious lamb meal, a few bottles of wine, and toward the end of the evening we turned this fancy little restaurant into our own private dance party!
(you can see pictures of Christmas, Nights out, and NYE on these links:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2319909&id=6402232&l=726a67d5f0
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2320263&id=6402232&l=34e5f39478
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2320277&id=6402232&l=3d34f296df
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2323906&id=6402232&l=533ea8a72f)
After what could be classed as the one of the Best Christmas' Ever it was always going to be very difficult to return to the desert and to leave all the family & friends, but since we’ve been back we’ve been very busy. Straight back to work and then some exciting news for us the 1st week back...........
We had been getting quite frustrated with our apartment for a while now, and upon our return we bit the bullet and made the decision to move flats. We have been in our new apartment for 2 weeks now and absolutely love it. Our new residence is now in Jumeirah Beach Residence, which is just a few steps from the beach, we have a choice of over 40 swimming pools all within walking distance (and 3 that can be seen from the bedroom) we are very close to the bars and a few steps away from this great shopping and dining ‘walk.’ The apartment is much bigger, has a massive balcony, and is just great – we are so happy and it really has brought a new lease of life into our lives in the Desert!
We have another exciting week ahead of us, Graham & Trish are coming over to Dubai for a week get away from cold England. We’ll be heading to the Dubai Desert Classic and have lots more plans for a fun week with the Fodens.
We love and miss you all soo much, we hope you are able to write this year and keep us up to date with your lives in both the UK and the US.
Always remember Our doors are Always open and we would love to show you the (new) apartment.
M & E
Xxxx