A Full Day

Today we woke to the news of Nelson Mandela's passing.  He was an incredible man who lived his life with vision and passion.  Though his voice will no longer be heard, his words will echo throughout history.

 From the looks of things early on, I thought we were in for a dark and cloudy day but it turned out to be quite warm and pleasant.  My husband and I took our usual one hour morning walk.

 Then a little later I headed to the annual holiday bazaar with a friend.

 I didn't take any pictures while inside the bazaar.  It was so crowded and I'm always worried someone will not like being photographed or having their merchandise photographed (though in this day and age that is hard to control ).  But I can show you a couple of things I bought.

Holiday cookies for Zack.  (The poor little reindeer's legs were broken on the way home.)

And this gorgeous throw which matches my bedroom perfectly.  It is handmade by women in Homs, Syria and all the money goes straight back to them.

 For lunch, my husband wanted to try a restaurant at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel but turns out it is only open for dinner.  Since we hadn't been in the hotel before, we decided to walk around the grounds.  Hard to capture, but we thought it was pretty impressive.

 Great weather for kite flying as you can see.

We headed up the road to The Village for lunch.  It was our first time to eat at Munch and we all enjoyed the food.  I had the Moroccan couscous salad and grilled balsamic portobello.  Delicious!

 Once back home, I decided to finally use this beignet mix that we brought back from New Orleans. 

Made for a nice afternoon treat with coffee.

And so another day is done.

I still can't get use to darkness coming at 5 p.m.