Corniche Beach - Abu Dhabi

Corniche Beach - Abu Dhabi

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Merry Middle Eastern Christmas!!

This was the first Christmas away from Idaho Falls for both Jeremy and myself - so we were bound and determined to make the best of it and experience all the festive fun that our new home has to offer.  This made for a LONG - but memorable - Christmas season! Check out all the steps we took to assuage our Christmas cheer cravings!!

Step One: Christmas Tree Lighting at the Hilton

First, we wanted to make sure that Dalila would be just as excited as we were for Santa to come visit her on Christmas Eve (both for the warm holiday memories visits from Santa make and because we could hold the whole "be nice or Santa won't bring you anything" concept over her head for the duration of December!).  So, when a local hotel held their Christmas tree lighting and visit from Santa complete with holiday caroling and treats, we made sure to attend!  An unexpected bonus on this trip - after listening to some carols, we walked through the hotel and found a little Mexican restaurant, where we promptly plunked down at a patio setting and dined on a delicious, and hard-to-come-by - plate of quesadillas and enchiladas.  We have SO missed our usual Mexican food, which is REALLY hard to find here in the U.A.E. - so this was a fantastic treat!
Listening to Christmas carols with Daddy...

...and with Mommy, too!

Being a little stinker at dinner....as always =)
After placating Dalila with little pieces of candy for each minute she was able to sit still at dinner, we were ready for her to visit Santa, sugar rush and all!  Luckily, our little dinner trip allowed us to skip virtually all of the waiting in line to see Santa that other people were not able to avoid.  Yay!  Lila saw the big guy right away and was awarded for not screaming at him or pulling off his beard with a little grab bag of goodies, including a very cheap Barbie knock-off and some yummy choking hazards - I mean hard candies.  The Barbie was pulled limb from limb in a matter of minutes (in fact, on the car ride home, her leg some how managed to mysteriously end up protruding from her neck where her head used to be...) - but Barbie fulfilled her purpose and Dalila thought she was "pretty."  All-in-all, a successful start to the season of merriment.

Barbie before she suffered her unfortunate fate...


Step Two: Dubai Festival City, Karama shopping center, and Wadi mall

Living so close to a major city like Dubai has many, many benefits.  We can drive to Dubai in just over an hour and always have something new to try when we visit.  Our first Christmas-themed trip to Dubai was pretty ambitious; we had some fairly lofty plans lined up.  But we knew that crossing off even a couple of the things on our to-do list would make a great trip to the city.  We started at Festival city, a beautiful mall and shopping center on the outside of Dubai with a Las Vegas-esque canal running the outside length of the restaurant area.  After some debate, we chose to enjoy lunch at a seafood restaurant overlooking one of the small ports of Dubai.  Dalila was WONDERFUL - flirting with the waitress the entire time - and the food was amazing!!  Honestly, the best fish and chips I have EVER had!
Yep - we're sitting on an outdoor patio in December!!  And it was hot!


Lila showing us where Santa should be.


Next came shopping at Karama center for my Christmas gift.  We had heard from some friends that this was the place to go to find very affordable "name brand" hand bags.  It definitely did not disappoint!  I browsed through several little shops (including a hidden one in an upstairs apartment with very secretive employees lurking about) and finally selected a deep green Dolce and Gabbana shoulder bag.  PERFECT Christmas gift for this girl =)
Finally we we headed off to another mall that boasted a darling Christmas village and one of the best Santa displays in the U.A.E.  Little did we know, to actually see Santa required a 50 AED ticket and an hour wait in the massive line circling the display.  We decided against purchasing the ticket and instead walked around the display taking pictures and letting Dalila go crazy out of her stroller for once.  She had a blast and we felt like this trip was perfectly fulfilling, even without another picture of Lila with Santa.


Step Three: Dubai again! ...but this time, to two different malls, plus the beach!

Our first stop on this trip was another mall with a huge Christmas tree....but that was about all for festive fun there.  We moved on fairly quickly and chose to stop at the beach and let our rambunctious little one run off some steam.  Dalila had SO much fun playing on the beach - one of the best parts of this day trip - and one that we didn't even plan on!
A view of the beautiful tree from above.





The big plan for this trip was Madinat Christmas Village.  After wandering the labyrinth of a shopping center in this massive beach side hotel, we finally managed to find the Christmas village area (literally five steps to the left of where we first entered the shopping center!!  Dang it!!).  This was easily the most festive part of our holiday planning and we were so glad we didn't give up on finding the place.  The Santa here was the most jolly of all Santas I have ever met.  I'm pretty sure he was from India, so he didn't have the typical mall Santa features, but he clearly loved his job.  Lila was smitten right away.  She watched him dance and kept yelling, "Santa!! Heeheehee!!  Saaaantaaaaa!!!"  Santa loved her too and danced with her for a good five minutes so we could snap some pictures and video.
(Sorry for the sideways video - we couldn't figure out how to flip it!)




Enjoying her cookies she got from Santa.

This trip to Dubai Madinat Christmas Village was absolutely the best way to conclude our search for the festive holiday spirit here in our new home.  Surprisingly, even in a country where Christmas is not openly celebrated by the residents, I have been wished Merry Christmas continuously.  What a pleasant surprise for our first Christmas away from home.  We still miss our Idaho Christmas....but we did a pretty darn good job finding our own holiday cheer thousands of miles from home =)

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Happy National Day, U.A.E.!!

Better late than never, right!?!  On December 2nd, the U.A.E. celebrated their 40th National Day....and MAN can these guys party!! Work on the beautification process of the city streets (lights on almost every palm tree, huge displays in the middle of each roundabout) began weeks before the holiday.  Seeing the lights blazing away in November and December was nice for those of us missing home, though, as they are similar to Christmas displays we're all used to....if those Christmas displays decided to take some insane doses of steroids before showing off to the admiring public =)  Seriously - we could learn a thing or two about how to REALLY celebrate a holiday from the Emirati folk.  Other highlights about the city included nightly car races down major highways with huge flags flapping in the breeze and one guy making his car backfire every few seconds to show just how much he loves his country, drifting contests around heavily occupied roundabouts, periodic dousing of glitter, confetti, silly string, or foam depending on what corner you happen to turn...Oh!  And a beautiful laser and firework show each night at the fort in the middle of town - just to name a few.
Lights on every palm tree and bush lining the street in front of our building.  And this is just a small sampling of the amazing displays we saw all through town.

I don't know how we didn't catch more pictures of the decorated cars.  Picture this ALL over the car - EVERY window.


The week leading up to national day at school was utter insanity.  The girls were in and out of class - practicing for various dances and shows they were going to perform for the big assembly on the Tuesday before the holiday weekend (lucky us - the Sheikh declared the 1st of December a day off of school for everyone!!).  At any given time, I had 5-15 of my girls missing from the room....we called it a "review week."
When the time for the assembly finally arrived, attendance at school was quite low.  Mostly just the girls who were performing came to see the show - but almost ALL of them brought their mothers, sisters, aunties, and little brothers along - so the audience was definitely not small.  The show included mostly different versions of the girls either waving their hair back and forth or waving a flag or balloon to a ten minute song.  Some of the English teachers taught their students poetry and a song - my favorite part of the assembly.  The most amazing part was seeing the girls in all their gorgeous dresses.  These things probably cost a small fortune, yet SO many of the girls donned their most luxurious gowns all to dress up for the country they love so much.  I joke a lot about how crazy the atmosphere here was for the 40th National Day...but I have to admit I'm a little awestruck by the obvious love the Emirati people feel for their country.  ....though I think I will try to avoid the 50th...just to be on the safe side =)