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 =)