Corniche Beach - Abu Dhabi

Corniche Beach - Abu Dhabi

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Christmas - 2012

Once I finally made it to the end of the school term, the holiday season became all about Dalila - as any Christmas season should be!  Jeremy and I made sure to plan as many festive trips as possible, mostly to help us feel Christmas-y in this totally uncalled for 90 degree weather we experienced the first weeks of December.  Sweating in shorts and a t-shirt makes embracing the spirit of the holiday season just a tad difficult - especially when we watch the weather reports for snow and nice chilly days back home.  We definitely needed some help getting into the holiday mood.

This year, we focused most of our holiday outing into one big day in Dubai - where Christmas is much more openly celebrated than in our "little" city of Al Ain.  One of the best places we went last year was Al Wafi Mall - a fairly high-end shopping mall with a surprising Egyptian theme, complete with pyramid structure and hieroglyphics proudly on display throughout the facility.  (Why is the theme surprising?  The idea of multiple deities is almost horrifying to a large majority of the population here - but Dubai can get away with nearly anything!).

As beautiful as the Ancient Egypt-inspired motif is, their seasonal Christmas decorations are even more amazing.  The tree at the center of the Santa display rises almost three stories and is surrounded by the most adorable kitschy animatronic figures in all states of Christmas preparation.  The experience is nice and private in comparison to usual Santa visits where any old passerby can stare as your child sits on Santa's lap to share her wishes.  Here, Santa sits in a private grotto next to a mountain of stuffed animals, presumably to bribe the more uncertain Santa-visitors and/or reward the brave little souls who march in with no fear of the big guy.  Luckily, Dalila was more of the latter - shedding not a single tear nor sharing any worried glances with Mommy and Daddy as she confidently strode up to meet Santa.  She couldn't keep her eyes off of the hill of stuffed animals and I believe her first words to Santa were, "I wanna puppy, please?"  Santa chuckled and complied with the request, allowing our straight-forward little miss to ask for what she REALLY wanted, "I want a pooter, please Santa."  This request was spurred by her desire to "work" alongside Mommy and Daddy who are frequently busy with laptops.  Also...we may have helped her to this decision with the knowledge that Santa just may be bringing Dalila a LeapPad II this year... Either way, our daughter ended up happy.  After the Santa visit, Dalila was invited to participate in the Christmas crafting booth where she made the cutest little Santa fridge magnet ever.


Waiting to see Santa!

Admiring the mountain of puppies before her chat with Santa.

"I want a pooter, please, Santa."

Loving her puppy after visiting Santa's Grotto.

Some of the festive display at Santa's village.

They even had elves on stilts!!
The next couple of locations on our planned Christmas fest ended up falling short, or falling through completely.  The mall we remembered from the previous year with amazing decorations didn't live up to the standard set by our first visit.  Our very favorite location from the year before with a festive Christmas market and the jolliest Santa we had ever had the pleasure to meet was also the site of the last day of the Dubai International Film Festival and the crowds were far too thick for any of us to enjoy ourselves.  We altered our plans slightly and ended up heading to Festival City - another favored area of the city for us - to see what kind of Christmas spirit we could find there.  We were lucky enough to finish our steak dinner (!!) and walk outside right as a laser light show was starting on the boardwalk along the water.  The show was impressive and even got Lila to dance a little for the other audience members, which I'm sure made their nights memorable.  After that, Dalila got to have one more visit with Santa, this time asking for a phone....though I have NO idea what prompted that request.
Another visit with Santa at Festival City.

Once we all felt sufficiently Christmas-y, we made the decision to move our family Christmas celebration up just a few days.  Our trip to Paris would begin on the 22nd and we knew we would be too busy in Paris to stop and celebrate, so we chose to make the 21st our Christmas Day.  Because our BIG gift for the whole family this year was a trip to Paris, presents mostly consisted of things we knew we would need for our vacation (accumulating an appropriate winter wardrobe in the stifling heat that is the U.A.E. is quite impractical, so buying a few staples to keep us warm in Europe was an absolute necessity).  We also wrapped everything we had purchased for Dalila, including socks and her new cup so she could experience the fun of opening her Christmas presents like always.  This strategy worked very well for our little almost three-year-old and she was perfectly happy with her Christmas.  Santa even managed to make a special early stop and bring Dalila her "pooter" before our flight to Paris - Thanks, Santa!!

We capped off our Christmas night with a delicious roast duck prepared by Jeremy and an early bedtime to make our morning flight to Paris the next day.  Somehow, we managed to make the 22nd OUR Christmas.  In fact, it worked so well that I had convinced myself Christmas was over by the time we began our big vacation.  Luckily, Paris did NOT feel the same way as me, and we experienced the city of lights at the most festive time of the year.  Stay tuned for our BIG Paris post, coming soon!!