Our Little Dubai Christmas Tree... Very non-traditional for me in every way (fake, tiny, none of my own unique ornaments), but we maintained the popcorn and cranberry homemade garland, and threw in a bit of Middle Eastern flare with the star ornament on the top coming from Muscat, Oman.
This weekend we decided to get into the holiday spirit a little bit and decorate for Christmas! As I have previously mentioned, I LOVE all holidays and really enjoy decorating for them, probably more than the average person. So, one of the hardest parts about living here for me is not having all my accumulated holiday decorations (from the last 8 years or so from mid-college onward, and especially in the last couple years in Boston). And Christmas decorating is definitely my favorite because it's not just the decorating itself, but it's the whole process and activity of going to pick out our tree at the tree farm (I've gone every year for the last 4 years with my little cousins), putting on the lights, stringing cranberries and popcorn, then putting on the ornaments all the while listening to Christmas music and/or watching "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." It makes me so happy and I absolutely love it!
And last year was particularly special because it was the first year that Jared and I lived together. So we went together to pick out our tree, and inevitably Jared demanded a tree that was entirely too big for our apartment (so that the top scraped the ceiling when we brought it in... even before it was in its stand) and then we sat all day on a Sunday watching NFL and stringing popcorn and cranberries together (which is another one of my family traditions that Jared has so sweetly embraced. I love that boy!)...
But alas, this year, we live in Dubai, where there are no real evergreens to be seen for thousands of miles (although the rumor is that some live trees do get shipped in which you can get for $$$$$), and since my enormous stash of tree lights and ornaments are all in storage at home, we had to go a bit non-traditional this year. Jared was a little reluctant to decorate at all, since we will be leaving on December 17th and get to enjoy Christmas trees and festiveness at our family's and friend's houses, but not having my own tree just wouldn't be the same... So, we compromised and bought a 2 foot artificial tree for about $5.00 (plus a strand of 100 tiny white lights and much to Jared dismay just a few very cheap ornaments). It was a little depressing that the tree is so short that it looked weird to put it directly on the floor (it only came up to my knee and Jared refused to string lights on a tree while crouched over on the floor) so we had to put it on a little table from the garden. And to keep at least one of my traditions alive, we bought some needles and string along with cranberries and popcorn. So, Saturday afternoon we turned off the tv, cranked up the Christmas music and strung popcorn and cranberries together and decorated our little tree. Then, most oddly, we headed out to the garden to grill cheddar guacamole burgers for dinner... Never before have I put up my Christmas tree and barbecued on the same day!
When it was done though, I really think it was worth it and brings a little bit of home to Dubai while hopefully getting us into the holiday spirit (despite the fact that the weather continues to be mid-80's during the day). The only thing lacking is that Christmas smell of pine, but my wonderful Mom helped me out with that by mailing me a package with a balsam scented Christmas candle... So I can pretend I'm snuggled up at home in Boston with a live tree while snow gently drifts down outside my window.... Only 12 more days until it's true...
Winter has arrived in Dubai. It has been raining for the last three straight days and today it has been POURING all day... I didn't think it was supposed to rain in Dubai. I thought that was like, one of the maybe three good things about living here. I've been told it usually rains only 5 times a year but it has rained 4 times in the last two weeks here (three over the last three days), so I guess this is abnormal, or else we will have filled our water quota for the year in another 12 hours. And since this is clearly not the norm, absolutely no one has a clue as to how to drive in the rain (think Southerners in the snow) and the infrastructure is in no way equipped for this much precipitation (flooding and mudslides everywhere... no drains are built into any of the roads). People continue to cruise as their normal 100-120 kilometers an hour, despite the 2 inches of rain on the road and are hydroplaning everywhere. Additionally, people here don't really feel the need to turn on their lights while driving in the rain, and continue their behavior of not signaling when changing lanes. Driving to work today was taking my life in my hands (even more than it is on a normal daily basis) and it took me 3x as long to get there. Quite interesting, although I did enjoy seeing precipitation again since all I've seen is warm sunny weather for the last three months...
Our festive Costa Mince Pie... It was so pretty we had to try it, but it turns out, Jared and I do not enjoy them... Silly Brits and their crazy Christmas 'treats'...
