A very merry Al Ain Christmas!

Well, this post is rather late, but worth writing I think.  Our Christmas was always going to be a difficult one; being able from friends and family.  It is, of course, the time of year when you get together for a NZ summer (at least we HOPE it will be a summer day) and BBQ for that special day.

So, I thought that being in Al Ain was never going to 'measure up' to a New Zealand Christmas.

In many ways I was pleasantly wrong.  When we take out the family aspect and the fact that we're so far away from what is familiar during this time of the year, we're actually pleased with how Christmas went in the desert.  There are so many positives:

1.  We moved into our new villa just before Xmas.  It was nice to be finally settled in the place we will call home for the next year and a half.  We were able to decorate with small touches; the Christmas tree, the table decoration picked out by Lily, the door hanging, the santa sacks on the kids' doors and Christmas music lovingly supplied by my mum and brought over by our friend Anne when she visited.  The music playing in the car and the kids and I singing along helped us to have something familiar over this special time of year.

2.  The shopping - well we completed our Christmas shopping late as usual.  No surprises there.  Most people will know that we're usually last-minute people in that respect.  The joy of being in Al Ain though was the fact that when you ventured out to the mall during the day (I was on school holiday) there was just no-one there. Even at night it was hard to find people to create a crowd!  As a Muslim country the locals here do not celebrate Christmas.  However, the other ethnic groups such as Pakistanis, Filipinos, and many Asian locals were celebrating it.  Many shops were decorated beautifully and played Xmas music all day.  We had many displays of Santa, his reindeers and massive Christmas trees adorned with lights, decorations and presents.  When Ben and Lily wore their santa hats they were an instant magnet to the shop assistants.

To our surprise we even had a few 'Merry Christmas' cheers from some of the Emiratis we encountered.

3.  Our lovely Patti.  She is our cleaner.  We love Patti.  She works at my school and does cleaning on the side for some of the licensed teachers such as myself.  She comes to work at our house on a Friday morning and is just the most awesome lady ever.  She spends time playing with Lily before she starts her work.  Lily made her a very, very special Xmas card and we bought her a lovely big gift for Xmas.  She was overwhelmed.  We found out that Patti has a daughter Lily's age back in the Philippines.  She is working hard so that her daughter can have the best of educations.  She must have missed her little girl very much during this time.  Patti has truly made an impact in our lives.

4.  Our friends and the wonderful Xmas lunch!  On Christmas day about 75 people from "The Village" which is the complex where we live, descended upon one of the A block streets and had a shared Christmas lunch.  There was food galore and a festive atmosphere.  The kids ate and ran (shiny new bikes and scooters the hot items for the day) and left the adults to sit replete from the lovely food.  We had turkeys and roast pork, cornbread and macaroni cheese, roasted vegetables and salads.  This was quickly followed by dessert galore.  So much food and not enough room in the bellies to put it!  As a result, we packed up almost all of it (with exception of the pork which went to a very happy kiwi Andrew!) and gave it to the Indian workers who had to work on that day.

Whilst Christmas here was different to what we're used to, it was still a terrific celebration.  And in many ways, it was still a celebration that included family.  Of course we had the four of us; and for obvious and amazing reasons that will always make Christmas a special time for our family. And, our family back home and in Australia made contact with us and through Skype, so we didn't feel so far away.  But it was also a time to celebrate being here with our new whanau; the lovely friends we have so quickly become close to.  You find yourself so quickly forming important bonds with the neighbours and especially with other Kiwis. Our Kiwi friend Rochelle tells us she loves us because we're 'normal'! And indeed it sure feels 'normal' when we're with our Al-Ain whanau in a land where 'normal' just isn't part of the vernacular; it also feels hugely special to have them as part of this chapter in our lives.