When we moved to Florida in 2004 we had quite a difficult time adjusting to celebrating the Christmas holidays in the warm weather! While it did make putting up outdoor decorations a whole lot easier, Christmas lights on palm trees just didn’t seem right! After 6 years there though, we became accustom to it. But I have to be honest, it never felt the same as our Christmases in New York, where we had temperatures in the 20’s and even the occasional white Christmas! Of course having family from both sides just an hour away also helped!
Christmas 2010 is only 10 days away now, and while I thought Christmas lights on palm trees was strange, I’m finding it hard to feel the holiday spirit here in a country where many people are Muslim! But understand that this is no fault of the country’s! There are Christmas decorations everywhere here! There are Christmas trees in every store and hotel lobby. Christmas carols have been playing in the stores since Thanksgiving, and the local grocery stores have aisles full of artificial trees, lights, ornaments, and garland! We have even seen a few real trees for sale at the local plant market! The weather has been gorgeous, with temperatures now finally in the mid 70’s, but even that doesn’t help!
While I did find it strange to see all the Christmas decorations around the city, Leon reminded me that a much larger percentage of the population here is Christian. I guess since we are clearly in an Arabic country it just wasn’t what I expected! I would be curious to find out how the Muslims feel about being bombarded with Christmas cheer! I guess it does make those of us who are far from home feel a bit better.
The girls have 3 weeks off from school for the Christmas holiday. Some people are heading back home to the States, but we felt it was just too short a time to visit family in NY, Tennessee, and Florida. We weren’t sure we wanted to be in Abu Dhabi on Christmas so Santa is treating us to a wonderful trip of 10 days in Thailand! We will fly to Phuket where we will spend Christmas on their beautiful beaches, and then back to Bangkok for a few days of touring temples and shopping I’m sure!
The girls have mixed feelings about the upcoming Christmas holiday. While they are certainly excited about our trip, they think it will be “weird” to be waking up in a hotel room and lying on a beach on Christmas day! But we are hoping that doing something so different from our previous holiday routine, that maybe they won’t be so home sick.
We will miss our family and friends at this time of year, along with all the wonderful holidays events like friend’s Christmas Eve parties, the church’s Christmas pageant, Boat parades, Santa driving through Lansing Island on the fire truck, and of course nothing here rivals the lights of Verbenia Court! But we have many wonderful memories of these events and our dear friends that experienced them with us! We wish you all a wonderful Holiday season no matter where you are!
The giant Christmas tree in the lobby of The Emirates Palace Hotel!
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