Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Many of you are no doubt curious about what Chistmas is like over here. Well, aside from the 70-degree weather, it doesn't have to be much different from home. We had a candlelight service at church, my parents came to visit for a week, we had Christmas parties to attend with friends, we've got Christmas music to listen to at home and in the car, and the malls decorate for Christmas.

FOUR-STORY CHRISTMAS TREE AT DUBAI MALL

On Christmas Eve, we (Cindy and I, as well as my dad and mom) went to a party hosted by some friends here on campus. We ate dinner and dessert, sipped champagne, and sang Christmas songs. On Christmas Day, we went to church (Christmas was on Friday and that's the day we go to church over here). After church, we (this time, Cindy and I, my dad, my mom, and one of our friends and co-workers, Ernie Love) went to a nice restaurant for Christmas lunch. We had salmon, follwed by a potato soup, then turkey, and finally a nice (British) pudding for dessert. The restaurant was all expats, so it was a reasonably traditional meal. After lunch, we came home and opened presents.

That evening, we went a little bit off the traditional script. We went with some friends from church (about 60 or 70 of us) out into the desert for the evening. We built a bonfire, ate Christmas goodies, sang Christmas carols, and told stories about the previous year.

For New Year's, we went into the desert with some friends from campus. A company from Dubai called Dubai Drums has a camp out in the midst of the dunes where they had a big New Year's Eve party. There was community drumming throughout the night, a big barbecue buffet, camel rides, sand boarding, shisha, belly dancing, fire dancers, an African drum group, and a DJ and dancing. Here's a link to a nice YouTube video of what goes on. There were probably about 400 people there - so probably twice as many people as you see in the video. It sounds bohemian, but really it's a nice family event. Basically, it was the typical New Year's Eve party that you would find at a hotel or concert venue in a major city - only it was in the desert. Here are some pictures.

CAMEL RIDE

SMOKING SHISHA

DRUMMING

DANCING

Happy New Year!