Christmas Doha Style.

I am trying hard to get into the Christmas spirit and have found some veritable treasures to help me along the way: 

 

The TLG Winter Brunch (politically correct speak for Christmas Dinner) was a resounding success.  I went with my friend Patsy and had a blast.  (The day started off with a bang - we were rear-ended by a Qatari lady in a black abaya and, of course, the inevitable cell phone glued to her ear.  She quickly admitted fault and said "It was because I was talking on my cell phone".  Luckily for us Patsy had a huge trailer hitch on her suv that resulted in major damage to the other person's bumper, and not even a scrape on ours.  The lady will have to deal with police reports and damage repairs on her own and hopefully we have seen the end of the matter).

Back to our dinner - we had beautifully set tables full of sparkles on the cloth and crackers at each setting.  There was a Christmas tree decorated and twinkling with lights (a little bit thrown together, but hey - it helped enliven the spirit).  The food was wonderful - a carver stood by a huge, fat turkey that everybody just had to line up for.  There was duck, and a Doha version of stuffing - never did find out what that was and it looked too suspect to try out.  The dessert table groaned under the weight of a very big chocolate Santa and a gingerbread house.  I got to taste real Christmas pudding with hot custard and there were also mince pies, fruit cake and shortbread to choose from.  We all got a great little gift bag and there were mounds of raffled offerings.  The best part of all was the Ramada Staff Choir who gave us melodious renditions of Christmas Carols, including "White Christmas" - oh joy, but no deal out here.

We also went to the AWA Christmas Dinner - a little more of a subdued affair and far fewer guests.  The great part was that Meg and I got to go with our husbands - who are usually far too busy to join in any of the fun stuff.  We had a great evening despite less than fantastic food and a weird corkage fee.

The city of Doha is decked out in fairy lights everywhere.  This is not to be confused with Christmas, but is instead a celebration of the country's National Day which occurs on or around December 18th.  However, it does get us ex-pats in the mood.

There are some attempts at Christmas that just make me giggle.  Who in the world will be decorating one of these beauties???

And then we have my little contribution to our Christmas in Doha - all two feet of it and its dozen baubles:

 

 The really nice Christmas decorations can be seen at our local touristy spots like the international hotels and The Pearl - all getting into the spirit of things with fabulous Christmas decorations.

All in all, I think we can expect Santa to arrive in the land of sand.

Merry Christmas to you all!