Christmas Day in Dubai

M & K and the view from our room on Christmas morning. If you look straight down from here you can see the pool.

Santa managed to find his way to our hotel room last night.  Since he could not locate our stockings he used two of Sean’s clean socks and filled them with chocolates and American money.  Although we lacked the traditional offering of cookies and milk, he seemed quite satisfied with his choice of fresh fruit (he chose the green apple) and Evian.  He even found our stash of candy canes and hung them on every drawer pull and door knob.  While Eisa’s family slept in, Sean and the kids played in the pool and I had a fight with the ironing board (they told us to use their maids if we needed anything and in this instance it would have been much better for my nails and my patience to have Delia do it).  We went to the Kempenski Emirates Mall today for lunch at a Persian restaurant and then to window shop at their amazing stores.  Huda and Eisa bought us the incense burner (and while we’re on the topic, I’d like to mention that Respa, Zyrtec, and Tylenol have been good friends to me throughout these days of constant perfume, oils, and incense) which I’ll have to learn to use.  It seems to be a really appropriate gift for Christmas because Jesus was given incense when He was born and we were told that to put incense on your clothes give you a blessing (it usually has the “Mr. Sandman” effect on me).

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Mianna sings a Christmas medley for everyone back home.

The nap was just the thing we needed to get ready for a night at the Global Village, a market center where the Far East, Middle East, and African countries show their talents and bring original goods made in their countries to sell; it’s a bit like Epcot, but with the whole point of it being a market, not just entertainment.  We purchased fresh raisins and sweet almonds from the spice souk in Yemen, cotton pajamas from Egypt, candy from Iran, and decorator throws and rose water from Lebanon.  I picked out a few things from China for Mianna, but since the lady wouldn’t bargain with Huda, we left them on the table.  Even though we had Dirhams, our money did not seem to work there until Eisa ran out of cash and needed to borrow some to purchase genuine stones from Iran; Sean was paid back within 30 minutes.  We also saw traditional dancers from Saudi Arabia and Lebanon; it was an unforgettable experience.  Sadly, I left my camera in the car, so there is no digital proof of our evening.  Upon returning to the hotel (at 2:00 A.M.), we ordered McDonald’s and went to bed; Kyle and Sean woke up at 10 and Mianna and I slept ‘til 12:30.