Giving Thanks, National Day, and Santa of Arabia

The past few weeks have seemingly moved by at light speed, and suddenly it has been a month since I posted.  I am so sorry.  We went back to the US for Thanksgiving, and got back home with no recovery time for National Day.  Then my husband was Santa.  Tonight we leave to take an actual vacation together (but that’s another story).  Regardless of the speed with which it all moved, it has been a positive and educational time for both of us.  This is a composite of 2 posts I had completed but not edited… talking about a few things we have learned along the way the past month…

Change your expectations and you will change your experience…  In order to help assuage the fears of our families in response to the move we made, my husband and I agreed to come home for Thanksgiving this year.  It was almost precisely 24 hours between the time we entered Abu Dhabi International airport and the time we walked outside at Phoenix Sky Harbor.  Exhausted but smiling, we exited baggage claim with our oversized (and Christmas gift laden) suitcases to begin our holiday at home.  By the time we finished laying out our plans, we realized that we were pretty jammed for time.  We had intended to stay busy, but I think we could have planned in a bit more down time and still enjoyed ourselves.  The highlights of our trip were being able to see some snow – a dusting in our home town of Flagstaff and an actual snow storm at the in-law’s place in Forest Lakes.  The genuinely happy faces of our families (including kids, extended family, and our granddaughter) made our hearts smile, and enjoying life with the ever changing and growing annual Saturday after Thanksgiving crowd really put the icing on the cake.  Everything was just about perfect, and SO much fun!  Also fun?  Hanging at my folk’s house for a surprisingly relaxed extended period (refer to first sentence of this paragraph.)  Our plans do not have us returning to the area for quite a while, so the memories made this trip will have to last us a while.  We are grateful that they are primarily positive.

Cab Drivers make great tour guides… On our return home we opted to stop overnight in San Francisco as opposed to making the trip all the way through.  Those of you who are FB friends with my handsome hubby saw the slide show he posted about the experience.  He had some GREAT photos.
From my perspective it was a fantastic and fun few hours we got to spend together.  He had never been to San Francisco before, so my goal was to get him to see as much as possible.  With his gimpy ankle I did not take us on any hilly walks, just caught BART from SFO straight to the pier.  Turns out he had never before been on a subway either.  (??)  Anyway, we walked a few blocks so he could get a few good views of Coit Tower and the Transamerica Building, and then we grabbed a pedicab to Pier 39.  Our pedicab driver had lived locally for 15 years and had some great suggestions and colorful stories about the local life.  At Pier 39 we got a great view of Alcatraz and the Golden Gate, and of course the ever present sea lions.  Then it was on to Fisherman’s Wharf for dinner at a classic – Alioto’s.  We scored a window table and were able to watch the sunset reflect off of the Golden Gate – beautiful!  From there we walked (slightly uphill) to Ghirardelli Square for dessert.  Still I did not think he had seen San Francisco enough to really get it, because looking at the hills is not the way to experience them.  So we grabbed a cab back to the BART station.  I explained the situation to the driver, and asked him to take the ‘scenic’ route to whatever BART station was on the red line.  A few verification questions later we were off.  Man did this guy do his job!  UP and DOWN, and all around.  Pointing out views in both directions and ending up at the most scenic of BART stations, with trees and shops in every direction lit up for Christmas and music playing all around. 
What a glorious ride!  And my guy got a much better feel for the city as a result.  A subway train ride back to the airport and quick shuttle to the hotel and we had almost enough sleep before we had to return to the airport for our 16 hour flight back to the sandbox.

The United Arab Emirates is very proud of its existence…  We arrived home for National Day – the UAE’s equivalent of 4^th of July.  December 2 is the anniversary of the date that all 7 Emirates signed the agreement to become a united country.  The UAE is a very young 45 years old.  The people are proud of their accomplishments to date and were out celebrating for 3 full days.  The roads were lined with lighting reminiscent of Christmas in most American downtown areas.  Many buildings were lit up in designs that ranged from simple words or the national colors of red, green, black and white in a specific area up to animated light shows that bounced around the sides and top to bottom.   Streets and parks downtown were jammed with families sharing picnics, people singing, and cars covered in silly string.  In fact, kids sat on street corners waiting for lights to turn red so that they could give away free cans of silly string for others to squirt (it’s called Aerosol Web or Streamer Spray here).

Several fireworks shows were planned across town, and we were lucky enough to snag a front row seat aboard the boat of a friend as it sat in the Marina directly across from the Emirates Palace Hotel which hosts what is rumored to be the best of those fireworks shows.  Before the fireworks began, we were treated to an air show put on by the UAE Air Force and Etihad Airways.   Sadly, we viewed part of this from inside a cab as we tried to make our way through traffic that backed up for miles on every street in every direction.  But… as we were sitting at a stoplight, I looked up and witnessed a plane in what appeared to be free fall, twisting and turning, and spinning, as if the engine had been shut off.  I see no other explanation for the gyrations.  It scared me!  Then suddenly, the plane was off to the west like a shot, still trailing green smoke.  I was so enthralled I forgot to take a picture!

We arrived at the Marina and joined our friends on board the boat, settling in for a long night.  We suspected that the traffic going back was going to be even worse than coming over.  The plan was for pre-show barbecue and cocktails, then fireworks, then sit back and relax for a while before attempting the homeward trek.  The fireworks did not disappoint!  From our vantage point we could see as one show began at the other end of the beach, on Al Marayah Island.  It ended as the second show, about mid corniche began.  The second show ended and we waited for the platforms in the water right in front of us to light up.   Word was passed down the pier that our show would begin in 15 minutes…  As we sat waiting, we witnessed people on the other side of the small bay begin to gather along the waterfront.  Tourist Boats filled with partiers came around the jetty and stopped several hundred yards south of us until a line of them had formed, effectively blocking most of the boat entrance to the marina.  Still more people lined up along the entranceway to Marina Mall, and along the rooftops of the villas adjacent to it.  Still more people were on the rooftops patios and the beach of Emirates Palace hotel…  Then the show began!  Wow.  I have seen longer shows, but I do not believe I have ever seen one that used more fireworks than this one.  I was dumbfounded.  Directly in front of our spot we initially saw 3 platforms.  There were in fact a total of 11.  Each one put on a show, sometimes in sync, and sometimes individually.  The whole thing was highly choreographed and simply incredible.  At one point, we thought a mistake had been made as fireworks shot out into the water.  Then suddenly it was if the water were on fire!  I hadn’t seen anything like that before.

We were right about the traffic going home.  It took us over an hour and a half and  that was after we got in the taxi – it took almost an hour just to for the cab to get to Emirates Palace Hotel to pick us up!  

Final lesson – Santa is a rockstar…

And then came Santa… When I researched how to do a blog, one of the suggestions was not to use your own name, or the names of those around you.  That said, I think there are 3 people actually reading this thing, and at least one of those is my mother.  So I think it’s safe.  Those of you who are facebook friends of Larry’s may have already read his story of Santa this year, as well as the history of how he came to be playing Santa year in and year out.  Then I came along, and last year I joined in as Mrs. Claus.  Moving over here we did not think it would be necessary to bring his Santa suit.  We simply thought he would take a hiatus for a few years and jump back in whenever we got back to the states.  For some reason, we assumed there would not be a big demand for Santa Claus here in Abu Dhabi.  We were wrong.  WAY wrong.  These people do Christmas like everything else – over the top.   So when we came home from Thanksgiving visit, we brought back a Santa suit.

After National Day, all of the malls were suddenly decorated, with trees 2 and 3 stories high.  Santa visiting areas were created with beautiful whimsical Santa chairs, surrounded by amazing decorations.  Santa sees not only kids, but also parents, nannies, and anybody else who wants to jump in.  The biggest difference is that the decorations don’t go up until after National Day (about the 5^th of December this year) and Santa does not arrive at the malls until 10 days before Christmas.  (That’s refreshing isn’t it?)  Also no endless loops of carols.  Just a few interspersed here and there with the standard muzak style pop tunes normally running in the background.  The exception to all of this was Santa Larry.  He showed up at The Club on the 8^th, and at the American Cultural School on the morning of the 10^th, then back to the club that night.  He was Santa for 12 straight hours!  Holy Sweatballs Batman!  Lare estimates approximately 1200 kids on his lap and 14 pounds of water weight shed that day.  It was a big success.  He is truly the best Santa ever.  The kids love him, and they get to tug on his beard.  I think the best part was that several of the smaller ones were at the school, and then later at The Club.  To see the same guy both places made believers out of them!  He chatted about how the reindeer didn’t like the heat, so he left them at home and travelled by magic instead.  Then there was the little girl who said all she wanted for Christmas was for her little sister to get out of the hospital.  Larry told her that Santa was doing everything in his power, and so were the doctors.  She climbed off his lap and took her piece of candy, and I thought Larry was going to lose it.  He took a few deep breaths and then called for the next kids in line.  I continue to be amazed by this strong and gentle man I married.  What an adventure we are on.

And speaking of adventures… as I mentioned at the beginning of this post, we are hopping a plane tonight.  I had to get this post finished and up so that I can take you along on our journey.  The next couple of weeks I hope to be able to post a series of short travel blogs as we make our way down the Danube.  I hope you will tune in.  (All 3 of you.)  

AND BONUS! In case anybody has ever wondered what Santa’s exercise routine looks like – here it is: