Christmas time in the Kingdom

This week was interesting, we were worried about our presents from friends and family arriving with the delays caused by snow in the U.S. and europe, but Christmas was saved when the APO decided to stay open Thursday and Friday (our weekend here in the Kingdom), and we had 3 presents arrive today on Christmas Eve! The interesting thing about APO is that it is all consolidated in the States, then packaged together and sent overseas together. So, that means that you can get a lot of companies to do free shipping to APO because it is in the U.S., and if you ever ship personally remember the 'express', 'priority', and other expedited shipping only gets it to New York then its on the same priority of everything else that is APO the rest of the trip.

By far, the most interesting part was the Consulate Christmas tree decorating party. The Consulate had a little celebration for all employees to attend which included putting up the tree in the entrance of the Chancery and then we would all eat a bunch of yummy desserts. It all started out great with Christmas music playing and everyone happy to be doing something other than work. Well, it got funny because for some reason we decided the decorating should be handled by the Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Lebanese. They attacked teh tree with determination, excitement, and every possible decoration that could be dug out of the warehouse in time! They even pushed all the Americans out of the way because they knew what had to be done, but they seemed have forgotten that we have been doing this since childhood. They put lights on the tree and then decided to check to see if the lights worked and they didn't. Instead of taking them off they left them and found new ones which happen to be iciles light, that you hang outside, after putting half of them on they then checked to see if the lights worked and only half did. In the end it was amazing to watch these wonderful people work so hard to make the Consulate Christmas tree so special. The tree ended up great, but experience goes a long way and perhaps next year we will shy away from having anyone with 'Islamic Republic of ____' as the key Christmas tree decorator or at least give them a lesson on an easier way of doing things.

Mama Gnome has been in full baking mode, she has made at least 7 dozen cookies already for motorpool, security, neighbors, etc... and has now baked her first loaf of homemade French bread (which looks and smells awesome), and has another, less impressive loaf of bread that is currently baking...we most likely won't mention it again after this post.

We are trying to establish some Christmas traditions, but are noticing that some have to be slightly altered...instead of driving around to look at Christmas lights on Christmas Eve, we will take the golf cart around the compound visiting neighbors. Instead of Snow Angels, we have made Sand Angels. Instead of waking up to excited kids, hopefully, it will just be the first Prayer Call. The only thing we can't replicate is having our amazing and loving family with us. We miss everyone so much, but we hope that everyone has an amazing Christmas wherever they are.