Season's Greetings
This year we put up the tree and decorated the house at the end of November. Every day the kids checked under the tree and peeked in their stockings to see if any presents arrived.
They got us up at 4:30 on Christmas morning. Apparently they had been awake since 3:41 (Zoe got a watch for her birthday). They checked the living room and Santa had eaten the snack and left presents in their stockings. Finally, they heard Rick roll over and came racing in with such excitement. Who could send those adorable smiling faces back to bed?
After presents and breakfast, we settled in to setting up and playing with the Christmas treasures. As usual, Rick made an amazing Christmas dinner which we shared with friends. He didn't take my advice a few weeks ago when I told him to buy the Stovetop Stuffing that we saw, so of course when he went looking a few days before Christmas, it was gone. His homemade creation was so delicious, I don't think he'll ever use premade again.
The weather Christmas day was upper 20's and there was a sunny blue sky all day - definitely a tee-shirt and shorts kind of day.
Since Christmas fell on a Saturday this year, I got to enjoy the day off. But, it was back to work on Sunday. The kids are off for a 2 week vacation and go back to school on Sunday.
Thursday, 30 December 2010
Thursday, 16 December 2010
Christmas in Dubai - an article in the Gulf News
Customers' quest for the perfect Christmas tree in Dubai
Stores in Dubai stock up on a wide variety, leaving most customers spoilt for choice
By Florence Pia G. Yu, Deputy Web Editor Published: 00:00 December 14, 2010
Image Credit: Ahmed Ramzan/Gulf News Dubai: It's the time of year when the bustling Satwa neighbourhood is turning itself into a veritable mini-forest — of the transportable kind that is.
Natural Christmas trees line the streets vying for buyers' attention alongside flowers and other goods that mark this period in the calendar.
The trees, mostly imported from Canada, are being delivered to the shops by the truckloads. A prospective buyer will be spoilt for choice — there are many varieties of Christmas trees lining the shop aisles and on the pavements. There's fir, but in Satwa, spruce trees are the preferred choice, particularly the blue spruce.
And it's a lucrative business. "We start importing trees in the last week of November and sell up to 700 trees before Christmas," said Vicky V., manager of Fresh Flowers.
His shop has been selling spruce trees for some years now, and sales continued to climb to new highs.
Good business
Most customers are Europeans, though there continues to be a fair sprinkling of Arab and Asian buyers as well. The trees end up in households, offices and business establishments across the UAE.
"We have good business selling flowers and plants all year, but this is the extra that gives us at least Dh300,000 in sales during this season," Vicky commented.
Prices range from Dh250 to Dh5,000. "It depends on the height and the bulk of the tree," Vicky said. (that is about $70 - $1360)
The taller the tree and the more verdant, the more expensive it is. It is the novelty that draws people into buying real Christmas trees instead of their cheaper — and artificial — peers.
"You can't beat the real thing when it comes to the fragrance, look and feel," he said.
Shoppers can also go on-line to buy their tree. Dxbflower.com started selling real Christmas trees this year. A fully-decorated natural Christmas tree is on sale for $320 (Dh1,174).
Store supervisor Amar said that the trees are imported from Canada and take three days to deliver. Ace Hardware's store along Shaikh Zayed Road has pine trees imported from the US retailing for Dh399.
When Gulf News came calling, Kadija Arthur, senior sales assistant, said the store had just run out of stock, but is expecting a new delivery the next day. "It's one of our fast-moving items," she explained.
The shop started stocking the trees from December 3 and will continue to do so until December 15.
Scores of trees have already been sold.
"People are still calling and ordering," she said, adding she is amazed by the sales turnout.
Then again, it should not be a surprise with the onset of the season of cheer. The tree business is definitely scaling new heights.
Stores in Dubai stock up on a wide variety, leaving most customers spoilt for choice
By Florence Pia G. Yu, Deputy Web Editor Published: 00:00 December 14, 2010
Image Credit: Ahmed Ramzan/Gulf News Dubai: It's the time of year when the bustling Satwa neighbourhood is turning itself into a veritable mini-forest — of the transportable kind that is.
Natural Christmas trees line the streets vying for buyers' attention alongside flowers and other goods that mark this period in the calendar.
The trees, mostly imported from Canada, are being delivered to the shops by the truckloads. A prospective buyer will be spoilt for choice — there are many varieties of Christmas trees lining the shop aisles and on the pavements. There's fir, but in Satwa, spruce trees are the preferred choice, particularly the blue spruce.
And it's a lucrative business. "We start importing trees in the last week of November and sell up to 700 trees before Christmas," said Vicky V., manager of Fresh Flowers.
His shop has been selling spruce trees for some years now, and sales continued to climb to new highs.
Good business
Most customers are Europeans, though there continues to be a fair sprinkling of Arab and Asian buyers as well. The trees end up in households, offices and business establishments across the UAE.
"We have good business selling flowers and plants all year, but this is the extra that gives us at least Dh300,000 in sales during this season," Vicky commented.
Prices range from Dh250 to Dh5,000. "It depends on the height and the bulk of the tree," Vicky said. (that is about $70 - $1360)
The taller the tree and the more verdant, the more expensive it is. It is the novelty that draws people into buying real Christmas trees instead of their cheaper — and artificial — peers.
"You can't beat the real thing when it comes to the fragrance, look and feel," he said.
Shoppers can also go on-line to buy their tree. Dxbflower.com started selling real Christmas trees this year. A fully-decorated natural Christmas tree is on sale for $320 (Dh1,174).
Store supervisor Amar said that the trees are imported from Canada and take three days to deliver. Ace Hardware's store along Shaikh Zayed Road has pine trees imported from the US retailing for Dh399.
When Gulf News came calling, Kadija Arthur, senior sales assistant, said the store had just run out of stock, but is expecting a new delivery the next day. "It's one of our fast-moving items," she explained.
The shop started stocking the trees from December 3 and will continue to do so until December 15.
Scores of trees have already been sold.
"People are still calling and ordering," she said, adding she is amazed by the sales turnout.
Then again, it should not be a surprise with the onset of the season of cheer. The tree business is definitely scaling new heights.
Sunday, 5 December 2010
National Day 2010
One of our favourite events here is National Day. This year is great because, since if falls on a Thursday and New Year falls early next week, we got a 4 day weekend.
At work, we had our "celebration" on Monday. The students dressed in their National colours and waved flags. The pride they have in being Emirati is so amazing. The entire assembly was in Arabic so I don't know what exactly was said, but it was obvious by the cheering that they adore all of the leaders of the country as well as the country itself. They always refer to Sheik Zayed who was the first ruler of the country as "Baba" Zayed which means "Father".
Zoe and Chase had their celebration at school on Wednesday. They had an entire day of assembly and carnival. Zoe participated in the assembly by playing her recorder in the performance. Since she is the grade representative for the Student Council, she also had to sell water for a while. For fun they had camel and pony rides, a jumping castle, and lots of things to buy. This year they highlighted the modern UAE and also had a display of 4 wheel drive and other sand vehicles.
On the actual National day we headed over to Mamzar area and joined in the excitement. Both the kids dressed in UAE National Dress. Zoe doesn't own an abaya, so she only had a shayla (head covering). We all enjoyed watching the decorated cars. Some put large decals of the sheiks over their entire car. Lots has small flag decals over the entire car, and of course flags of all sizes. Zoe and Chase had great fun spraying cars and people with silly string and spray snow. I think there was more spray snow here than I have ever seen in Canada!
At work, we had our "celebration" on Monday. The students dressed in their National colours and waved flags. The pride they have in being Emirati is so amazing. The entire assembly was in Arabic so I don't know what exactly was said, but it was obvious by the cheering that they adore all of the leaders of the country as well as the country itself. They always refer to Sheik Zayed who was the first ruler of the country as "Baba" Zayed which means "Father".
Zoe and Chase had their celebration at school on Wednesday. They had an entire day of assembly and carnival. Zoe participated in the assembly by playing her recorder in the performance. Since she is the grade representative for the Student Council, she also had to sell water for a while. For fun they had camel and pony rides, a jumping castle, and lots of things to buy. This year they highlighted the modern UAE and also had a display of 4 wheel drive and other sand vehicles.
On the actual National day we headed over to Mamzar area and joined in the excitement. Both the kids dressed in UAE National Dress. Zoe doesn't own an abaya, so she only had a shayla (head covering). We all enjoyed watching the decorated cars. Some put large decals of the sheiks over their entire car. Lots has small flag decals over the entire car, and of course flags of all sizes. Zoe and Chase had great fun spraying cars and people with silly string and spray snow. I think there was more spray snow here than I have ever seen in Canada!
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