Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

We've officially made it through one month in our new surroundings! I've been told the first month is the toughest and I can vouch that adding your first ever Christmas away from home to your first month in a new country probably doesn't help the homesick factor. Thanks to my wonderful husband and his endless support and thoughtfulness, we were still able to enjoy the holiday here in Doha while our families were celebrating in PA and Scotland. I had a few tough moments thinking of all our holiday traditions that we would miss, including our 7 fish dinner on Christmas Eve, our Christmas morning breakfast at Mom & Dad's, and of course the rest of the celebrations and delicious dinners with the whole family! But thanks to skype and the wonderful video chat technology that they offer, I was able to watch my nieces and nephew open Christmas presents first thing in the morning, and chat with my family multiple times on Christmas day =) 


I have to admit that one of my favorite things about Doha is the gorgeous winter weather. I've never spent a December in short sleeves and flip flops, or dining outside, or enjoying a round of golf. So I'm soaking up every minute of it. The weather is amazing, but I can't help but think that it just doesn't feel like Christmas without the freezing temps, the masses of snow and the Christmas lights.  So Kris and I made every attempt to make our first Christmas together as a married couple as "Christmassy" as possible... by turning on the air conditioning to extremely low temps and dressing up in our hats, scarves and gloves! Just kidding... But we did go to see the Christmas carolers at the Ritz Carlton on Christmas Eve. The hotels are decked out with gigantic trees, garland with lights, wreaths, and Christmas music playing in the background. We sat and enjoyed some tea and juice while listening to the familiar Christmas carols that we grew up with and watched the many families gathered together around the lobby of the hotel. The majority of the crowds were Westerners so it felt very much like we could have been close to home.

We also wanted to share some Christmas lights that we found in our neighborhood. I've been told that these lights were actually put up in celebration of an Arabic wedding, but I'm sticking to the story that they're Christmas lights =)

We enjoyed a quiet Christmas morning opening presents and eating blueberry bread for breakfast.  Later in the afternoon we joined friends for dinner. I contributed one of my family favorites of sweet potato casserole for dinner and an apple crisp for dessert. Kris had every intention of bringing the parsnips that he worked so hard to find, but ended up forgetting them at home =( We had a beautiful Christmas dinner celebration with friends and enjoyed a meal of turkey, stuffing and all the trimmings.  I was also introduced to the British tradition of Christmas Crackers. You and a partner must pull each end of the Christmas Cracker to reveal a small present of some sort, a joke, and a Christmas hat which must be worn throughout the meal. 

On New Years Eve we celebrated at the Grand Hyatt. We had just planned on eating dinner at Rocca, their poolside restaurant which overlooks West Bay Lagoon, and then heading out. But we had such a blast that we ended up staying there for about 4 1/2 hours and ringing in the New Year. 


Of course there's a little side story to every experience in Doha. When Kris called to make the reservations he asked if they were running any dinner specials for the occasion. They said no, so we figured we'd just order off of their regular menu and have a glass of wine or two and we'd be good to go. We arrived and quickly realized that was not the case. Our server (an extremely happy and likeable 22 year old guy from Turkey who spoke very broken English) asked if we already knew what was going on that night or if we needed him to explain. It turns out that the only option for the evening was an all you can eat pizza and pasta meal. It also included your choice of endless beer, wine and champagne. We weren't particularly looking to stuff ourselves with an all-you-can-eat meal, especially since the original plan had a slightly more selective dinner in mind than pizza and pasta. But we've learned that nothing really goes according to plan in Doha. So we rolled with it! Since it was only 8 pm when we arrived and our server inquired if we had planned on staying there to ring in the New Year, we decided that the all-you-can-eat (AND DRINK) option just might work out for the night. It was the perfect place to enjoy the beautiful scenery and intimate setting!


We hope you all enjoyed your Christmas and New Years with your family and friends. We wish you a healthy and happy New Year!


(Here are some pictures from our New Year celebration. We're starting to figure out a few more settings on our new camera. We hope you enjoy the shots below.)