LAURAnce of aROBia: Christmas in Saudi Arabia

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! My parents were here visiting and it was awesome to see them. Their flights were long but smooth, and they had no (major) troubles with their visitor visas. We loved showing them firsthand all the things we try to explain to them on Skype. It was extremely hard to say goodbye again...but at least it is only until June!

Building the tree

While they were here we had a "staycation" and toured everything even slightly interesting in the area. Saudi Arabia, of course, does not allow tourism, so there are not very many interesting or well-marked tourist attractions. With the help of Rob's new GPS from Santa, we visited several cultural sites which will be described in future posts.

The finished product

Even though it is technically illegal to celebrate Christmas here, many of the workers on our compound and at stores wished us a "happy Christmas". We were able to find a surprising amount of Christmas-related candy and some awesome hand-painted ornaments on which Santa is riding a camel. Other decorations I bought in Germany or were donated by T.G.W.G.S.

The preparations for Christmas included making a snowman, assembling our smuggled tree, and making a gingerbread house...

Grandpa had to take over the gingerbread construction
after the houses collapsed.

One sprinkle on the house, one in my mouth

Decorating with Triniti and Tammy
(daughter and wife of T.G.W.G.S.)

Our gingerbread house

We had our traditional meal of meatballs and mashed potatoes on Christmas Eve, and the Bialiks (T.G.W.G.S. and family) came over. Then on Christmas we had turkey at their house. Almost everyone else has gone home or on vacations (to India, Sri Lanka, Romania, Germany...) so the compound was pretty empty. To round out the holiday, we were able to skype or call several other family members. Jack loved the gifts sent by our family - a book from Uncle Jason, a remote control truck from the Garretts, Aunt Sue's caramels (okay, I ate those all myself!), and recordable books from Gamma Nancy and Gampa Steve.