'Tis the Season

When you think of autumn or early winter, what comes to mind? Is it maybe the excitement of putting on an extra layer of clothing for the first time in the season? Perhaps the surprise when you see your breath in the morning when you step out the door and realize that it hasn’t been this cold in months and you can suddenly feel winter approaching? How about wrapping your cold fingers round a warm mug of your favourite hot drink? Stacking firewood in preparation for winter? Whatever it is that you think of as being quintessentially “wintery” I can almost guarantee you we don’t get it here in the desert.

It’s a strange thing moving from Japan with its oh-so-distinct four seasons to Al Ain where the weather seems the same every day and the closest thing we get to a “seasonal change” is the gentle and welcome cooling off over the "winter" months. It can be easy to lose sense of “when” you are. Liz and I had breakfast at our local café, La Brioche, last weekend. It was the morning after our Thanksgiving dinner. We sat outside in the sun. It was really nice out there, and I’m sure we’ll do it again soon, but as we were leaving Liz said that she couldn’t believe it was late November! And it’s true! Breakfast out on the terrace in late November??!?! (and all my southern hemisphere friends are going "yeah, and...?") It’s a perfect example of how we don’t have a sense of seasons here. That doesn’t mean we don’t try… haha. And having warm weather every day certainly does have it’s benefits!

Now it’s “winter” here. Yes, winter. Though let me assure you that “winter” in Al Ain is not like winter back home. There is no snow. There is no cold, only cool. It’s sunny and very pleasant. Much like a Christchurch summer! Ha! We don't need to use our aircons any more. We can just open the windows and let the cool breeze in. It's fantastic!! Speaking of seasons… it is now “officially” the SEASON TO BE JOLLY!!! Yes, December brings with it my favourite time of the year: Christmas!!!!!

We have our tree up. Not just any tree, but a superior 8 foot tree! It’s awesome! I hear there is a shipment of real live Christmas trees due to arrive here any day now from Nova Scotia, but we’ve decided to go with a fake tree. First we made a wreath. We had a simple autumn wreath up already, so we decided to just add some red berries, poinsettia flowers, apples, pine cones, etc to convert it into a Christmas wreath. I think it looks pretty good, actually.

Then, the moment I had been waiting for: the tree! Yesterday being December 1st, I raced into the guest room and brought the box into the lounge. Liz and I then unfurled each branch and gradually built up our tree. SO much fun!!

We moved the tree around the room a bit looking for the best place to leave it, and decided on putting it in front of the big glass doors that we don't often use. It's always nice if the tree lights can be seen from outside. We then had a minor lights disaster, but everything got sorted out and now we have our tree!! We still need to get a tree topper, which we'll hopefully manage to pick up next time we're in Dubai. Then our neighbours Geoff and Wan came over for afternoon tea, and then we went to Dad and Jan's for a bbq dinner. All in all, a GREAT day.