The Weekend Before Christmas

Phew! That was some kind of weekend!

Last week, we celebrated the Eid Al Adha holiday and luckily got 3 days off adjacent to the weekend. The 5 straight, bum out days were very much welcomed in anticipation of the Christmas celebration happening in less than 24 hours. We had a chance to grab some last minute items for the Noche Buena preparations, did a li’l bit of last-minute shopping, and sought some additional containers for the home-baked goodies my Ryan prepared as gifts.

Carrefour was jampacked with people, and every single soul inside was scurrying from all directions. It was horrific to find almost every shelf for basic commodities empty. The Middle East is currently facing a wave of scarcity of eggs due to a bird flu outbreak in KSA so at some point during the weekend, Ryan & I combed all groceries we could find to search for fresh brown eggs. Well, hubby cannot bake without eggs, right? :)

The long weekend was also an opportune time to bond with close friends. We hit the stores together and triple dated to catch the Bee Movie at Cinestar in Deira City Centre, which, I must say, was one clean fun activity for kids at heart like us. It was a hilarious film and we just looooove it! Not surprised that it got into the roster of the Dubai International Film Festival featured films. Wait, we were sponsors for the DIFF…why haven’t I thought of getting us gala tickets then?

Last Saturday, hubby spent morning, noon and night baking chocolate crinkles, butterscotch and oatmeal raisin cookies. I tried to help by greasing the baking pans, washing the utensils (pathetic!) and chopping raisins and walnuts. I am proud to say that I was the one in charge of packaging and quality control, of course with a few nibbling on the side (mmmmm, yummy!). This was the outcome of every pack:



Some snaps of the baked goodies:

I guess we did pretty well. Do you think we should start doing some consignment business? Yesterday morning, I dropped off the gifts for my colleagues to the office. They said they were divine! As I was leaving, I even saw a few people already on their 3rd cookie complimenting on how good they really were. Well, that’s another errand crossed out from my list, and now the only thing left to do is make the apartment spic and span for tonight’s celebration.

Oh yeah, that and a lot of cooking! gotta go now…

To everyone, have a very merry Christmas! I hope you spend it with your family and loved ones. Let us keep in our hearts the real reason for the season.  God bless you all.