Day 12 – Monday 25 December – Christmas Day

A snuggle in from 6.30am with Austin who was still tired but couldn’t sleep because he was so excited about Christmas.  The magic hour for him to get up is 7 am.  He is so excited that Christmas has arrived at last.  I got up soon after him to find a white Christmas – very thick fog.  I said “Austin Santa may not find us in this fog.”  The sweetheart boy touched his nose & said “Rudolf’s red nose will shine & guide Santa to Abu Dhabi.”  He was right Santa did find us!!  Charles cooked pancakes for us this morning & the boys tucked into them before present opening time.  They did very well & spent all morning playing, then started putting together their programmable robot machines before it was time for lunch.

It turned out to be a beautiful sunny 26C.

Charles drove us to the Viceroy Hotel on Yas Island in the middle of the Formula One Grand Prix race track.  This hotel is very fancy & decked out very lavishly for a big smorgasbord lunch.  The decorations around the hotel are elaborate & the tables are set beautifully.  The food is something else again, a huge selection of top quality food put together by a team of chefs.  My favourite is seafood & the choice is amazing, lobster, salmon, scallops, prawns, calamari, smoked salmon, sushi, sashimi).  There are several types of roasts (no pork), soups, breads, shish kebabs, vegetables, salads galore there so many different foods that it would be too many to name.  We have our fill then go back for more, the variety & taste is exceptional.  Then there is the dessert, exceptional, again the variety & amount is amazing & I can’t begin to imagine how long the chef’s took to put it all together.  Outside the dessert room was a chef making dessert with liquid nitrogen, so Tereza & I partook with a shot of Bailey’s Irish Cream to top it off & it was delicious.  Santa arrived & brought every child a present.  Then Tereza & Austin visited the kid’s room – where there was more food, jumping castle, train & face painting.  Austin chose to be painted up as Santa.  We were all so full, so we had a wander around on the rooftop pool area then a walk outside to admire the gardens.  The Yas Marina is also inside the Grand Prix track & we had a look at some of the multi-million dollar yachts.  The Emirates amaze us how clean & well organized it is with most of the architecture very modern & having real pizzazz.

Back home around 4pm & a very quite afternoon with very full tummies.  Tereza, Monica & the 2 boys watched some old Christmas movies.  Out on the balcony we were watching the sunset & looking at the building construction.  Here in Abu Dhabi construction (there is a lot) goes on 24 hours per day, even Christmas day because it’s just another day here.  Even though I have not seen more or better celebrations & decorations than in Abu Dhabi, Dubai or even Jordan, I feel that it does not matter whether you are a Christian, other believer or a nonbeliever – it’s that little bit of magic that brings joy to children & to all.

Monica, Charles & the boys gave us an amazing Christmas experience.