Christmas Dinner 2007

On the 26th December 2007, the UAE Wallis house was transformed into what would resemble any Christmas spent at the Grandparents House in South Africa. The one difference is that here in the UAE, nobody has family to spend Christmas with, so friends will have to do. Another difference is that in South Africa it is the husband (Grandpa) doing all the catering, and the Wife (Granny) telling him repeatedly that he is going overboard...with us it is the other way around...every year Luiza caters enough to feed a small army, with me in the backround saying repeatedly...'You are overdoing it this year...', and this ritual happens every year, without exception. Guess I should have learnt by now. But, having said that, I must be the first to admit that every years the dinner is a huge hit and I ALWAYS end us saying a big thank you to the wife for making it happen.

On the menu this year was a variety of well prepared meats, including Roast Duck, BBQ (Braai) Turkey, Roast lamb and BBQ (Braai) Piglet, with all the salads and side dishes to go with all of them...including apple sauce and mint sauce. As usual, the job of cooking the Turkey was mine again this year as we BBQ the turkey whole on the Weber Braai. This years turkey was smaller that last year weighing in at only 6.5 kg. To BBQ a turkey that size takes about 4 to 5 hours. This year I also had a second BBQ running with what started out as a full baby pig in the BBQ but ended up in pieces as it was not cooking properly. I dont think I will be doing that again next year.

After dinner and drinks, we had Santa hand out gifts to all the children (both young and old). There were a total of 9 children and 10 adults present (pardon the pun), which included a pair of identical twins.

We spent the New Year in Dubai waiting for what was suppose to be the biggest Fireworks display in the world. After braving the chaotic traffic for about an hour, we were still stauck in traffic when the fireworks began and we missed them all...typical. It took us another 30 minutes or so just to turn the car around to begin the trip home to Al Ain, which by the way is about 1 1/2 hours drive from Dubai. We finally got into bed at about 04h00.

And so we start 2008 and we hope it brings good things to all...

Regards to all...
Mike,Luiza & the Kids