The Christmas and New Year celebrations are finally over. So here is what I got (and got to do) over the holiday season:

1. QBBF (Qatar British Business Forum) Christmas Ball in Ramada. It was really nice! Ours was the noisiest table, as we came prepared with all the party gadgets and a singing Santa doll that played Jingle Bells rather badly. It was fun! Food was OK as well, wine was… well, aplenty. There was a draw but although I got a number 69 ticket, unfortunately I didn’t win anything!
2. Christmas Eve at home with A. Great BBQ. Lots of phone calls to family and friends. Lots of washing up as well (thanks goodness for dishwashers and cleaning boys!)
3. Christmas day! Spent it at S&H’s place, H made her signature turkey which she didn’t touch as she’s a vegetarian/seafoodarian. Turkey was really nice. Spent a whole day with these guys, drank a whole monthly licence’s worth of bubbly and had tons of fun opening presents. So those of you who know what was on my Christmas Wish List, here is the lowdown: I didn’t get ANYTHING from the list! And the iPod whatsit thingy I bought myself few days later. But what I did get wasn’t bad at all. My favourite has to be a pair of socks that came with a Chihuahua key ring!
4. Pre- New Years BBQ at our place with S&H and a certain feisty female who had her eyes for A only and was rolling on the carpet in front of him most of the time. Food – fish and veg. Wine – whatever was left in the bar by the end of the month (not much). S&H were terribly late, and we were terribly hungry! But it was all good, and we had great fun till well past midnight.
5. New Year’s Eve party at Intercontinental, Za Moda. Same people plus another 2, so we were 6 altogether. It’s a fancy shmancy Italian restaurant with excellent food at ridiculous prices. We weren’t disappointed, neither in food nor in prices. Guys got to wear party hats and ladies - interesting feather arrangements. Adult atmosphere with nice classic dancing tunes and we even danced a little. Loved it.
6. New Year’s day spent home with A, slumbering and recovering. And then hit the malls in the afternoon. What I love about Qatar is that everything stays open whatever the occasion. And holidays are usually the cause for the shops to extend their working hours.
7. And oh, if you don’t hear from me anymore, that is because my boss is going to kill me when he gets back from his Xmas break in the UK and asks me how much work I actually managed to do in these 2 weeks! Happy New Year, one and all!

And that was it. I saw the announcement in the paper today that Eid al Adha holidays start from the 8th of January. So hopefully the traffic will ease down a little bit.

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