Christmas Fun 2016

We had a lovely Christmas celebration here in Oman. In the morning we woke up to our boys excitement that Santa had arrived the night before. Everyone opened presents and played with them. After breakfast we proceeded to get food ready for friends who were joining us for Christmas lunch. We invited friends and for everyone to bring a plate. Alex, Mike and Koni prepared the umu in the backyard and they started cooking from 8am. We had taro, cassava, pork, lamb, chicken and beef cooked in the umu. The smell of the umu on Christmas day was reminiscent of home and knowing it's a special occasion when you smell that earthen cooking in the air.
I baked pavlova and coconut buns and made a salad and set up the place for our lunch. Everyone arrived with arms full of food. There was so much food. There was beef curry, prawn curry, potato gratin, cheese pie, more salads, tiramisu, trifle, cole slaw and all the meat from the umu. There was a lot to eat. There were also a lot of kids in the yard playing and it just made for a really festive fun day with everyone having fun. A few party games were played much to everyone's amusement and just a good fun day with lovely people from all over the globe. Everyone with kids started leaving around 7pm and other friends joined us in the evening. The festivities continued until I went to put my older son to bed and went to sleep as well at about midnight. It was a lovely day and it's always awesome to have it with friends when we're far away from our families. 

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