Home For Christmas '11

Yesterday after I got off work at 1:00pm, my parents picked me up and we drove down to Beirut to pick my brother up from the airport, his flight was due at 4:00pm.

We arrived just as his plane was landing and as we walked in to the arrivals section, I was quite overwhelmed with all the people there, waiting. The atmosphere was just full of airport love and longing: parents waiting for their student sons or daughters, little children waiting for their working fathers or mothers, lovers waiting for their loves… in every person I looked at, my mind would come up with a story of whom that person could be, and who he/she could be waiting for…

Add to that the festive songs of the holiday season playing in the background; add to it being December 24th, Christmas Eve, I genuinely felt happy for all the passengers who had just come home for the holidays!

And then the phone rang. It was my brother, he had arrived, but his bags had not. He said there had been a delay in the take off from Montreal and so he had barely made his connecting flight from Paris. But he was told that his luggage should arrive in the next plane from Paris which was due to land at 7:00pm. And he was a little ticked off...

So to kill time, we drove to Beirut Souks for dinner at The Met. The weather had taken a turn for the worse and as we were dining, little icicles began falling down from the ceiling. A white Christmas indeed! And in the spirit, I couldn’t help but snap this picture of The Christmas Tree under the pouring rain and hail:

Christmas Trees make me feel warm inside. I think it’s their flickering lights, their secure stance, as if they’re saying "I’ll always shine a light for you". Peace.

We finished dinner and drove back to the airport where thankfully, the suitcases had indeed arrived. We loaded them into the trunk and drove back home…

It definitely wasn't the Christmas Eve I had planned, but it’ll go down as one of the best Christmas Eves I’ve had till date ... Happy Holidays! :-)

Tis The Season To Be Jolly!

I just got back from a wonderful weekend in Beirut with two of my closest friends from AUB, Dan and Nadz. They both flew in from Kuwait and Jordan respectively and I took the weekend off to spend it with them. I haven’t been to Beirut in a while, and though I don’t appreciate the capital as much as I do Tripoli (shocker!), it was a good getaway and the Christmas spirit was in the air:

Live Christmas Festival

Yesterday was the opening ceremony of the “Live Christmas Festival”, which includes a Christmas exhibition, artistic events, children’s activities, and a display of international Christmas decorations (consisting of a Lebanese Tree, German Tree, British Tree, Venezuelan Tree, Polish Tree, and Italian Tree). And you’re all cordially invited:

Mum’s aunt is participating in the Christmas Handicrafts Exhibition, and she asked us to come support her. She has some cute wool brooches and scarves (I bought a red one), and I coincidently found a stand for my friend Nada’s Mum (Enjoy), a stand for my other friend Nada’s Mum (RosArt), and another stand for a local organization called Fista (First Step Together Association) for disabled children. There were also a bunch of people Mum knew (I sometimes feel that Tripoli really is small enough for everyone to know everyone!) and as support, we bought a few Christmas decorations which I decided to gift to Nan for her Tree:

The exhibition is being held till Saturday the 18th of December, so go support ‘em, for the Christmas Spirit! ;-)

Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree!

After not having had a Christmas Tree at work last year, I made sure to order one early this year (on November 30th) and it finally arrived to work this morning! The delivery men came in, set it up, decorated it, and here it is:

Rocking Around The Christmas Tree

There’s something about Christmas that I can’t help but love. I think being a little girl in Canada had something to do with it. At school, with friends, in the neighborhood, I was constantly surrounded with the beautiful spirit of the season. I remember on some winter nights, Dad would drive us around the block looking at all the houses’ different decorations. The wreaths at the doors, the mistletoes (kiss-kiss), Santa and his reindeer, the chimney and the stockings, but more than anything, I remember Christmas from Christmas Trees…

Since we don’t actually celebrate Christmas, I asked Nan if I could help her decorate her tree this year. And she was of course delighted. She said she usually sets it up on December 1st, but after spending a day in Beirut during the Eid Vacation, she noticed that the capital was all ready for Christmas. So yesterday and the day before, we spent hours setting up and decorating the tree. And I never realized how much thought and time goes into Christmas tree decorations!

The tree Nan had, needed to be built. She took it out of a cardboard box with a tripod base and several metallic branches. We spent a good time separating the leaves of each branch from each other and then attaching them to the main pole. After that, we took out the lights (some colored, some white, some blue) and danced around the tree, wrapping it in shimmering lights. Then, we took out several boxes filled with decorations, balls, bells, and angels. We placed them all on the tree, topped with the Christmas Star. I asked Nan what the star represented, and she said it represented the star which hung over the manger in which Jesus was born. Which lead us to the cave…

Under the tree, Nan creatively placed the cardboard boxes that the tree and decorations had been put in, and placed several big brown cloths on top of them. And right under the tree on top of the center box, she positioned a little cave, the cave that Jesus was born in. She sprinkled bits of grass around the cave and cloths, which was a brilliant final touch to that little corner of Christmas in her living room :-)