Christmas 2009

The staff here on our compound expended a tremendous effort in order to make Christmas special for guys here without their families (I'm the only non-staff spouse here).

First, Christmas Eve started with a potluck. That's the back of me slicing up my corned beef:


Anne, and to her right, Chris and Vinnie. The other two guys are new staff either here at Beni Suef or visiting from Cairo.


Then our Bible Study hosted a Christmas Eve program at the Chapel which was followed by homemade rum balls, chocolate truffles, and Irish cream cheesecake by Linda as well as sweet breads from the kitchen:
















Here's Linda, Jim, Tony, and the other Dave at the bar afterwards:


The Egyptian staff decorated a few of the trees with lightbulbs, which put off A LOT of light. David's first comment was "How much wattage are those putting out??"


and they even made a giant gingerbread church, except it wasn't gingerbread but slabs of chocolate which they decorated. Quite impressive!


We were laughing about how our sole Christmas decoration in the house was a pine-scented Christmas candle, but we adapted and overcame: stocking caps for stockings and our green chair for holding presents. :)
















After opening presents, we ambled on down to the dining facility for a light lunch, recovered in the afternoon, and then 5 pm was Christmas dinner. I took a photo of the posted menus:





















Christmas dinner was scrumdillyicious. Here are the chefs taking a bow (well, figuratively, I guess):


















Omar explaining how he fashioned the chocolate bark for the Tiramisu Tree:


Two giant bowls of eggnog and, yes, they piped "Merry Christmas" in mashed potatoes:






























After dinner, we did our White Elephant gift exchange. We tried hard to get the gumball machine and the sheesha pipe but ended up with a pair of headphones and a baby blanket. Go figure. :)