Merry Christmas to All --- and to All a Good Night

Merry Christmas from Bahrain, where it's now the morning after. Tim and Katy and I enjoyed a host of jolly festivities with friends from work and their HASH group (Drinkers with a Running Problem; it's largely a British thing). On Christmas Eve, we went to a potluck hosted by their friends Kelly and Pete (a bi-Atlantic newlywed couple) at the British embassy, where Pete works and they both live. A jolly occasion to which we contributed a Sunset magazine-inspired artichoke Parmesan stuffing and also a blue cheese cranberry bruschetta, or at least what we were able to salvage from the recipe after we (okay, I) over olive-oil-ized the sourdough crustini things (we didn't have the requisite brush needed to spread the olive oil, so I ended up sort of dipping both sides, and then as time grew short, hastily submerging --- not really a good idea). But we were fashionably late, or perhaps even later than that (trend-settingly late? designerly late?) and so people were many drinks ahead and complimented us on the cookies. I'm not sure if we brought cookies but that's okay.

The party was fun, except for the moment of panic when I was locked in the bathroom because the door has a handle on only one side, which is, incidentally, not on the side you pull to get out of the room with. So if you, the uninitiated, have pushed the outer door closed behind you when entering, you are faced with the daunting task of pulling open a door with no handle on your way out. I began inspecting the door for where it might not be flush against the wall (or it it "flesh"?) and miraculously was able to use my nails to catch an edge of the door with the right angle and enough leverage to pry it open a bit. I figured Tim or Katy would have come looking for me at some point but glad to have not spent much longer in there. Anyway, Katy and I shot a reenactment of this scene later in the evening, when Tim announced it was time to head out. Photos to come.

On Christmas morning, we joined Kelly and Pete (see above) and her visiting parents at the Gulf Hotel for a holiday brunch. We arrived a bit early this time, mostly out of confusion (the tickets don't generally list the time of the event here) and we were greeted by a red and green and gold lavishly decorated ballroom, with big round tables and white linens, and also greeted by the song "Bohemian Rhapsody." A sort of tragic song for a festive occasion, and it was followed by some other similarly ill-suiting ones ("Guilty feet have got no rhythm" and so forth) and then our friends arrived and we took our places at table # 17, which happened to be the closest to the stage. So we were right there with the Filipino carolers --- who sang in rounds and were very very good --- and a sultry singer who sang Sinatra, and then the eerily masked Santa who came out toward the end carrying a bag of wrapped boxes --- whom the children then mobbed until he was so disoriented that he began swinging his right fist in a circle over his head (video to come).

And then that evening it was MORE food, this time at the home of Nate and Kristen, married naval officers. They've been here in Bahrain (known as "the Land of Not-Quite-Right" -- see P2 and P3 above) for a year and hosted a wonderful dinner for a dozen or so. We all squeezed around the main dining table which was especially pleasing to me, who would have been the first in line regulated to the kiddie table using the age-old juniority method. Kristen is from the South and an amazing cook and has the organizational skills to pull it all off beautifully. Nate is the region's spokesman for the Navy and a Very Good Eater and also saw to it that everyone had a beverage in hand at all times. He, a Midwest native, also gave his card and offered to provide Prairie Home with any material it might want. People of great service, Kristen and Nate, and really fun, too. In fact, tonight Katy and Kristen are organizing an exchange in which their husbands are sent to one house to watch football so that we three can have a Sarah Jessica Parker tribute marathon. After a run, stop at the base, and visit to the souq, that is.


Tomorrow Tim and Katy and I leave for Alexandria, Egypt.