Halloween

Well, do not let it be said that the UAE doesn't "do" non-Arabic holidays... 

Although there are no falling leaves in reds, browns, & oranges, the temperature has dropped below 100 degrees & pumpkins were spotted in the grocery stores. 

The kids' school held a Harvest Festival to rival any back in the states... 

Olivia's grade used a farm theme to decorate their booth. All that cardboard was once the boxes that housed our mattresses for the sea shipment. I think the ladies did a great job recycling it into a barn complete with animals!  The festival lasted from 5-7 pm on the soccer pitch (AstroTurf) behind the school. Every grade had a booth where kids played a game to receive a candy/toy prize. Our booth did sack races, of course.

It was a fun night & I enjoyed seeing all the costumes. 

We left a little early to grab dinner at our local cafe, Cafe Firenze (Italian). They had crafted desserts to match the Halloween theme... brains & eyeballs!!!

We hosted a Jack-o-lantern Carving Party at our flat on Halloween day; it IS a tradition for us, afterall. But finding an affordable pumpkin proved impossible. ALL foods (except dates) are imported, but pumpkins fell into the "speciality foods" price category. At over 130 AED per pumpkin, we knew we had to find an alternative squash/fruit to carve. 

Enter the lowly watermelon....

Watermelons are imported from much closer countries & therefore fall back into the "reasonable" price ranges. We picked up a fairly large, round-ish one for around 13 AED. Whew! The Shipman family came over to carve with us...

I think they turned out pretty good! We used battery operated Christmas lights to light them. 

All in all, it was a good -- if slightly unconventional -- Halloween. The complex threw a Halloween party on the beach:

I can honestly say it was my first experience with a skeleton on a palm tree...

The kids went door to door in the apartment complex (a totally exhausting exercise reminecent of a Quest game at Great Wolf Lodge) & ended up with a small, but respectable candy stash. 

So, all in all, the UAE is proving to be closer to home, holiday-wise, than I thought possible. 

Heck, even Christmas decorations are already up in a lot of the stores!