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Yesterday’s Christmas lunch didn’t quite go as planned. The intention had been for some friends to come over for a roast turkey and maple ham lunch, and to continue the Christmas cheer with fresh puddings, mince pies and shortbreads.

Unfortunately Mitchell’s immune system had other plans.

He’s had a cold for a few days, and on Christmas eve he developed a raging fever which persisted all night and was unresponsive to anti-pyretics. So come Christmas morning, with all of us very sleep deprived, we hurriedly opened presents and then headed off to the hospital for a swine flu test.

The initial check suggested he had H1N1.  With several littlies expected at our Christmas lunch, we thought it prudent to cancel everything. Then we headed home, to await the outcome of the influenza test.

Eventually, later in the afternoon, the test came back: negative. Which I guess is a shame really. Afterall, he’s already sick as a dog, but at least if it was the crazy pig stuff then he’d develop some immunities to it.

So that was our Christmas. Fried ham and egg sandwiches for lunch, roast turkey for dinner (sans friends), a puff on the shisha and some crappy TV on the box.

Hope you all had a great one. Merry Christmas to all!

Some (unfortunately blurry) video of Mitchell and his bud Sara at the Lemonts Christmas party. Kid’s got some lungs on him.

Poor old downtown Beirut never gets a break from strife!

Wow, this year went fast.  It seems like it was only the other week that we were packing away the Christmas decorations, and now they’re all out again.

Of course it goes without saying that Mitchell’s suitably excited. He wrote his first ever letter to Santa the other day (with mummy’s help), asking for a scooter that we saw at the mall last weekend.  I wonder if Santa will get the letter in time?  And has Mitchell been a good enough boy this year?  We’ll have to wait and see whether there’s a shiny new scooter under the tree in a few weeks’ time…

Meanwhile, Ashrafieh is making the transition to Xmas mode.  Sparkly lights are on at night, nativity scenes are being populated, and the outside air’s cooling down.  As if those weren’t enough cues, the most obvious one is the traffic - once again our proximity to ABC Mall turns from a blessing to a curse, as half of Beirut migrates there every evening to shop and dine.  Makes the night time commute from work take soooooo much longer.