Merry Christmas from Morocco!

It’s a bit anti-climactic spending Christmas on your own in a Muslim country, to be sure. No crazy Christmas shopping, no snow, no festive lights, no cookie exchanges…

Actually I don’t really miss the snow, although it would be nice to see it on Christmas day.

Last Christmas: 2020

Last year I was also in Morocco over Christmas. The lead-up was great. I listened to Christmas carols from my stash of music on my laptop. I watched my favourite Christmas movies and shows. I put a few dead twigs in this big clay water jug we have on a stand in the salon and called it a Christmas tree. Ali bought me an LED light strip that was fairly blinding when plugged in, but very cheerful.

I made paper snowflakes out of my Covid test result papers and hung them from the ceiling with thread. I gathered up bits of garbage that the desert wind deposited on our land and upcycled it into tree ornaments with a bit of thread and some wire. I simmered oranges and spices on the stove for that wonderful festive aroma.

But no Christmas baking.

No gifts to buy.

No stockings to fill.

Santa doesn’t come to the Sahara it seems.

Christmas day was a let-down. It was warm and sunny, which was great, but I realized that it was really all the traditions of Christmas that I missed.

Mom opening her stocking full of goodies.

The big dinner with family.

Christmas baking and carrot pudding with butterscotch sauce.

PEAMEAL BACON AND CHRISTMAS HAM.

I’m drooling just thinking about it. (Hmmm….maybe I was just hungry! LOL)

Whatever the reason, I wanted more this year.

This Christmas: 2021

So I got the Christmas ornaments for all my niblings organized and packaged before I left Canada in October and left instructions with my sisters for distribution.

I bought battery-operated mini-lights, some small, lightweight tree ornaments, and a couple of Christmas solar stakes at Dollarama and packed them in my suitcase. I was determined to do better in the decoration department, even though I was severely limited in the weight allowance of my baggage this time.

Ali trimmed some branches off our eucalyptus trees and gave them to me to use as a Christmas tree of sorts. I arranged them in the same clay ewer and put some lights on them…

…but it wasn’t quite doing it for me. The branches were drying out, of course, and beige just isn’t a very festive colour, lol.

I’d been trying to help Ali revamp his website, spending countless frustrating hours on the computer, and it was making me tear my hair out. My blog was on hold. I realised that I was missing at least one key ingredient for every single Christmas recipe that I usually make.

Then, suddenly, I was alone in the house. Ali was off hunting meteorites with friends, and after a few days I started to feel a bit lonely. This was shocking to me. I spend most of my life alone and usually enjoy it immensely. For whatever reason, this time it was different.

For one thing, the flash drive containing my Christmas movies was corrupted, and I couldn’t find my favourites on Amazon Prime. How could I get through Christmas without watching The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, A Christmas Carol, and It’s a Wonderful Life???

I could bake something, I supposed, but with no-one to enjoy the fruits of my labours, it all seemed a bit…pointless.

I had planned to mitigate the Christmas blues this year by going to Paris right after Christmas for a week. See the festive lights, shop at the Christmas markets, eat Christmassy treats. Go to a classical Christmas concert. Have some Christmas ham. (I sure do miss my pork products, lol!) But once again, Covid had other plans. Morocco had once again closed its borders completely, so travel was impossible. Rats! I’d really been looking forward to that trip.

Instead of seeing the abundance in my life, I was suddenly feeling the lack. Lack of Christmas bustle, silver bells and Santa Claus. I missed my cat. I missed my friends. I missed my mom.

I was feeling sorry for myself, basically.

Next thing I know, Ali’s brother Naji is stepping out of the van in front of the house…

When what to my wondering eyes did appear?

A little live PINE TREE – the surprise of the year!

Naji said he wanted me to feel like I was back in Canada for Christmas. He’d looked online to see what kind of tree a “Christmas tree” was and managed to find me an actual, living, evergreen tree. It looks like a Norfolk Pine. I was almost in tears I was so thrilled. This is possibly the most thoughtful gift anyone has ever given me.

So I turfed the twigs and rigged up a waterable tree stand out of a plastic basin and some rocks, and proceeded to spend a happy afternoon singing along to Christmas music and decorating my beautiful little tree. I found a piece of green and white fabric to hide the purple basin and look how cute it is!

That was over a week ago. Now all of a sudden it’s Christmas Eve and I’ve been working so hard getting this blog sorted out that I don’t have a single baked thing left in the house! I had plans to fill the house with delicious Christmas aromas all December long. Where has the month gone?

But I have my tree and my Christmas lights. I have Christmas music on Spotify and my laptop.

And I have one more day to bake something for Christmas Day. I can gather some fresh young greens from our garden and make a yummy Christmas-coloured salad with sweet red peppers. I can simmer apples and oranges with cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves on the stove and fill the house with the smells of Christmas.

Next year I’ll do even better. Just because people here don’t celebrate Christmas doesn’t mean that I can’t give gifts to honour my own traditions. To me Christmas has always been more about giving than receiving. And gifts don’t have to be bought in a store. I can give in other ways.

To you, my friends, my family, I give the gift of this blog. I made it for all of you. Because having you in my life has enriched me in so many ways over the years and I miss you all. I don’t want to let distance and disease keep me from nurturing my relationships with you or stop me from including you in my life.

I want you to know that I’m thinking of you. I love you all and wish you a wonderful, heartfelt,

Merry Christmas!