Merry Noel

Christmas is not a Muslim holiday. Despite its ever increasing secularity, Christmas is still not celebrated in Morocco. (duh.) I won't say that the holiday season was sad for me this year, because it was much better than anticipated. I spent great moments with friends and found little pockets of Christmas cheer. Jess and I even got to attend a Christmas party and dinner with a group of American families. They were heartwarming and exactly what we needed.

Sans other Americans, however, Jess and I had to make our own holiday celebrations. We found the perfect place: Mega Mall. What better way to ring in Noel than amidst western decorated trees and shopping extravaganzas at the fancy schmanciest place in all of Rabat?!?
Jess and I spent Christmas Even window shopping, eating Sushi, and ice-skating with Mehdi and his girlfriend Nicole at Mega Mall- wait! there wasn't any ice skating that night, so instead we went ICE KARTING! That's right, go-karting on ice. It was awesome. See for yourself:


We marked our Christmas Eve events with a little jingle:

Deck the mall with rolls of sushi,
Mega Mega Mall, oh Mega Mall!
Tis the season to be Boujey,
Mega Mega Mall, oh Mega Mall!
Ice karting and new apparel,
Mega Mall, Mega Mall, Mega Mall.
You might forget you're in Morocco,
Mega Mega Mall, oh Mega Mall!

For Christmas Day we had a small group of friends over to watch Charlie Brown's Christmas Special and eat french fries prepared by Jess. Mehdi went above and beyond his already amazing cake-making by baking a Christmas log complete with little figure skaters and plastic trees on top. Delicious and so beautiful! Needless to say, Mega Mall and American families and thoughtful friends all contributed to what was a restful and joyous Christmas season here in Morocco.