A Dubuque woman has become an internet sensation after her son posted Janet El Khatib’s “home of the holidays” email for the family online.
The week-long schedule outlined meal plans and snacks, along with visits to familiar spots in Dubuque, like the Hotel Julien and Happy Joe’s for taco pizza — a family favorite. Khalid El Khatib got lots of attention from his initial tweet and has been providing updates over the past week. He and his mom recorded a video Sunday night.
“O.K. everyone. It’s Janet and I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. I’m not on Twitter. The only time I’m on is to follow my son and I’m not on Facebook,” she said. “I just had to say I hope you’ve enjoyed this week of interesting information as you’ve followed us on our food journey and our activities in Dubuque.”
The family’s Christmas meal included Janet’s mushroom cheese bread, which Khalid said he started making for dinner parties when he moved to New York.
“We’ve had fun. I hope you’ve had fun. I hope you’ve developed your own traditions. I hope you’ve had a wonderful holiday, so Merry Christmas. Happy New Year,” Janet said. “Happy Holidays to everyone else who celebrates in different ways. Merry, merry Christmas.”
Her son had the final words on the video. “That was good,” he said to his mom. “Merry Christmas.”
A little less than 24 hours after their video had been posted, it had 371,000 views on Twitter.
This afternoon, Khalid tweeted that three Dubuque neighbors who walked by as he was shoveling snow all asked: “Is this on your mom’s itinerary?”
The Today Show host Hoda Kotb featured the family on a segment last week. Khlid tweeted tonight that he was closing out the visit to his hometown with “the most Iowa activity that you can do: playing Euchre.”