Thank you all for your advice. The gathering has been postponed as a work crisis arose, which both my husband and our host had to attend to. I was really looking forward to this event butI believe our new date will now correspond to the grandmother's birthday. This is a blessing and I no longer need to fret about what to wear as I'm certain this will b a "dress-up" occasion (wasn't sure about the family dinner as even in Canada, different families have different ideas about attire).
Will wear high heals, a long dress and abaya ( don't really know what a jalabiya is, sorry, but abaya is purchased and lovely and would b a shame not to wear it). Just to clarify though, if I'm wearing an abaya, should I be concerned about spaghetti straps on my dress ( it'll b covered up when men are around) ??
Should b a nice time. I haven't had much opportunity to interact with local people and I can't imagine a better way to learn about a place than to get to know the people :)
I'll update all when it's through.