Christmas Eve in the Holy Land

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Saturday was the day we left our tour group.  Stephen and Jennifer picked us up at our hotel early Saturday morning after we had a chance to say goodbye to our tour guide, Tamir, and the rest of our tour group.  The people in our group were wonderful and it was sad to say goodbye.  We had lots of amazing adventures together. 

Saturday is the Sabbath in Israel.  So after Stephen and Jennifer picked us up, we drove to the Jerusalem center and went to church.  They had a wonderful Christmas sacrament meeting in the Jerusalem Center.  The chapel there sits on Mount Scopus, overlooking the Old City and the Mount of Olives.  The view over Old Jerusalem while we sang Christmas hymns was beyond amazing!  As I sit and write about it months later, I am still awed about the wonderful meeting singing hymns of the birth of our Savior overlooking a city where He lived and died.  The sun glinted off the Dome of the Rock and I wondered at the amazing history of the city I was in.  The talks were simple and inspiring and the music from an amazing organ played by a former music professor at BYU was concert worthy.  I could have sat in there all day listening to the organ play beautiful Christmas songs.  It truly felt like Christmas.  It was also amazing to be back in the company of Latter-day Saints and to be able to worship together.  The Spirit was very strong in that wonderful place!



View of the Old City from the BYU Jerusalem Center



BYU Jerusalem Center

After church we took some vans from the Jerusalem Center to Bethlehem.  We went with other families of faculty from the Jerusalem Center.  Even though we had gone the day before, it was fun to go back with Steven and Jennifer's family.  Manger Square was even more crowded than the day before.  But there we were--Manger Square in Bethlehem on Christmas Eve.  Does it get any better?

Manger Square in Bethlehem in Christmas Eve 2011

This is a picture of me in front of the church of the Nativity.  It is taken from the same place as the previous picture, just looking the other direction.

Hannah, Rachel, Sarah, Abigail and Kate in Manger Square

Besides the Church of the Nativity, Manger Square also has St. Catherine's church, which is the Roman Catholic church at the site.  This is where the big mass is held every Christmas Eve.  We hadn't been able to go inside the previous day since they were holding mass when we were there, so we were glad we had a chance to go in on this day.  It was beautiful. 

St. Catherine's Catholic Church in Manger Square

I loved these beautiful arches.  It was a great place to get a picture of our family group together on this very special Christmas Eve.

Kate in Manger Square

 We watched as the priests filed out of the church.

 They had a nice life-size nativity.

We left manger square and walked a little around Bethlehem.  Christmas Eve is a big party with parades and marching bands.  It reminded me of the 4th of July in Washington DC.  This was a cute cub scout group marching down the street,

 and some bagpipers.  Notice the "Stars and Bucks cafe" in the background?

They had lots of shops with wood carvings.  I thought it was interesting that we saw this statue in one of the shops. 

 We did some shopping and stopped at a mall for some hot chocolate.

Then we ventured out of the city to meet up with our group.  Bethlehem is a Palestinian-controlled city and is part of the West Bank.  Getting into Bethlehem wasn't too difficult--the driver just drove in and dropped us off.  However, they told us that due to the crowds on Christmas Eve, it would be easier to cross the border by foot and have the vans pick us up on the other side of the city.  We took a cab to the border and then got in the long lines to cross.  It took us more than an hour and it was hard to keep our group together since there were so many people trying to cut in line.  It was crazy!  We had to show our passports and go through security.  We finally made it out and back to the vans.  At this point it was late afternoon.

Bethlehem

Our next stop was Shepherd's Fields.  Although we don't know for sure, this may be near where shepherds watching their flocks listened as angels came and told them the amazing news of the birth of the Jesus. 

"Fear not, for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.  For unto is is born this day in the city of David a Savior which is Christ the Lord.  And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.  And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."

It was cold.  A storm was coming in and there was a cold wind.  It was easy to imagine what shepherds might have experienced out there on those rocky hillsides. 

We listened to a beautiful version of O Holy Night sung by a girl of another family who was with us.  Then we sang Christmas carols as the sun set behind the storm clouds.   We watched as a single star appeared, shining over Bethlehem.  It was our Christmas Eve gift--a star--in remembrance of that sacred night long ago. 



A single star over Bethlehem

 We loaded back up in the shuttles and drove back to the Jerusalem center.  We played games and visited.

Then we acted out our traditional Nativity play.  Kate was a sweet Mary, and David was Joseph.  Jennifer had bought real frankincense and myrrh for us to use.  It was one of our best Christmas Eve renditions.

Sarah was a very regal King Herod.

William had fun playing with his boy cousins.  He jumped off the chair onto a big pile of pillows with Seth and Thomas hiding underneath.  We all stayed up late playing and visiting until we finally coaxed the kids to bed.  Christmas morning was only a few hours away.

Lunch dates, spring, and a height victory

Here's a few pictures from my phone from the last week.

William and I met David for lunch one day.  (Truth be told, he forgot his pagers, but it was a good excuse to meet in the middle of the day.)  It was a rare day with sun, so we sat outside to eat.  I love this picture of William wearing David's hat!

 Several days later I got to go on a lunch date with Rachel.  We had a great time together!

Love that girl!  And I love getting to spend one-on-one time with my kids.  It doesn't happen as often as it should.

 I made these to celebrate the first day of Spring!

It's finally official:  Rachel is taller than Sarah.  We've known since Rachel was born (she was my 8 lb 8 oz, 21-inch baby compared to Sarah who was only 7 lbs 6 oz and 18 inches) that she would be tall (at least as far as our family goes). She's been close to Sarah for a while, and when we measured a few weeks ago, it was dead even.  Well, yesterday we measured them again, and it wasn't even close! 

I love this next picture after I told them Rachel had her beat!  Sarah is distressed and Rachel is grinning. 

And by the way, now Rachel is exactly as tall as me.  I'm sure it isn't long before she will pass me up too!  Actually, they will all probably pass me up one day!  And that is just fine with me.

Ben is Ten!

So we couldn't stop celebrating this special boy's birthday!  After our fun party roller skating with cousins in North Carolina, we came home and had his favorite chocolate cheesecake pie. 

Then, for his actual birthday, we all went out to eat and celebrate at Rainforest Cafe.  It has been years and years since we went there (last time we went Rachel was little and cried the whole time because of the noisy thunderstorms and animals).  It was fun to go again, and the kids all loved it! 

Happy Birthday Ben!  Ben is my most loyal blog reader!  Here are some facts about Ben right now:

Ben is a hard worker, especially when it comes to outside jobs.
Ben loves scouts and can't wait until he can go on camp outs.
Ben is a good big brother.  He loves to wrestle and roughhouse with William and is very concerned about Kate turning him too girlie by playing too much pretend.
Ben loves to read the Percy Jackson and Harry Potter books.
Ben's favorite subjects are math, science, and PE.
Ben likes to play the Wii.
Ben loves Parmesan cheese and eats it on lots of things, especially pasta and rice.
Ben does not like red vines, lemon meringue pie, and chocolate ice cream (but loves chocolate), however he gets super excited if I make banana bread or mini muffins for an after school snack. 
Ben does not yet know what he wants to be when he grows up, but whatever he does, he will work very hard at it.
Ben does not like pretend play....at all.
Ben likes to play board games....but mostly, Ben likes to win at board games.
Ben feels it is his duty to correct Kate all day long....and hates being reminded, "You're the brother, not the mother."  
Ben practices his piano every day without complaining, and mostly without even being reminded.

We love Ben!  Happy Double Digits!

North Carolina

Over February Break, the kids and I took a trip to North Carolina.  We haven't been back there since we moved from the East Coast, and we really wanted to see our family there.  Plus...we were hoping for some warmer weather and some SUNSHINE (something that is really lacking in the Pacific Northwest in February)!

We had a wonderful and relaxing time. 

I didn't take a whole lot of pictures because we didn't do a lot of things that made me stop and say, Wait, I should take a picture of this.  We did things like relax, visit, hang out with cousins, go swimming, go out for ice cream, go to the mall (and watch Lauren get her ears pierced!), go to the park, etc.  Mostly I followed my sister and brother and sister-in-law around and talked to them.  It was a fabulous trip with much needed relaxation (especially after our adventure filled trip over Christmas).  But here a some of the pictures I did take.

We roasted hot dogs and had s'mores at Bob and Jeanette's house

Cleaning up after making forts with Bob and Jeanette's super cool fort-making kit



William at the park in the SUN!



Aunt Julie playing with William and Kate in the sandbox at the park.  Julie taught William to stomp on all his sand castles!  But then he kept stomping on everyone elses! Too funny!

Going for a walk at the park



William loved playing with Jack!



Kate and Jack got reacquainted



Lauren and Kate

The last night before we left we had a little birthday party with all the cousins to celebrate Ben's birthday (which was a couple days later).  We laughed that this might be the most girls Ben will ever have at a birthday party!

 After pizza and cake, we went roller skating. 

Rachel and Lauren ready to go



Kylie and William



Ben was excited, but a little nervous to roller skate.  It had been a two whole years since he had gone roller skating.

Julie and me

Kylie, Sarah, and Danielle

Julie and William

Kate had a lot of fun learning how to skate

Bob and Lauren

Erika and Sarah



After his initial nervousness, Ben got right back into the groove!



William with Uncle Bob

The whole gang (minus Julie who was the photographer)

The girls

I loved, loved, loved, getting to spend time with family in North Carolina.  We also went to church in our old ward, and it was fun to see old friends.  The kids did great traveling--they all commented that a six-hour flight was a piece of cake compared to our last trip!