Christmas in Jerusalem

My 2010 Christmas family--the Eimes (Aaron, Michelle, Micah, Atarah, and Tirzah)--you're wonderful!

Good afternoon! I feel like I'm sitting in the lap of luxury right now--in my quiet room, shoes off and slippers on, a purple candle burning on the table, a cool cloudy day (though no rain yet, maybe tomorrow!), and my shift finished for the day. I am scheduled for after-dinner help tonight, but I still have three hours to myself. I am not exhausted beyond being able to do anything, nor am I trying to process any new crisis, nor is there any unfinished work projects circling in my head. It's a place of peace and I am so happy to recognize it and just sit here in the quiet and absorb. Feeling envious yet??! :-) Or better yet, is my sense of peacefulness rubbing off?!

I wanted to share how I celebrated Christmas this year--it was drastically different and definitely had its highs and lows. Now that it's said and done, I really missed being home with my family (although my Mom worked really hard to send me as many normal Christmas experiences as she could), but being here will be an experience to remember.

Make sure you read all the way to the end of this post to discover the Christmas gift I gave my family. Hint: it has something to do with an airplane ticket.

We had done some Christmas decorating around here, but the Christmas trees didn't arrive until December 20th. That Monday was a really tough, heavy day as all the staff were back on the compound for the first time since hearing news of the attack in the Jerusalem forest two days before. The arrival of this van right after lunch was a nice dose of Christmas spirit! (Notice the nice sunny weather--temps were in the 70s that day)

There were at least three trees in the van, if not four or more--it was stuffed!!
For those of you interested, it's a different type of evergreen than what I usually see in Colorado.
Our wonderful Christmas tree delivery boys--Mark and Beno! :-)
Another important aspect of Christmas--gift giving. Tal had given me specific instructions that a) I was to give him a Christmas present and b) it was to be tasty and wrapped in Christmas paper. It took me some thought on what to get and then some searching to find Christmas paper. Trust me--over here, it is quite scarce! This picture was my idea, the garland Tal's idea.
On Christmas Eve, the Christ Church compound had a huge open house from 6pm until midnight for anyone who wanted to come. It consisted of question/answer sessions, lots of Christmas carols, a service at 10:30 (which I missed because I was busy elsewhere), soup, hot cider . . .
. . . mulled wine (made by Aaron) . . .
. . . and LOTS of cookies!! To be honest, we volunteers sort of tried some, but by about 10:00, nobody was even remotely tempted.

That was a late night; I think I got into bed somewhere around 1:30am . . . Due to plans for Christmas Day lunch, I worked the breakfast shift Christmas morning. We were able to start breakfast a half-hour later than normal, but I still had to report for duty at 7am. I remember recent Christmases where I groused a little about having to get up at 8--this year, the alarm went off at 6:15am!!! That part wasn't so fun.

The Christmas morning breakfast set up; unlike normal mornings, we had pancakes, fruit salad, and scrambled eggs along with the normal cereal, vegetables (yes for breakfast! it's quite Israeli), fruit, and toast.
After serving breakfast and cleaning up afterwards, it was off to church. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to go!

This was the very talented musical team of the morning--Beno, Ros, Joe, and Shane.
After church came the highlight of my Christmas this year. Aaron and Michelle invited a couple of us volunteers to join their family for Christmas 'dinner.' They have truly become my "family away from family" and I was honored to be invited. It was a lovely home-cooked meal shared in special company.

One end of the dinner table--John, Micah, Atarah, and Hadar.
The other end--Michelle, Aaron, and JohnAfter dinner, we visited for awhile, and I got the pleasure of snuggling with a special kitty. The photo is a little blurry, but still cute. :-)
I was back at Christ Church around 6:00 that night and feeling not that far away from bed! :-) I received a very special phone call from my family first. After talking to Mom and Dad for an hour, I talked to my siblings two at a time. In the past, the phone has been passed around person to person. This was an effort to maximize time. I'm not sure we were so successful in that regards and certainly there's not so much individual conversations, but doing it this way was so much fun! I got to be a part of family dynamics (ie teasing) and it was great.

Unfortunately, the box of Christmas gifts they sent didn't arrive until Sunday morning (December 26th). But, as I told them on the phone, it was still in plenty of time for Christmas. Yes, the western Christmas was the day before, but we still have the Armenian Christmas on January 6th and the Orthodox Christmas on January 7th.

To be honest, I had a hard time opening the gifts in this box. Up until that point, Christmas hadn't been too hard here because it doesn't "feel" a lot like Christmas. Warm weather, few Christmas decorations, few Christmas music playing. But, I cut open this box to find Mom had packaged it to reflect the celebration at home--items from my stocking, one gift to open Christmas Eve, and the others for Christmas Day. To be honest, that's when I sort of lost it over not being home for Christmas. I actually put the box away for the next couple hours and couldn't stand opening it any further.

Lunch time arrived and with it, Tal. He has such a great sense of humor and unpredictability, I saw my opportunity. I knew he could make this fun again, so I brought out the box while we were eating lunch. And sure enough, he salvaged the event for me and made it lots of fun. Thank you Tal!
And this picture is just plain funny. I never know what to expect from Tal; that day, he thought maybe fuzzy slipper socks could double as gloves. :-)
Well, and so we arrive at the end of another blog. I have been snacking on Christmas goodies from home while writing (they just arrived in the mail yesterday, complete with the cd we always listen to while making them).

Before I close, here is the big news I promised you. The Christmas gift I gave my family was to tell them when I was planning to arrive back in Colorado. The airline ticket has been booked for early May. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, I will be on Colorado soil in spring--probably with more than the usual amount of luggage, huge jet lag, and torn between being happy to see my family again and the close of this amazing dream. It truly is a dream come true and I plan to still enjoy these last few months, making sure I get to the places I really want to visit.

Merry Christmas to all of you, my friends and family!