Jerusalem lights

Today is Monday, December 27th, 2010, and in honor of Abigail's 15th birthday, I thought I would post some pictures of lights in and around Jerusalem this past month! (For those of you who don't know, one thing we traditionally do for Abbi's birthday is go for an evening drive looking at all the lights put up for the holiday season.) Hope you enjoy this "drive" from Israel! :-)

A couple weeks before the Protestant Christmas holiday was the Jewish Hanukkah. I will upload a post on this later, but here is the giant hanukiah lit up on the plaza outside Jaffa Gate.
Our little hanukiah at reception--this evening, there were purple and yellow candles burning!

Since Christmas is not a Jewish holiday, nor even much of a Muslim holiday, Christmas lights and decorations are somewhat scarce around Jerusalem; however, the Mamilla mall had some great lights!

The entrances were decorated with light curtains
Walking through the curtain, more lights ahead!
The "cardo" of Mamilla was lit up with blue lights interspersed with evergreen garlands.
This light sculpture stood in the middle of Mamilla--any ideas on what it's supposed to be?
The entrance to the Mamilla mall from Shlomo Hamelech street. It's beautiful!!
Here's the entrance to a convent in the Christian Quarter of the Old City all decorated for Christmas.
One of only two shops in the Old City selling Christmas decorations (they are even scarcer in west Jerusalem!). I had some fun browsing through all the stuff.
Plenty of lights here!

We attempted to do some Christmas decorating here at the Guest House as well . . . This garland over the door from reception is beautiful--well done Tal and Rebecca!
The red garland and colored lights really spruced up the columns in the Nicolayson foyer.
I'm not sure this tree is the prettiest tree I've ever seen, but it did add a seasonal touch and a lovely evergreen fragrance.
Our gingerbread Christ Church--it was brilliant!

And to conclude, some beautiful natural light displays. This was sunset in Jerusalem on December 2nd. The first picture is looking south along the western wall of the Old City. Jaffa Gate is on the left; the limestone wall beyond it is glowing in the sun's rays. The second picture is looking west as the sun sets behind the King David hotel and the YMCA tower.

Happy Birthday, Abigail!!! I love you always!