Jesus would be proud

A few days after we visited, it turns out there was a brawl between the Greek Orthodox priests and Armenian priests inside the Church of the Nativity at the exact spot where we stood to take photos.  Brooms were thrown, and the Palestinian police came in swinging their batons to restore order.  No priests were arrested.  Check out the video.  Here's a link to the BBC news article.

Bethlehem Christmas Eve Eve

On the 23rd of December, we all woke up early and packed the car to head to Bethlehem.  Makai was still asleep.  Knowing that he may wake up cranky like his Omes, we packed a bag full of cherrios, croissants, and his favorite little carton of apple juice.  When it was time to go, we picked him up, loaded him into his car seat, shoved the apple juice in his face, and away we went.  And he was happy and content up until a bout of motion sickness hit.  I heard a little screech from Oma in the back and turned around to see a wave of apple juice being hurled back up and all over the poor little guy.  All in total there were three waves.  We had to stop along the side of the road, clean the little guy up and change his clothes as he stood naked on the side of Jerusalem's main street.  The car seat though was done for.  It would require a good wash before being used again.  So for the rest of this Christmas Eve Eve trip to Bethlehem trip, he sat in Ome's lap.  Thank God for the lax safety laws in the Holy Land.  

We decided to stop at Rachel's Tomb on the way to Bethlehem to give the little guy a break from the car.  I didn't know exactly the location of the tomb, but the sign pointed straight ahead and straight ahead we went.  We soon arrived in a prison-like encampment: high concrete walls, guard towers, barb wires, and soldiers, lots of them.  I soon realized this is the main Bethlehem checkpoint.  I had avoided this checkpoint the last trip, choosing instead a less popular and less "securitized" checkpoint.  This checkpoint was almost unreal, and signs pointing to Rachel's Tomb were no where to be found.  We stopped to ask a soldier and were directed to a heavy yellow gated entry guarded by two other soldiers.  Once there, the gate slowly opened, and we drove up to the two soldiers who then asked, "Where are you from?"  "United States...Texas."  "Welcome."  We waved bye and drove down a two lane highway lined with three story high walls.  It was about a half mile drive and we came upon the tomb.  And it turns out, the tomb isn't really a tourist site.  It's an active religious site where the Orthodox Jews come to pray.  I think we were the only non Orthodox there.  Jana and Omes visited the women's side of the tomb, and Makai and I visited the men's side. 

Right outside the entrance to Rachel's tomb.

We didn't stay at the tomb long and decided to check out what's on the other side of the wall.  Crossing the checkpoint was simple.  The soldier simply looked at us and figured some Asians with an old woman and toddler wouldn't be any trouble and waved us through.  Once across the checkpoint, we found Bethlehem was not crowded as we had feared.  Final decorations were being set up for the next day's festivities.  We stopped at the Church of the Nativity, tried to cut the long line to see Jesus's birthplace, got yelled at by the guard, and saw a historically incorrect Nativity scene. 

Makai, me, and Omes in front of the Church of Nativity

We also walked around the old city of Bethlehem which is filled with shops and narrow alley ways.  While exploring one alley way, out from a small door, popped a man carrying a tray of coffee-filled glasses.  He asked us if we wanted some coffee.  I was like "Sure.  We just had lunch so coffee would be great."  The man pulled out three plastic stools into the alley way for us to sit and said, "I'll be right back."  While we waited for our coffee to be made, Makai and I continued exploring the alley way, he being my model and I the photographer.  Before I got carried away, Jana came to tell us our coffee was ready.  We had our coffee and tea, said our goodbyes, and bid farewell to Bethlehem on this Christmas Eve Eve. 

I found this lost Palestinian boy and decided to adopt him.

He now serves all of us Arabic coffee.

And translates for us with the locals. 

Christmas Trees

To celebrate Christmas in Israel, we wanted to make it special and did not want to scrimp on the Christmas tree.  The challenge though was to find an adequate tree to satisfy the intensely high standards of my Mother-in-law.  Even though in most of Israel there is no sign of Christmas, there is a small community of Christians both indigenous to the country (loaded use of the word indigenous here) and immigrants.  And to serve the consuming needs of this community, there are several places to find Christmas decorations.

Jana and I both were in the US when shopping season began.  The initial dilemma was to either bring a boxed tree back from the US or simply purchase one in Israel.   Even though we could a nice tree for $30 from Wal-mart, I was adamantly against toting in even more luggage back to Israel.  (In the end we checked in 7 suitcases and boxes, half of which was filled with Makai's Christmas presents and half with Jana's cooking equipment and supplies.  I was able to fit my boxers in a side compartment.)  

So we asked Dikla our Pali/Sabbia/house sitter to pick one up for us.  She, being the ever devout Jew had never shopped for a tree before, asked what she should look for.  I said, oh just try finding one that's around 6 ft tall.  After a bit of searching she went to the Christmas bazaar at the central bus station in Tel Aviv, an area which serves the Israeli migrant worker community, and found a tree that was almost 5.5 ft tall with lights and decorations for 400 NIS ($105).  Hearing this in the US, we thought "great. no need scrambling to find a tree when we get back."

So the box was waiting for us when we finally make it back to our apartment in Tel Aviv on the 20th.  Except the box seemed a bit small compared to the Wal-mart one.  Omes and Makai went ahead and set it up.  And by the end of it, all we could do was laugh.  It was a piddly, sorry looking tree, at least by Leon Guerrero standards.

So in search of a new tree I went.  I had to enlist a friend to help me find another one.  He's Jewish and like Dikla never shopped for a tree before.  But he was adept at working the phone and internet.  And we found out there's a nursery in Ashdod that has a Araukaria type tree.  The Jewish National Fund which owns a forest land in Israel was actually selling Arizona ceders for 70 NIS but it on the 19th.  In the end, we went to Jerusalem's old city, more specifically St. Francis street in the Christian Quarter where we found 3 stores selling Christmas tress and decorations.  I found a 2.1 m high tree for 400 NIS and lights for 55 NIS.  I tried negotiating the total down to 400 NIS, and the owner responded with 450 NIS.  Admitting to him I was in no position to negotiate given the demands of my MIL, I handed him the cash and made my way through the narrow alley ways of the old city with Christmas tree box in hand. 

Now, I really didn't know what this tree looked like when I bought it, only that it was 2.1 m tall with a 1.6 m wide base.  The photo of the tree on the box looked good, but who knows.  But lo and behold, once Omes and Makai put up this new tree, we're now thinking, "Is this too big for our apartment?"  Itay, the friend who helped me locate this tree is now my MIL's favorite Jew, just ahead of Benjamin Net&Yahoo.

Peter & Jinah

My brother Peter is tying the knot.  After 42 years of womanizing (just joking, it was only 2 years), another islander has captured the heart of a Nguyen.  This past Sunday, he and Jinah made their engagement official with a traditional Vietnamese engagement ceremony, complete with a whole roasted pig.  Just think, if we had immigrated to Israel instead of the US, we would never have found a pig for the ceremony.  Finding a Filipino on the other hand would not have been a problem. 

Here are some photos from their special day.

 

Jinah (pronounced like Gina) and Peter.  She was mistakenly called "China" by my parents' friend during a toast.

 

Yep, that's them praying.  Yep, that the whole roasted pig they're praying to.

 

Yep, that's a purple bow on the pig.  The skin was crispy and delicious.  On a related note, did you know they stopped the commodity trading of pork bellies on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange?

 

The whole family with the newest addition.

 

 

This has nothing to do with the engagement.  Just a photo of the cousins enjoying the prairie dog area during their trip to the zoo.

Visiting Santa in Boise

This year we will be celebrating Christmas in the holy land with Jana's family.  Bethlehem and Nazarath host many festivities and tens of thousands of visitors during this time each year, and we'll be one of the many pilgrims! 

Because of this, we made an early trip back to the United States to get in our fix of Western Christmas activities, most notably shopping.   We also made time to visit Santa while in Boise.  Atom gave the camera the Blue Steel Zoolander look.

Look for photos of Xmas in Israel in the coming weeks.