Looking for Moses: Christmas in Israel

Today is Martin Luther King Day. And in celebration of this US holiday, I am working from home today, getting lots of work accomplished while mixing in random distractions like a trip to the market and this post. MLK would be proud of me.

Our Christmas in the holy land did not go as planned. At the last minute, Jana's nephew came down with an infection that required bag-loads of antibiotic-laden IV. Kian ended up being hospitalized for two weeks or so, therefore canceling the trip out to Israel. Whatever it was, he's better now. The Toyko LG's presence were missed, but armed with our very big and expensive Jerusalem-bought tree, Christmas continued on.

Our Christmas tree was placed in front of our window, and the lights were lit every night. We thought this might be a good way to compete with our neighbors during their Hanukkah celebration, but we were surprised to find very few many minoras in our neighbors' windows, at least not here in Tel Aviv. We followed the traditional LG Christmas celebration. On Christmas Eve, everyone except for Makai got dressed up in our nicest clothes (this meant digging out my wedding shirt). Makai was made to wear a Christmas outfit, complete with a polar bear sweater vest. Yes, a sweater vest. How Ohio-an can one get? First event of the night was dinner at Raphael's. It's a fancy place with decent food, but completely not worth the price.

The best part of the evening though starts right after dinner. We opened presents and wondered out loud, "where are we going to put all of Makai's toys?" He would open a present, try playing with it, then have Omes shove another present in his face to open. It took him awhile, but he eventually figured out that Christmas is about getting and opening presents, not necessarily about playing with them. (Yes, for you Christians, I do acknowledge Christmas is about the birth of Jesus and the Lord our Savior, but come on. I'm in Israel and there are even Jews here in Israel celebrating Christmas even though Hanukkah is the story of the Maccabees who revolted against the Greeks who had outlawed Judaism and instead wanted an alter of Zeus erected at the Temple.) Noteworthy presents of the evening: Makai getting Max and Ruby stuffed dolls to which he proceeded to have them give each other brotherly/sisterly kisses, Jana getting the family tickets for a family trip to Morocco in March, Jana getting a pasta maker from Makai, and best of all Omes receiving our old, used point and shoot camera.

Once Makai finally went to sleep, all his Santa toys were then brought out and assembled under the tree. And I did my best Santa impression by eating all the chocolate chip cookies Makai and Mommie made that day. Everyone ended up sleeping in with Makai not waking up till 10 AM or so. But when he did, he was left speechless as he stared at all the presents Santa had brought (being speechless isn't so hard for him at this age.) Thus far, his favorite toys have been the train set and the Chuddington tote box and trains from Nina. I tried to get Jana to "play" with her pasta maker but that didn't happen.

Jana had Christmas dinner to prepare, complete with a Kosher turkey. Turns out that Kosher turkeys have already been salted and therefore should not be brined. Jana wasn't quite sure how it would turn out since we had always brined our turkeys in the States. The turkey turned out to be moist and delicious. Even our Jewish friends we had invited over enjoyed it. For a couple of them, this was their first Christmas dinner. They enjoyed the evening but were a little put off with Omes's evangelizing and attempts to convert them.

All in all. Christmas was a swell day. Some photos below.