Pictures from Christmas

The cute children dressed up as Baba Noels.
(The Father of Christmas.)

Very cute!




Me, Manar, and Anita around her Christmas tree on Christmas Eve.

It is possible that the picture was taken on Christmas Day. We stayed at her house until 1 am, Christmas morning. She would have invited us to spend the night but her older sister, brother in law and 2 nephews were also spending the night. That would have been a tight squeeze.


Anita serving the delicious sticky buns at our Christmas brunch!

I was glad to eat the left-overs from that!




The leg o lamb. That slice was all mine.

We still have some meat in our refrigerator.
I am not quite as thrilled about these leftovers.

Christmas in Nazareth

I celebrated Christmas in Nazareth this year. Not everyone can make that claim. I suppose if you want to get technical, about 70,000 people celebrated in Nazareth this year. (that is the population)

I began my festive celebrations by attending the 25th annual Christmas Eve Parade. It was a fun time to be with friends, hear 3 bag pipe "bands", see school children country line dancing, meet 2 guys over 7 foot tall, and see hundreds, if not thousands of Santa suits. Not exactly the typical Christmas Eve I am accustomed to, but a memorable one.

After the parade- Anita, my current roommate, and I headed on bus #1 to our friend Manar's place. We celebrated Christmas with her family. We feasted on 5 different salads and then had kabobs, bbq beef on skewers and bbq chicken. It is important to pace yourself when eating at a local's home.

After eating and watching the children open up their gift we played Rummikub. We arrived back to the apartment at 1 am. (so we were there on Christmas Day ) I chatted with my family in America after I got home from Manar's house. It was good to hear everyone's voice again. It made me a little sad that I couldn't be there with them, but I am enjoying my time in Nazareth.

Christmas Day was busy with eating cinnamon buns for brunch that Anita prepared. In the afternoon, we trodded up the steep hill to our friend, Evonne's for another Christmas meal. This one included lots of salads, but the main focus was the stuffed sheep leg. It was stuffed with rice. In addition to that we had grape leaves stuffed with rice, squash stuffed with rice, and another rice dish. As you can see the theme was RICE.
I was served the largest portion of the "leg o lamb". I thought that she was going to cut it in quarters or at least half, but "NO" it was all for me.

Our feasting lasted for several hours. After the main course we had snacks. Then we had fruit and cake and tea. So, instead of walking down the hill, we waddled.

So, suffice it to say that Christmas 2007 was unlike any other. I saw more "santas" and "giants" and ate more meat and rice than I ever did before.