Christmas day brought a different experience than any other year. We woke up and the kids were excited as usual, but the gifts this year were small. They received local gifts that we had bought while out site seeing. The kids all received a BYU Jerusalem Center T-shirt (BYU logo with a camel replacing the cougar). They also received sling shots, nativity scene attire, olive wood (the girls received a Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus nativity scene and the boys received a figurine of Christ). The girls got a widows mite necklace and a jewelry box. John received a olive wood vile for oil and I got some lotion from the Dead Sea. For me it was all perfect.
The kids were content to stay at the apartment that morning and so my Mom stayed back with them while my Dad, John, and I left to walk to the Old City. It was little strange to walk around and have it feel like any other day of the week. We intended to go Christmas Mass early in the morning, but we didn't make it. Instead we went to David's Citadel and fortunately arrived just as a tour in English was departing. Our tour guide was a Jewish American that had come to live in Jerusalem several years before. She was absolutely fascinating as she walked us through the history of Israel and all of the different time periods and occupations of the city. I really enjoyed the tour and hearing everything from the beginning to the end. We were the only Christians on the tour and she was thoughtful enough to talk about Christ and include Him in the time period as well. As did a great job of teaching about the history of Israel/Palestine while remaining neutral and speaking positively of the Palestinian people.
After we left the Citadel we headed to the Kottels, underground tunnels excavating from the time period of Herod. They were sold out of the day so we went to the excavation next to the temple. This is a new excavation, which wasn't there when I lived there 20 years ago. Unfortunately there was not a tour when we were there, and my parents hadn't been on that field trip yet, so we wondered around looking at amazing rock, but not knowing much more than that. We did know before that the steps leading up to the temple mount were dated to the time of Herod, so they would have been steps that Christ walked when He went up to the temple.
Caroline and Hannah went with Brother and Sister Belnap to visit some of the churches on Christmas day. They stopped at a restaurant and ordered mint lemonade, the perfect color for Christmas
We went back to the Center at sundown to have a Christmas dinner with Jerusalem Center families. It was a simple meal of soups and pita bread. Jan Clayton than took us up to the 8th floor for an organ concert. It was the highlight of the day and a perfect ending to Christmas day in Jerusalem. It was night and we sat in the room with the lights off, enjoying the gorgeous views of Jerusalem while she played Christmas music. How sublimely perfect! The last song she played was Silent Night, which we all sang along with, brings tears to my eyes just writing this. How could I have been so lucky and blessed to visit Jerusalem twice, once as a student and once with my husband and all my children.
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