Merry Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve and Christmas Day celebrating the birth of our Savior, and spending with family and friends. Over the weekend, our church had the Christmas Eve service. Eliza in her Christmas outfit and Jordanian bib :)

Before service, the church held a potluck dinner.

On Christmas Eve, we did some baking. The boys made cookies, and I made some sweets to bring to a friends' house that evening. 

Benjamin likes helping me bake, this was lemon bars.

On Christmas Eve, we celebrated with several friends at Joe and Nadine's house. We had a delicious Lebanese dinner and enjoyed time together.

Nadine and Eliza :)

Nadine's mom. She has 22 grand kids, a few great grand kids, and I think she said 3 great, great grand kids! 

The kiddos at dinner. These 4 have become good friends over the past couple of years.

Dessert and drawing fun.

It was fun to be with friends, who have become family to us.

On Christmas Eve, it is our family's tradition to get new Pajamas for Christmas morning :).

Then we put out cookies, milk, and letters for Santa. All Benjamin said he wanted was a whoopee cushion, haha! We got online and tracked Santa to Djibouti, Africa, and got the boys to bed pretty quickly all the excitement considered....

Ready for the morning. 

 The next morning before opening gifts, we have a big breakfast of Nathan's mom's egg casserole recipe, cinnamon rolls, sing baby Jesus Happy Birthday, and read from the Bible. The boys and Eliza got lots of very nice gifts and they have enjoyed playing with them all week since they have a two-week school break. Thank you everyone for the very generous gifts!

Yep, that's Chinese Uno and we are all having fun playing!

It's fun seeing them play battleship together, a game from our youth.

Caleb was so excited to get the 'I Survived' book series. It's historical fiction, and hits on a some significant events from this U.S. history.

Once a Bobcat, always a Bobcat :). Their school in Illinois....

This sweet girl took a couple of breaks to eat and sleep, but mostly was smily and happy to watch her brothers play!

Daddy and his mini-me :)

We praise God for this season, for the time to teach our children about Him, and for the wonder of His miracles. 

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. ~Isaiah 9:6. 

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Biblical Archaeology Trip to Tel Hammam, Heshbon, and Peor

Last weekend, I visited a few biblical sites with a group from our church. One of the elders, who led the trip, is an archaeologist and his passion is teaching the Bible through archaeology. We visited three sites: Tel Hammam (biblical Shittim), Heshbon, and Peor. What started as a very rainy and foggy day in Amman, ended up as a clear and and beautiful day down in the Jordan valley. It was such a neat opportunity to see these locations and understand the Old Testament in new ways.

Our first stop was Tel Hammam, which was the headquarters of the Israelites before they crossed the Jordan River to conquer Jericho. This is also the place where the Tabernacle would have been, and where Moses commissioned Joshua to lead Israel into the promised land. The main road going north-south is called the King's Highway, because it transited through many kingdoms of Biblical times, and it is still called the King's Highway today. I always thought the highway got it's name because Jordan is ruled by a King, and it was fascinating to learn that it preserved this name from Biblical times. 

Our guide explained how each layer gives evidence of the civilizations that once lived here, and that they keep building upon each other, to form the Tel. Some people also believe this site is biblical Sodom, but the after hearing the evidence from our guide, it was clear this is not the location. 

The next stop was Heshbon, which is a city the Israelites passed by on their way to the Promised Land. It was also the headquarters of the Amorite king, Sihon, and where the Israelites had victory over the king.

"For Heshbon was the city of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab and had taken all his land out of his hand, as far as the Arnon." ~Numbers 21:26

Unlike Shittim (modern day Tel Hammam), Heshbon had name preservation from Biblical times, so there are no arguments in archaeological circles about the authenticity of this site.

Our guide sharing about the history of Heshbon.

Beautiful views of neighboring towns in the valley.

Heshbon was full of ancient pottery. This is pottery from the Islamic Ere and the cubes are old mosaic pieces from the Roman and Byzantine Era.

The last stop of the day was Peor. It was a remote location, and the excavations at this site had not begun yet, but we saw evidence of one beginning soon. 

Before sites are excavated, a probing machine will take a sample and examine the wall of the earth for evidence of previous civilizations, artifacts, etc.

From the peak at Peor, we could see Tel Hammam, our first stop of the day, and the peak behind us was Mt. Nebo, where Moses died after seeing the Promised Land.  Peor is a mentioned in Numbers, where Balak, the king of Moab, led Balaam at attempt to put a curse on the Israelites, who were threatening to occupy his land. We walked up to the top of the hill on the right. What a gorgeous view of the valley. 

This is looking to the west and is the route the Three Wise Men would have taken to get from from Sheeba (modern day Yemen) to Jerusalem, to worship baby Jesus.

Random rock formation.

Our guide shared so much Biblical history and knowledge, and it just blows my mind that we live in a place so rich of biblical history. 

My friend Victoria and I :). I rode down with her and her boyfriend, and it was nice to spend the day with them.

It was such a fascinating day, and I am so glad for the opportunity to go. Thank you, Nathan, for being an amazing husband and father, and for watching the kids for the day while I went on the trip.

More Christmas Spirit and Caleb's Show

This past weekend, we went to Abdali Boulevard to see Christmas decorations. It is beautifully decorated during this time of year and felt very festive.

We walked around for a while, but the boys were most interested in going down the snow slide. These are their pretty please faces.

Posing for pictures at the famous I love Jordan wall.

I love this picture of Nathan and his mini-me :). After walking around, we grabbed an early dinner at an Italian restaurant. The waitress accidentally spilled Caleb's drink all over me, and I looked like I peed my pants and my shirt was soaked. But by the time dinner was done, I was mostly dry and smelled pretty good since it was peach tea :).

Benjamin catching some air in Santa's sleigh.

It was a nice afternoon and we were greeted with a beautiful sunset on the way home.

Another day, we made a gingerbread house. It was the first one the boys ever made, and they did a great job.

Earlier this week, Caleb had his Christmas show at school. It was really cute, and Caleb even sang :). He did have a Christmas shirt on when he went to school, but he said he got hot and took the shirt off.

We are enjoying the season and counting down to Christmas Day.

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas and Benjamin's Christmas Show

We decorated our house for Christmas on Thanksgiving day. A bit late, but here are some of our decorations. The boys love the counting down to Christmas with our Advent calendar.

This year, we also go them a Lego Advent calendar. Each morning they open a new window and they get to build a mini lego figure, that will fill out the Christmas scene.

Our fireplace.

The tree is up and ornaments are hung.

My parents gave us a new Hawaiian ornament with all of our names on it.

We got a new family picture ornament.

One of my favorites from when we got married and where it all began :).

The stockings for us 5 and Tes are hung...

We got a new Jordanian Christmas decoration. It's a recycled liquor bottle that is decorated with the Jordanian tribal pattern for the tree and the flag in the circle, and it lights up. Kind of tacky, but so Jordanian so I had to get it :).

We also got a new decorative Christmas plate from the Christmas market. It says Eid Milad, which means Merry Christmas in Arabic.

Love these 3 :).

Last weekend, Santa came to the Embassy on a camel. We missed him coming in because it was early and raining, but we made it for pictures with Santa. We got this picture from a friend who saw him.

A big first in this picture...first time in 7 years that Caleb wanted to sit on Santa's lap...and everyone was happy about it. 

Benjamin went back for rounds 2, 3, and 4 on Santa's lap when it was free :).

The Marines were collecting toys for orphaned children and taking pictures with the kids. We are very thankful for the strong Marine Guard detachment at the Embassy and for their service to our country.

Afterwards, we went to a Christmas Bazaar at the kids school. I don't have any pictures of the bazaar, but afterwards, Caleb gave us a tour of his library and showed us his favorite isle to check out books - Fantasy and SciFi.

Benjamin took us to his art class, which is his favorite special class.

Yesterday we had Benjamin's kindergarten Christmas show at school, and it was super cute. Here are a couple of pictures and videos. 

We have been enjoying the learning about the Christmas season and having fun activities throughout the month!