Christmas in the Holy Land

Ok so I think it clear that there are not to many people outside my circle of friends who read these posts. So I don't feel like I have to explain too much into how much I dislike Xmas. So this year I was super pumped to spend it in the land of the Jewish people were xmas is not the least bit important!!!!!! So Sabba!!!!!

For some reasons not having xmas shoved down my throat or being forced to do anything, all I wanted to do was to celebrate xmas. So I rock the xmas Love here in the land of the Jewish!!!

So I started with making my family secret xmas cookies for the xmas party we were having at the campus. I made the dough, which is a large task, and then I figured no one is going to want to help me make the cookies because everyone hates making xmas cookies! Boy O Boy was I wrong! My three friends went nuts over rolling out the dough and cutting out xmas shaped cookies. I didn't even help once!! It was so great and they had so much fun!!! We rocked out the night with normal Jewish holiday food and my xmas cookies on Dec. 23.

I know how self-center this is going to sound but I figured that everyone knew about Santa/xmas story even if they were not Christian. Even though America claims to be freedom of religion, this is not very true since everyone’s holidays are around the Christian faith. So being the dumb American that I am I assumed wrong about everyone knowing about xmas. Almost no one knew the stories biblical or myths (red nose reindeer and all!). It was so much fun to tell everyone the xmas stories and even catch up on my biblical knowledge to share my holiday with everyone. So my friend Dor asked why doesn’t Santa visit the Jewish people and my very rude but fun answer is that Santa Hates the Jews and Muslim. So as xmas came closer in time we kept this joking running. Being the very sweet and nice person that I am I spoke with my mother and had her buy me 50 beer koozies for Xmas and mail them to me. There is a back-story to this gift but the moral here is that no on has seen a beer koozies till I showed up. On the night of xmas eve eve Santa made a special trip to visit all the Jews/Muslims here in the middle of the desert! It was so much fun to here everyone talking about Santa coming to their rooms and some claiming to hear Santa! Best part of Xmas!!!!!!

After being Santa little helper I packed up and headed off to find xmas!!!! If you got the hint from my last post you might be able to guess were I went, but I will help you out. THE BIRTH PLACE OF JESUS CHRIST!!! ON HIS BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!! If you don't know were this is its in Bethlehem in the West Bank. Unfortunately because of a bunch of conflict issues my Israeli friends were not allowed to come but I had so much fun. It was an experience of a lifetime to see people celebrating the birth of Jesus and nothing really about American xmas. The whole night was a party and to pray/celebrate Jesus Birthday. SUPER NUTS!! I got to walk the route that Mary came into Bethlehem to the church with the parade and then saw Manger Square. It is the exacted spot were the nativity set comes from that we all place on our fireplaces. I got to see it!!! Ok I am starting to brag too much I think but I ended the night by having a dancing party in the pub till 4am.  Here are the pics of the time in Bethlehem!