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Well, I began writing this post a few days ago, apparently. It is now Christmas evening. :) My roommate and I just returned from an evening of cookies, punch, and singing Christmas carols in Hebrew, and I thought I’d write something up while she’s on the phone with her family in the states, then we’ll watch “White Christmas” and eat some more yumminess. :)
Last night one of my friends hosted a Christmas Eve party with her roommates. There were about a dozen of us, and I think less than half of us have ever celebrated Christmas before. It was so much fun sharing the traditions, stories, songs, and movies. We had a potluck dinner that was a great success, played “Dirty Santa”, what I’ve always called “White Elephant”—where you steal one another’s presents, sang every carol we could think of—including all twelve versus of the 12 Days of Christmas, and watched Elf as we made further dents in the multitude of desserts filling the tables.
Most guests left around 1am after opening the presents beneath Charlie Brown Christmas tree (we told my friend’s Israeli roommates that while one can open White Elephant gifts at any Christmas party, regardless of the day, you may not open the presents from beneath the tree until Christmas, proper. I think it as 12:01am when they ran to the tree ;-)). My friend and I moved into her room and had a slumber party, continuing with “White Christmas”, which I promptly fell asleep to, waking up halfway through during the Choreography song, with some deep thought coming out of my mouth that I’d created in my dream. My friend looked at me and laughed, “What??”. I repeated myself, and she laughed again and told me I’d been asleep for a good half hour. I smiled, wished her a Merry Christmas, and rolled back over.
This morning I donned the Christmas outfit I’d chosen for the day and caught the bus down to my kehila for our weekly Sabbath morning service. The pageant was so unique from any I’ve seen in the states: a comedy about three Israelis searching for the Messiah, discussing what criteria to use in evaluating each candidate, and then discussing who should be considered. I had moved from my seat to videotape it, and missed much of the interpretation, so I didn’t get all the details, but there was clearly one character portrayed as Ultra-Orthodox, and another as a very contemporary, ditsy young girl, and then the middle one seemed to be a run-of-the-mill Israeli. They considered a famous sports figure, a military giant, the first Prime Minister of Israel, a movie star, all to no avail. None of them fit the prophecies foretold in the Tanak (Old Testament: Law, Prophets, and Writings). Finally the three were very tired and ordered some refreshments. The waiter who brought them heard them talking and offered another candidate to compare with the prophecies. She explained that she is Jewish, and based on the Tanak has come to believe that Yeshua of Natsaret is the foretold one to come, and that it is not a matter of a committee deliberating and then telling everyone the verdict, but that it is something for each individual to seek out and decide for him or herself. Of course it was all wrapped up with some closing songs. Bravo!
After service we head over to a festival that Haifa holds every weekend in December called HaHag Shel HaHagim, Festival of Festivals, or Holiday Festival. It is a festival celebrating all the winter holidays and there is all kinds of yummy foods, crafts, performers, and (very unlike anything I’d expected) tables selling products you might find at a flee market or Target—ironing boards, televisions, pots and pans…we admired the various art, and I bought a food I’d seen before but not yet eaten—kind of like a crepe with the closest thing here to sour cream, and this green spice that people here love, with a little olive oil, all wrapped up for easy mobile eating. Delectable. And we found a new product for washing your clothes in a more environmentally friendly way: The Eco-Ball, the detergent free laundry ball. Instead of detergent, it uses mineral stone thingies…it’s supposed to be good for up to a thousand loads and cost 149 shekels…about $50. My roommate and I split the cost and thought it’s worth a try to save on detergent and pollute less! We’ll see how it goes.
Then it was home for some R&R before heading up the street to another party where the Christmas story was read with songs interjected each few verses—this time tunes I am very familiar with, and Hebrew on the screen I tried to read fast enough to sing along. So much fun!
Later I will Skype with my family a bit, and then tomorrow wake early to Skype with the extended family when they gather in their evening which will be my morning, and then my friend and I will head down to Jerusalem. She is leaving Israel in two weeks and wants one more day in her favorite city in the country. :-)
How's the ecoball working?
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