Christmas in Dallas

We were all very eager to spend Christmas in Dallas.  August to December is a long stretch when it is spent in Almaty.  (Yes, we did have a week in Israel but it's just not the same thing.)  Maybe it was because Frank spent so much time in the US this fall and we were all longing to be there.  Anyway...we had a very enjoyable Christmas and were happy that Frank flew 48 hours to spend 48 hours with us between Dec 24 and Dec 26.  Here are the photos.

Christmas Eve:

Christmas Day:



Christmas Craft

After being bashed by my own daughter and then having it outed on my sister's blog I decided to get my children together for a little family Christmas crafting project.  Truthfully, I found this project in a magazine long before Christmas, tore it out, saved it, and then brought it all the way to Dallas from Kazakhstan.  So, I wasn't only motivated by the negative press.  We made Christmas plates using stencils and spray paint.  It certainly wasn't all happy, perfect family time; there was screaming and crying and mistakes and impatience but here is the result of our efforts.

Madeline's is the purple-ish one in lower right one and the picture does not do it justice.  She tried to use lace but it didn't work so she ended up scratching a pattern into the plate with a pencil and then spraying with blue paint.  It was very cool!

Christmas concerts

Once again this year we had the traditional Christmas concerts at school.  I was quite impressed with the overall presentation that the new music teacher worked out.  What I liked best is that both concerts were held at the school.  The acoustics were not great but it was much more convenient then driving somewhere else in the city.

Olivia's music class - bad lighting

Marcy and her 9 year old class

Emily and the Spanish students

(In this one she is just pretending to play the trumpet)

Emily took up trumpet lessons for after school activities for the 6 weeks before Christmas.  She was supposed to be having flute lessons but came home with a trumpet instead.  I wasn't very enthusiastic about that but she actually plays very well.  She and Marcy got to perform in an instrumental piece during the concert.  Marcy worked very hard on her recorder, going to school early for more than 2 weeks so she could be in this performance.  Here's a video of their performance (again, bad acoustics.)

http://youtu.be/jRAPngBiYH0



Creative Energy

A couple weeks ago there was a power outage at the school.  Since it was cold and there was no way to serve lunch they cancelled school on that Friday.  Bonus long weekend for the kids!  I went to Russian lessons in the morning as usual.  Part way through I get a call from Emily asking if she and Marcy can do "arts and crafts".  I said fine as long as they clean up the mess.  Then she called back again asking for tape.  Then she called again to ask if she could use a random bag of "stuff" she found with the art supplies.  I knew which bag she meant.  It was a bag of metallic and non-metallic items that I used long ago at a Brownie meeting to demonstrate magnetism.  There was stuff in there like nails and screws, hair clips, plastic o-rings from curtains, unused cabinet safety latches, and much other random stuff.  I wondered what creation they would come up with that I would have to keep around for a while and then find the chance to throw away.  But, they surprised me with a homemade nativity scene.  Those who know me well know I've collected them for a long time (since age 7!)  They made the whole thing using tape which wasn't holding together too well so tonight Emily and I took it apart and hot glued everything back together.  They were both extremely creative in using all that random stuff and this one definitely rivals other homemade nativities - it might even beat the beer can, wine cork nativity.  See what you think!

A close-up of the Holy Family

Two kings and the shephard

The two-legged donkey and sitting sheep

(with 3rd king in the background)

Happy Thanksgiving!!

In pictures (and a few words...)

Marcy's banner

Everyone eager to eat

Madeline's contributions - turkey in her luggage

and she made the green bean casserole and mashed potatoes

a full plate (and now a full stomach)

and dessert - mmmm, pie (a la mode)

Hope everyone has the chance to eat as much as we did!!

Galilee Cont....

We stopped in several places around the Sea of Galilee.  Jesus spent much time in this area preaching to the people and many of this disciples were chosen from here.

Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes - Jesus performed this miracle at the town of Tabgha on the Sea.  Followers kept alive the story of the miracle and the place that it occurred.  A church was built in 350 to commemorate and protect the site but it was later destroyed and not rediscovered until 1932.  Now, a new church protects the site and the rock on which Jesus performed the miracle sits below the main altar.

Capernaum - Jesus spent alot of time in this town.  It was the home of Sts Peter and Andrew.  This is where Jesus preached in the synagogue to the elders.  St Peter's house became a meeting house for Christians after Jesus died and eventually an octogonal church was built around his house.  Today a modern church stands above the remains and has a glass floor for viewing.

Kids listening to our guide "preach" in the synagogue

Remains of the synagogue in Capernaum

Sermon on the Mount - The place where Jesus preached the Beatitudes is located on a hill overlooking the Sea of Galilee. Today there is a beautiful church and gardens commemorating the spot.

Masada

Masada is a desert fortress/palace built by Herod but used by other groups fleeing from or protecting Jerusalem.  It went undiscovered and untouched for nearly 1300 years (I think I remember that correctly.)  Now it is a UNESCO Heritage Site.  And again I am amazed that something like this was built more than 2000 years ago in the middle of the desert!

Masada is built on top of a mesa, high above the desert.  Today there are three ways to get up to it.  A gondola, the serpant path which winds up the mountain with trail and stairs, and a ramp built by the Romans to attack the fortress.  Chris was eager to try the serpent path but we were short on time.  Our guide said a quick trip up would be 30 minutes but 45 minutes was more likely.  We took the gondola and Chris chose the serpent path.  He said not to wait for him at the top but promised he would not be far behind.  We watched a short film about Masada, got on the gondola, and caught this photo of Chris running up.  He made it in 16 minutes - according to Shmuel that is certainly a record!  We did not have to wait for him and he missed none of the tour!

From the top of Masada you can see the

Dead Sea in the distance

An original mosaic floor from the time of Herod

Kids checking out the view

Kids checking out the display which demonstrates the unique

water capturing system built to sustain Masada in the desert.

Canals were built along the ridges to divert rain water

into huge cisterns dug into the bedrock below.

Our whole group

(The small black spot is a person on the portion of

Masada which juts our over a cliff)