Christmas in Jordan

Here are some pictures of our Christmas season. We enjoyed Christmas this year. We were happy that we had our own decorations to put up this year. They hadn't yet arrived to Kuwait by Christmastime last year.

A few days before Christmas we went to a house that was decked out with decorations--both inside and out. I don't know their last name. The woman's first name is Iklas and her husband's name is John. He is a gem/jewelry store owner here in Amman. Iklas is Jordanian. John is from Texas. I met Iklas through a playgroup that I take my two youngest kids to each week. They have one child and are expecting another. They had an open house for everyone to come see their decorations. This picture is the kids listening to the beyond life-size Santa singing Jingle Bells. Notice T crouched down in the corner. He didn't want to have anything to do with the giant Santa.



This picture is our attempt at making graham cracker houses. We've never tried this before and I was pleasantly surprised to find out it wasn't as bad as I had built it up in my mind to be. Once I got past the cost of the crackers and candy that will generally go to waste, we had a decently good time. This could actually become a new tradition for us. The one thing I learned is that I need to make sure I have plenty of powdered sugar on hand for more frosting as we needed more and I didn't have it.



This picture was taken on Christmas Eve at a town called Fuhays. It is a Christian town. This is the center circle of the town where every year they have a Christmas festival and put up this giant tree. Several of the homes in this town put up Christmas lights. It's very festive. Notice we're all wearing winter coats. It was cold the day before Christmas and on Christmas day. It rained quite a bit (for Jordan) those two days. I know we're not getting any sympathy from any of you buried in snow but it was kind of nice that it was at least cold here for Christmas.



Here's a picture on Christmas day of our family band. Finally a game several of the kids can play at once. But no! Of course they all want to play the drums at the same time, or the guitars, or sing . . . Or they can't decide which song to do. There's always something to argue about.



This is a picture taken the day after Christmas. Brother and Sister Hoffman from the branch came over for dinner and they brought cupcakes and decorations with them and the kids decorated the cupcakes. Just as fun but much easier than having to roll out and cut out sugar cookies. Thank you Hoffmans!



And it was truly a Merry Christmas when the day before Christmas I went to one of the grocery stores where I frequently shop and I saw this on the shelf:



I have learned from living here that if you see something you want and don't normally see, you should buy up the stock because you never know if/when you'll see it again. But since it was the day before Christmas I had already blown through December's budget and was feeling poor so I risked it and didn't buy any since we still have a supply from the Beecrofts. I'm crossing my fingers that it will still be there when my budget is renewed at the beginning of January. Just in case you can't tell from the picture what this is--nestled in the chocolate mixes is some Hershey's Chocolate Milk Mix. Mmmmmmm.