Deck the Halls....:)

Tried to make my apartment look as warm and cozy as I could...

Well, I have tried once again to make my apartment look Christmasy for the season! To add to my collection of Christmas decorations from last year, I picked up a cool olive wood nativity in Jerusalem this past April. Makes it feel a little more like Christmas, seeing as Christ's birth is the REAL meaning and seems to get forgotten this time of the year, especially here where Christmas is not exactly celebrated.

My nativity from Jerusalem! :)

My family is awesome and even though they shouldn't have because of the ridiculous cost, they still sent over a little Christmas parcel so I would have something to unwrap on Christmas morning. :) xoxoxo The Christmas card from my brother and sister-in-law was awesome! :) Totally looks like my dog, Bailey, back home!!! :)

Funniest card ever, and so perfect! Thanks Colin & Aubrey! xo

And my Christmas tree of course! It's a little lopsided and took some adjusting to get it to stand as straight as it could......yup, Tariq my Christmas camel is back again for this year's tree topper! :) LOL

My tree with presents all the way from Canada underneath! :)

My stocking is hung by the lamp with care......LOL

Yes, that is my fireplace DVD.....I happen to like pretending that my tv is a fireplace. I just crank the air conditioning and it feels just like back home! ;)

We don't get any time or even an extra day off for Christmas here, so luckily Christmas falls on our weekend. Kimberley and I are flying to Beirut, Lebanon to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Even though Lebanon is half Muslim, the other half is Christian and so they do celebrate Christmas there. We are hoping to soak in some Christmasy cheer before heading back to Kuwait late Christmas Day night. I'm looking forward to Christmas in Beirut and will be sure to post a Christmas greeting from there! I'm hoping everyone is enjoying the snow and Christmas festivities back home....I'm thinking about you all as I "freeze" in the 20 degree heat over here! ;)

Jordan: Part 3 - Mt. Nebo and Jerash

View looking North from Mt. Nebo

First stop of the day........Mount Nebo! This is where God first showed Moses the Promised Land that He was giving to His people. (Deuteronomy 34:1-4)

This is the view that Moses would have seen looking west......yup, that's the Holy Land! :)

Some really old mosaics from the remains of a Byzantine church that was once on this mount.....

From Mt. Nebo we drove and got lost for a bit among the messed up city streets of Amman and then finally found a road going North to Jerash! Jerash is a pretty cool and fairly well intact ancient Roman city. We didn't get a tour of the place, but wandered around ourselves for awhile.

The Arch of Hadrian gate...

The steps leading up to the Temple of Artemis

The Roman Oval Forum

Me trying to cool off in the shade of the side of the Arch of Hadrian!

The Tetrapylon

The old road

Another view of the Roman Oval Forum

Columns in the Temple of Artemis

One of the city's smaller theaters.....

And that sums up the first foreign adventure of this school year! I highly recommend a trip to Egypt and Jordan to anyone! :) Stay tuned for some more adventures coming soon! :)

Jordan: Part 2 - Wadi Rum & the Dead Sea

A village we passed while on our way to Wadi Rum.

Pretty rugged terrain...

We spent half a day in Wadi Rum and apparently when we arrived in the afternoon, we discovered we were last tourists into the village for the day! It literally felt deserted! LOL We were determined to take a camel trek to the famous Lawrence's Spring, so in broken Arabic managed to convince a camel herder guy who spoke NO English to take us there. Ahhhhh, the adventure begins!

This is my camel for our camel trek to Lawrence's Spring! :) She was so cute! :)

Heading out of the village...

Kimberley's camel was a very cantankerous beast! As soon as she got on, it started howling and it's ears went flat against it's head. This thing was mad!!! We had to stop a few times because it was starting to freak out and then settled down a bit as we began heading out of the village. There were a couple times when I thought it was going to throw Kimberley off. The herder tied it to my camel's saddle and then this beast decided it HAD to walk with it's head and face pressed up against my leg the ENTIRE 45 minute ride to the spring! I though for sure it was going to bite me because it kept howling off and on the whole way and didn't move it's head from my leg until we stopped when it totally nipped my arm with it's lips. No teeth, thank goodness!

This was Kim's crazy camel! Take note of it's ears which are NOT supposed to be flat against it's head if it's ok..........ya, imagine this thing pressed up against your leg all the way.

Kim on her cranky camel! She may look happy in this pic but was actually terrified as this was one of the times we stopped to let the camel calm down before heading on....

This is Kim's camel getting all snuggly with me during a freak-out session....ya, my facial expression explains exactly how I felt at that time!

Some of the scenery as we were trekking through the valley......once the sun hit the rock it was beautiful as it literally looked like the rock was glowing!

This picture really does not do this justice.....it was BEAUTIFUL!

A jeep passed out going out to a Bedouin camp...

A random Bedouin camp....

So after a 45 minute trek with a incensed camel pressing it's face and breathing nasty breath on my leg, we finally arrived at our destination - Lawrence's Spring! We asked our guide by using hand gestures......where is the spring? To which he looked at us funny and pointed to the following stone troughs.......are you kidding me? THIS is what I potentially risked my right leg for? We burst out laughing and took some pics before mounting the beasts again and heading back. Here is the disappointing "Lawrence's Spring". LOL

Ummm.......ya........this is what we came to see.....LOL!

We didn't really know what to say........"cool?"

We figured if we trekked all the way out here, we may as well take a pic to prove it! LOL

Our camel herder hanging out with his camels as we took pics of the spring....

The sun went down quickly on our way back!

The Dead Sea pics are next! We spent 3 whole days relaxing at the Movenpick Dead Sea Resort and Spa. It was super great! We had another Ahmed totally make it special for us! He upgraded our rooms for free and gave us access to a private jacuzzi! It was pretty neat!

Our private jacuzzi...

Yay! The Dead Sea!

Yup, that's us after we got all muddy and washed it off......

Lounging around the pool after we spoiled ourselves getting salt scrubs and mud wraps with actual Dead Sea salt and mud! This infinity pool looks cool because the pool looks like it runs right into the Sea! :)

Sunset on the Dead Sea! :)

Alright, one more post coming with pics of Mt. Nebo and Jerash!

Jordan: Part 1 - Petra

Once we flew into the Queen Alia Airport in Amman, Jordan, we picked up our rental car and drove the 2 1/2 hours down to our hotel in Wadi Musa. From there we did an all day trek to Petra, one of the new seven wonders of the world!

"Petra" meaning "stone" is know as the "Forgotten City" or the "Rose Red City" because of it's secrecy hidden in the red sandstone hills of Jordan. It is thousands of years old, but was only rediscovered in 1812! Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade made it's "Treasury" very famous and well-know as it was filmed there! I had no idea that this civilization had existed and growing up, had never heard of this place! I assumed the shots in Indiana Jones were all just elaborate sets.

The scenery was simply breathtaking and our pictures truly do not do it justice. It's very expensive to get into (50 Jordanian Dinars, which is around $72 Canadian), but honestly WELL worth the money as the sites are fantastic! :) The colours of the rock were such beautiful shades and it was hard to believe that they hadn't been painted!

Some of the colorful rock...

Walking through the entrance and down into the Siq...

You had to walk in about a kilometer before you reached the Siq (a narrow winding gorge) which is the next 1km trek through this cleft between giant slabs of rock. It felt very cool walking through this small space with vertical rock cliffs on either side! The colours of the rock were beautiful and the patterns from the layers in the rock were really unique.

Kim at the entrance to the Siq...

Walking through.....I loved how the rocks were striped with the different colours of minerals!

It is really cool as you are walking though this kilometer long corridor of tall rock, because as you come around one particular corner, this is the view you get.....a sneak peek at what lies just beyond the bend! :)

The Treasury!!

From the Treasury we walked a bit further and discovered the hidden city......I had NO idea Petra was so large! Here are some pics of the buildings and structures that had been carved out of the sandstone.

The old ampitheater

From here we wanted to go all the way up to the old Monastery, and this little boy offered to take us up on his donkeys so we though, "Why not!?" Our little guide's name was Mahmoud. He was 11 years old and his whole family worked out at Petra doing/selling different things. :)

This was one strong, sure-footed little beast! LOL

Us at the top of the trail!

The view looking back from where we climbed from....

This is what we went all the way up to see.....the Monastery!

This gives you an idea of just how big this hand carved structure is.....that's me standing in the bottom right of the door!

Here are just a bunch of random pics from walking around and exploring Petra...

The wind has eroded A LOT of the carved structures...

It was a busy day and we were tired by the end! From Petra we drove another 3 hours through winding, hairpin turn roads to our resort on the Northern tip of the Dead Sea. Next post coming soon! ;)