The Work of the Gapers

What is more fun to do around Christmas time than playing in the snow? Of course, you have to have snow to play in so Ken organized a group from Trinity and Hillcrest to go up to Mt. Hood and enjoy the snow. There we found snow, intertubes, and the perfect packing snow. The intertubing was fun, the snowball fight was more fun, but the highlight of the day was the igloo.

After calling a truce, the two opposing teams set about tirelessly building an igloo. One snow fort was dismantled in order to add to the other, and slowly, the walls of the igloo encircled the builders and began to grow. The roof was going to be the biggest challenge. We figured that we'd build until the roof caved in and just see how far we could get. We kept building and building. Katie and David tirelessly rolled huge wheels of packed snow down the slopes to use as building or packing material while others stacked, supported, and packed what snow was brought to them. And there were, of course, the necessary supervisors. Before we knew it, the roof was leaning, but not falling, in, and the hole at the top was growing smaller and smaller. After 4 1/2 hours of working, the last block of snow was hoisted up to the last opening and packed in place. We were done!

Our megagloo had drawn quite a crowd of people stopping by now and then to see what we were working on and how it was coming. Some even brought snow or helped us lift the blocks and pack them in place. One of the workers came out as we were finished. "Are you from around here?" she asked. " We've been watching you work all afternoon and figured you must be gapers(people who don't live near or see snow and so play tirelessly in it when given the opportunity)." We assured her that we were from the area and did come up to Mt Hood regularly. "All the workers are excited to get off work so that we can come hang out in the igloo," she said. "Do you know how many it will fit?" Since we didn't know, we decided to find out, and all fifteen of us plus the worker crawled into the igloo. It was tight but not too bad, and while we were all in there, we sang some Christmas carols - an igloo has pretty good acoustics. By that time, it was getting late and dark so we crawled back out and headed home. We left the igloo for the workers to enjoy later that night - the work of the gapers.

Sunrise, Sunset

Last Friday, Tamar and Marcus were married
The ceremony was very similar but not exactly like a normal wedding in the States. The pre-ceremony reception, wedding ceremony, and post-ceremony reception and activities all take place at the same location. That made transportation easy! After the processional, the bride and groom each sit with their families on the front row to receive the message/challenge from the pastor. After the message and a couple songs, the bride and groom rise and stand with their families under the khupa. There, they exchange vows and rings, and the groom stomps on (and hopefully breaks!) the cup. Marcus did a great job.

Almost, but not quite, my favorite part was the incredible bread, salad, meat, and dessert meal that followed. Isn't the food the reason most people go to weddings anyway?! The reception had the usual toast from the best man and the maid of honor, but this one was almost a program with the jokes, videos, and presentations that the bride and groom laughed through. The most fun was the accordion player who was the father of Tamar's brother-in-law. The was funny and played very well, but Tamar had been warned, "Don't ask for a few songs because you will get a whole string of songs, and when his wife gets tired of hearing him play, she'll start dancing." That is exactly what happened! The accordion wasn't the only music however, and the dj put on his music and let everyone in some traditional Jewish dances.

Now, Mr. and Mrs. Richardson are getting ready to move back to the States. They leave tomorrow just a few hours after I leave. Too bad we don't have the same flight, especially since they will be living just a few hours away!

Hand Over the Icing!

After putting up the tree and toiling to get it straight, we invited an Israeli family over to help us decorate both the tree and some gingerbread and sugar cookies. The kids had never before put up or decorated a Christmas tree, and the tree, the lights, and the ornaments fascinated them.

Even more fun than decorating the tree was decorating the cookies in various designs of colored icing. The trees, bells, gingerbread men ("not my gumdrop buttons!!"), and snowmen cookies looked delectable dressed in the holiday colors. Requests for the green, yellow, red, and white icing were called out around the table in Hebrew and English. Each head was bent over a cookie, diligently crafting their works of art. The older kids were intent on making their cookies as intricate and creative as possible. The younger kids were intent on piling on as much frosting as possible so they could enjoy it later.

Instructions For the Christmas Tree

It always surprises me how soon Christmas follows on the heels of Thanksgiving. I was always excited for Thanksgiving while I was in school because it meant that Christmas break was not far away. Now I feel the same way because in a week I'll be coming home for "Christmas break."

Everyone was excited when we turned on the Christmas music, hauled out the Christmas boxes from the garage, and started putting up the Christmas decorations. Everything was going well until we got to the tree. Being from Oregon, the land of the Christmas tree farms, I've never before attempted to put up an artificial tree. I thought they came all in one piece and all you had to do was stand it up where you wanted it. It has screws?! After unwrapping and laying out the pieces, I was at a complete loss. Since I'm not a guy, I'm not opposed to searching for and following the directions. :-) However with this tree, there were no instructions to be found. Maggie came to my rescue and together we built the base and stood the Christmas tree on it, one section at a time. Not bad. It was a little crooked, but Darren fixed it when he got home. Now, decorated with lights and ornaments, it looks wonderful!!