Quite a bit has transpired since the last post. I'll start with the good stuff first and see how far I get. My emotional endurance has been tested as of late and coupled with my usual procrastination -- well, just don't expect too much here!
Alejandro was delighted with the wonder of Christmas. He'd been so excited the whole month. His expression coming down the stairs to discover the presents and empty cookie plate was priceless. It's such a precious age. Dante was so happy with the bubbles that he found in his stocking, it took a bit of coaxing to get him to open anything else.
(Yes, the picture below is from Christmas and not Halloween -- grandma and grandpa had sent a tub full of dress up clothes.) 
I had made a lot of effort to make it feel like Christmas despite the lack of spirit, music and decorations in Israel but I didn't realize how much was lacking until we stepped off the plane in Frankfurt for a layover on Dec 27th. Alejandro was awestruck. He had stepped into a Christmas wonderland. He grabbed my hand and was literally dragging me around the airport to inspect all the decorations. We couldn't get him to stand still to take a picture, he was so excited. He had similar reactions in Venice and Amsterdam on our whirlwind world tour of airports. Detroit and Akron airports were bare as the US Christmas season ends on Dec26th instead of Jan 6th like the rest of the Christian world. There was the mad dash across the altar at my parents' church to inspect the nativity scene though.
We left for the airport on our way to Italy unaware of the situation in Gaza/Israel. The uncertainty and a bout of the flu put a small damper on our vacation but we still really enjoyed our visit with family. Alfonso's cousin had recently moved with his family to a NATO base and were living in the town of
Maniago at the base of the Alps. It was very beautiful but a bit on the cold side coming straight from the Middle East.
We saw a dog sled team on our failed attempt to go sledding. The boys were too cold to even try out the sled. Alfonso saved the day by buying them hot chocolate which was closer to pudding than liquid. The boys couldn't spoon it to their faces fast enough!
Talk about teamwork! The kids played really well together the whole time. Well, Dante swiped a toy from the baby the first day. So after that she screamed any time he came within a five foot radius of her.
We cut our visit a little bit short so Alfonso could fly me and the boys back to Ohio. He stuck around for a week and headed back to Israel. He's been there alone and miserable ever since.
I don't really want to get into the politics or anything. But pretty much everything on the news with the graphic and devastating pictures of death and destruction are from Gaza, not Israel. The rockets that are being fired into Israel are unguided -- Hamas just fires in a general direction and hopes that they hit something. The rockets are not bombs; if they hit a house, it would destroy a room -- not the whole building. Hamas has been firing rockets the whole time we were there into border towns even though it was quieter during the six month cease fire that ended in December. The biggest change for us is that these terrorists acquired longer range rockets capable of reaching our town.
Our house (as every house in Israel is required) has a bomb shelter called a "safe room." The boys call it the "toy room." There are warning sirens that go off and you head to the room and wait for the boom. The likelihood of anything happening is very slim. The two other American families on the street just toughed it out with the Israelis (even though Intel would pay for tickets home or for hotel rooms in Tel Aviv out of rocket range.) The whole "duck and cover" is not something I want to put the kids through. So we've been hanging out, waiting and waiting and waiting.
The kids are enjoying time with the grandparents even though they are homesick and miss Alfonso terribly. Alejandro loves all of grandpa's stories and puppets (and stories with puppets and puppets that tell stories.) While Dante has to get "cozy" every night with grandma.
In the mean time, because of economic reasons, Intel said that all Americans would end their assignments in Israel by June and were welcome to leave ASAP. So we tried to get on that boat and Alfonso had a tentative position lined up. Unfortunately before anything got finalized, Intel announced a "redeployment process" a.k.a. "layoffs" and New Mexico refused to give him a start date until they go through this process which promises to take a couple months. So Alfonso is on his way back to Ohio to take me and the boys back to Israel. We are leaving for Israel Friday night and should be back in Albuquerque by the beginning of April give or take a couple weeks.
I can't say I'm thrilled about heading back to Israel but we'll be together and hopefully Alejandro will get a little closure as this month has been the hardest on him. Soon we will be back in the land of enchantment.
Love always,
Debi
Dante (after a really bad haircut) outside the city wall with the Citadel in the background.
Alfonso and his mother at the Citadel
Just inside the Jaffa Gate. There is one road that makes a loop inside the walls of the city. Otherwise, most of the streets are for foot traffic only.
The Western Wall which is the remnants from the outer wall surrounding the Second Temple destroyed in 70 AD. There is a small dividing wall between the brown tables and the white umbrella. Men pray on the left, the women squeeze in on the itty bitty section on the right.
Some Arab girls getting out of school in the Old City
Alfonso on a section of the Via Dolorosa
Another typical street in the Old City
The entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher -- From street level, you can't see the Dome on top (just a side view of a crucifix.) The building isn't stand alone and there are absolutely no signs indicating what it is so it looks like just about everything else in the Old City.
Inside the church...
Picture with one of the soldiers (whose commander ordered him to smile.)
Jerusalem's religion hat trick. Between our heads is the Western Wall, the gold dome is the Dome of the Rock where the Muslims believe Muhammad ascended into heaven on a winged horse with the angel Gabriel, and the grey dome between my head and the gold dome slightly back is the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.
Alfonso and I at the Shrine of the Book, the building at the Israel Museum that houses the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Alfonso would love to live in Jerusalem. I was happy I had the opportunity to go and see it (once.) 
