The Laughlins

If you have been watching the news, you know that Israel got a good dusting of snow this week. On Wednesday, it snowed for many hours, and about 2-4 inches stuck on the ground, causing buses to stop running and school to close early. There are more stories that I plan on telling, but here is a little snowy picture of vineyards on our way to Hebron/Mamre that I took yesterday...more on that later!!

For Christmas Eve, we went to our friend, Audra's apartment (and Mark finished and turned in his Jeremiah paper). There were about 16 of us altogether. Everyone brought something to contribute to the dinner, and it was like Thanksgiving all over again. We had turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, vegetables, bread, etc....all of the fixins. After dinner, Bryce (guitar) and Amanda (violin) played a number of Christmas carols that we all sang. It made me very happy to sing. I was worried that I might not be doing that this year. Amanda and Audra read from Luke, and we all had a great time. Afterwards, about eight of us headed to the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in the Old City for a 10:30pm service. Unfortunately, between all of the candles and the standing-room-only-full church, my cough got the best of me, and Mark and I had to leave after about 20 minutes :( We walked to the city center to catch a bus and got to see some lights here and there before we went home. It was a fun evening. There will be videos coming soon...I promise.

We had a few different Christmas get-togethers that we went to this week. The first one was at the Miller's place last Thursday night. Seven of us got together for desserts, The Muppet's Christmas Carol, and a gift exchange. It was a lot of fun. Luke requested tie-dyed frosting and sugar cookies, so I did my best :) I love the Muppets Christmas Carol - I know all of the songs and lines...I had to keep myself from saying them. The Muppets are great. Period. The gift exchange was a lot of fun too, and I have a video project that I am putting together of everyone opening their presents. We played the stealing/random exchange, but I was the only person who stole...I'm so mean. It was well worth it though - I got the awesome garden gnome pictured below! Check back soon for the video...

I have lots of posts to add this week, so I am going to keep them "short." I finally updated my profile for any of you that care. However, I learned that 1200 characters to describe yourself, 600 for movies, 600 for books, and 600 for music is not NEARLY enough for someone who enjoys movies, music, and books. Anyways...at least you have a little bit of info now.

Here are some pictures of the Hannukah lamps that I took a week ago. Unfortunately I did not get as many pictures as I wanted to, so I will have to do better next year. You can also watch a little video of us lighting our candles. As you can tell, we don't have the blessing memorized that you are supposed to say, but Mark said the first line right :)

The pictures that I posted on my last entry were the samples of the types of wallets that I made. Those pictures were just taken from the Internet (since I hadn't photographed my own yet), but here are the photos of my duct-tape doings. Below, you can see my blue belt with white stars, my blue bag with white stripes, and the blue wallet that I made for Mark. You can also see the blue scarf that I am almost done knitting!! Wallets are 25 NIS for those of you in Israel (you pick the color and customize) and $7 + shipping for those of you in the U.S. Soon to come...many pics/videos from Hannukah/Christmas goings-ons.

I just realized that pictures and posting tend to go hand-in-hand with me. Therefore, if I don't have new pictures, then I don't post new blog entries. Sorry about that. I will try to be better about saying the "general" things that we are up to even if I don't have pictures :) General news: Mark is writing a paper for his Jeremiah class. I learned to knit in five minutes, and I'm partway through two scarves. I also made a bright blue duct tape belt, shoulder bag, and two wallets. I'll take pictures of those soon and post them. Perhaps I'll start a little duct tape accessories business over here. I am also trying to fight off a cold :(

I am giving away secrets, but here are the instructions for a bi-fold duct tape wallet from
http://www.rpi-polymath.com/ducttape/duct_tape_wallet.html:

Step 1
The first step is to create a large sheet of duct tape 8.5 inches by 7 inches. This is the key to any duct tape project, with a sheet of tape you can make anything! Rip a strip of tape at least 8.5 inches in length and place sticky side up on your working surface. rip a second piece of equal length and place sticky side down half way over the first strip. Fold the rest of the strip facing up over the second strip. Flip over the two strips and place a third strip sticky side down covering the remaining sticky part of the second strip. Flip the sheet again and continue extending the size of the sheet until the needed size is satisfied.

Step 2
Trim the edges, fold the wallet in half and tape the sides to create a large pocket to hold bills.

Step 3
To create credit/business card pockets create another sheet 4 by 3.5 inches.

Step 4
Fold 1.5 inches over. To create two more pockets, repeat the step above and then tape the two pieces together, taping the second pocket a little lower on top of the first piece.

Step 5
Tape the edges of the pockets and then tape the whole piece to the large pocket. To create another pocket, leave the inside part untaped.

Step 6
Make a sheet of tape (as in the first step) larger than your ID card. Cut the sheet so the outside part of the frame is slightly larger than the height and width of the ID. Cut the inside .5 centimeters, (big enough you can see you picture and info, but small enough the ID can't fall through the opening. Now trim the outside so it is slightly larger in all directions than your ID. Tape three sides of this window to the inside of your wallet, or on top of the credit card holder. It'll take a some trial an error to get it right, but it will be a great addition to the wallet. When your done, the ID should be able to slide into the untaped side of the holder, and once in, not fall through the open window.

Step 7
Tape the completed pocket to the large pocket and again you can create an extra pocket if you wish by leaving the inside part untaped.

Step 8
This is the completed wallet. There are an infinite ways to personalize this design. Some ideas I've embeded in mine are coin pockets within the large bill pocket and placing flaps on the credit card holders so business cards don't fall out when the wallet gets dropped.

So, since I've been in Israel, I've been told many times that I have an American accent. That said, I was told a couple of weeks ago that I had a southern accent...no way! I mean, I realize that my accent tends to vary depending on who I am talking to. I guess that can be good in adapting to a new culture, but confusing at other times. In the end though, I have a very western or "Californian" accent. I even took this test to prove it. You should try it too :) Thanks, James, for the link.

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The West   Your accent is the lowest common denominator of American speech. Unless you're a SoCal surfer, no one thinks you have an accent. And really, you may not even be from the West at all, you could easily be from Florida or one of those big Southern cities like Dallas or Atlanta.
The Midland
Boston
North Central
The Inland North
Philadelphia
The South
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

I have been a bit sick lately, but Mark and I decided to take a short walk yesterday. We knew that the Tombs of the Sanhedrin were nearby, so we followed our map and found the pretty park that they were located in. The Sanhedrin was the ancient high court of the Jews, which was composed of 70 esteemed male sages and leaders. They were in charge of rulings on legal matters, which included taking part in the trials of Jesus as well. Today, in the park, there are many different burial caves cut into the hillsides. All of them have been fenced off with big green fences and padlocks (and padlock protectors over the locks). That does not seem to stop curiousity and inquisitiveness though, and I (Aubrey) was determined to find one that was open in some way. I found two.

The tomb with the three columns in front of it (only two columns visible in the 3rd picture below) had a break in the fence behind the middle column, so we squeezed in, and Mark took a look inside with his flashlight, but we didn't go into the tomb itself. There was lots of trash in them and other chambers and tunnels, which we figured a few bums had probably found before us, so we didn't want to "run into" anyone with only our puny little flashlight :) I found one other one that had a large sidehole in it, so we climbed into the area that you could stand up in, but once again, we didn't venture into the other chambers and tunnels. Maybe we'll take a bodyguard with us next time and go exploring. You up for it, Seth?! :)

The largest cave is the one that Mark is posing next to below (and he looks quite small next to it). This cave is talked about in Jerome Murphy-O'Connor's "The Holy Land" book. "Located in a garden at the end of Sanhedrin Street, the cave containing these tombs [Tombs of the Sanhedrin] is notable for its magnificent carved pediment, the finest in Jerusalem. Pomegranates and other fruits are scattered among the stylized acanthus leaves; the workmanship is typically C1 AD. The entrance to the tomb chamber has a smaller pediment. The great chamber immediately inside is unique in that it has two rows of shaft graves (kokhim) one above the other; arcosolia group those of the upper level in pairs. There are two other chambers on the same level, and others below reached by stairs. The number of burials that the tomb can accommodate is responsible for its popular name; it approximates to the membership (70) of the Jewish Sanhedrin."

We didn't get to go in this one, but you can see close-up pictures of the pediments above the cave and their detailings! (In the last five pictures below.)