Seventh Day of Christmas

If you have not read my post on the First Day of Christmas, please read that first.
Christmas Quiz part 4: How well do you know the Biblical Christmas story?

Where are you, a Gentile, explicitly mentioned in the Christmas story?

Our Christmas Ornaments part 7

I went to Israel with a group from my college in 1995. These are some of the ornaments from that trip. The Coke bottle is not an ornament, but I hang it on the tree. My favorite is the bell with the Holy Family inside. The last one is not an ornament, but it sits on the shelf. I thought I got a great deal to barter on the street for it for $5. When I got back on the bus another person from our group had done a better job bartering than I did. They paid $3.
As part of this trip one lunch was paid for by a store-we ate chicken. Then afterwards they gave us time to shop at their store where they had lots of souvenirs and things made from olive wood. I understood this would be our only real shopping time so I spent a lot of money in that store. Then a few days later we went to another site and some nuns ran a store with homemade souvenirs. My friend Stacy had not spent very much money in the first store so she was able to buy much nicer souvenirs in the second store. I did buy a few things in the second store. The second store was more expensive, but much nicer quality. Plus the second store helped support a much better cause than the first store. The professor that led our group bought a very nice stole there. The two ornaments in the middle were from the second store. I did buy enough ornaments at the first store that I was able to give all my students in my first class that I taught an ornament. I wonder if any of them still hang that ornament on their tree? I hope so. The other ornaments that I purchased on this trip, mostly at the first store, are featured in this post.
I had worked very hard during the summers to save money for this trip. When I finally went, I hadn't thought about what kind of souvenirs I wanted to buy. I would give advice to anyone traveling to the Holy Land (actually anyone traveling overseas) to think a little about what kind of souvenirs and who you want to buy for before you go. Are you going to just buy a few nice gifts for yourself or many smaller gifts for your family and friends too? Of course I would buy very differently now that I have a family than when I was a college student, but I'm glad that I have many ornaments from that trip to hang on the tree each year.