She Requested a "Lisa Card"

I made this card a month before my youngest son died, so Meital is now a little older. It's a cute card though and one that I still wanted to share here. I hope she doesn't mind.
Meital requested a "Lisa card" that she could use as a new door sign for her bedroom. I made a set for her whole family back in 2019 and Meital wanted to update hers.

I was asked to show her singing and dancing. She loves 'Just Dance', a dance video game, and 'Simply Sing', an app that enables you to improve your singing. Mum also asked me to show Meital wearing the green shirt of NOAM, the youth movement she goes to. (NOAM is an acronym for No'ar Masorti, Masorti Youth, a Zionist youth movement.) The orange cord at the collar of Meital's shirt, known in Hebrew as a sroch hadracha, displays her rank.

Meital loves the caramel shortbread chocolate bar Twix and, in mum's words, "unfortunately her phone". There was also a request to include 'BTS', also known as the Bangtan Boys, a South Korean boy band and 'Black Pink', a South Korean girl group, on her card. I had to look them up!

I already knew that Meital loves Christmas and anything to do with it. I added a red Santa hat and some Christmas decorations, quite an unusual request for a Jewish girl living in Israel but hey, I love Christmas too! Finally mum told me that light grey is Meital's favorite colour, so I made that the background colour of her card.

Meital was going to be turning 10, but since she wanted to use the birthday card as a sign for her bedroom door, I decided to leave her age off the card on this occasion.

Mum told me that "I made someone very happy today!" when she opened her card. The accompanying photos were a delight to receive.

* This post has been shared on Thinking Out Loud Thursday, Little Things Thursday, Thursday Favorite Things

The Colours of Christmas

Last year my Christmas cards were green and red, the colours which are traditionally associated with Christmas. Green represents the evergreen plants, like holly, ivy and mistletoe, which have been used for thousands of years to decorate and brighten up buildings during the long dark winter. They also reminded people that spring would come and that winter wouldn't last forever! Now the most common use of green at Christmas is of course Christmas trees.

Red is the colour of holly berries, which is said to represent the blood of Jesus when he died on the cross. Red is also the colour of Father Christmas' robes.

This year I decided to recreate a previous design of mine, this time using a different colour palette. I chose blue, purple and white, based on some patterned paper I found.

The colour blue is often associated with Mary, the mother of Jesus. In medieval times blue dye and paint was more expensive than gold! It would only be worn by Royal families and very rich people. Mary was often painted wearing blue to show she was very important. Blue can also represent the colour of the sky and heaven.

Purple is the main colour of Advent, the period before Christmas, when Christians fast and repent in anticipation of Christ's birth. Purple symbolises royalty, luxury and is used in many churches for the colour of the altar cloth.

Finally, the last two colours I used on my cards were white and silver. White is often associated with purity and peace in western cultures. Winter snow is of course white as well. I added some sparkly silver baubles. The use of silver at Christmas all started with tinsel. Back in the 17th century, in Nuremberg, Germany, thin strands of real silver were used in trees to reflect candlelight, as they used to put real candles in their trees. Nowadays, silver is associated with prestige and sophistication.

* This post has been shared on The Good. The Random. The Fun.

A Coronavirus Christmas

It was only because I heard a Christmas song on the radio that I realised that Christmas is coming up! In the predominantly Jewish city where I live there is very little sign of the holiday. Instead we have been celebrating Chanukah, the eight day holiday which began on 10th December and is also known as the Festival of Lights. It commemorates the re-dedication of the second century BCE Second Temple in Jerusalem. You can read more about the holiday in this post.

Needless to say, this year has been like no other. We lit the Chanukah candles every night and I made latkes and doughnuts (we eat potato pancakes, latkes, and deep-fried doughnuts, sufganiot, to remind us of the miracle of the oil and the candles that burned for eight days in the rededicated Holy Temple) but other than that, Covid-19 restrictions meant that that there were no parties and no get togethers with friends. We will party twice as hard next year!

Christmas trees at the Church of the Visitation, Ein Kerem, 2013.

Despite the fact that I celebrate Chanukah instead of Christmas, I do enjoy listening to Christmas pop songs on Radio 2 on the Internet. I am quite well versed in all my carols too! I like to have a good singalong and usually no one is home. This year my husband, who is working from home, and youngest son have had to put up with my squawking!!!

Of course Christmas is especially meaningful in Israel due to the historic significance this little country holds as the land where the Christmas story took place. As far as I know, celebrations have pretty much been called off this year but, in normal times, the Christmas Market and Midnight Mass in the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth is known to be a wonderful experience. In Bethlehem you can visit Manger Square and go to Christmas Eve Midnight Mass at the Church of the Nativity, plus there is an annual Christmas Parade. The German Colony in Haifa, which we were lucky enough to visit in 2018, has amazing Christmas lights. 

I have not been out and about to see any Christmas trees or lights this year, so I am sharing my photos from previous years. I hope you will enjoy them once again.

Christmas trees at the YMCA in Jerusalem, 2016.

I do have a papercut art business and this year I created a new Christmas card to send to a few friends back in the UK. My red and green cards featured a little pine tree lit up with white lights and a big star. The post has been slow but I hope they arrived safe and sound.

This year the holidays will be different. I hope that the season will still be special in its own way for you. Thank you for all the support you have given me and my blogging adventure for another year. Keep safe and please keep visiting. I will be back with my end of year round-up for 2020 very soon!

Christmas tree in the German Colony, Haifa, 2017 (top), 2018 and 2019.

* This post has been shared on Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop, Create, Bake, Grow & Gather, Little Things Thursday, Funtastic Friday Link Party, All Seasons, Inspire Me Monday, Sew Can Do and Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday).