Christmas Time in the City... Rome

Well, the fourth Sunday in advent came, we had snow in Kandern, then two days later I got on a train and then a plane and arrived in Rome Italy.
We went to midnight mass at the Vatican on Christmas Eve. This is something I never thought I would experience, and to be honest I have never longed to experience it. I was not raised Catholic so I do not understand everything that happens in a Catholic service. And.. most of the service was in Latin or Italian, a bit of English, a bit of German, even some Hindi.

We had tickets to get in... and we got in line at the end of the line. They give out about 30,000 tickets for 8,000 seats. hmmm... something does not sound right about that... here is the little group of us who went inside.

From left to right: Amy, BethAnn, Me, Kendra, Jimmy... and Debbie...she was taking the photo.

We had seats about 20 rows from the front!.. granted we were on the side so we did not get the full picture.. but we were close enough to see what was happening without needing binoculars.
here is the pope praying before communion... it was 1:30am by this time and our little group departed the Vatican after the prayer.
As we departed we looked back over the sea of people who were in the Vatican... impressive.
As we returned to the outside, we saw that the pope was blessing children from all around the world. The outside screens had the up close view. :-)
Christmas morning was spent with fun people... with gift-giving, french toast and good coffee... no photos of that.. we were all in our pajamas and when you have five women in pajamas.. no one wants their photo displayed for the whole world to see... no matter how good we look in the morning! :-) It was one of my most favourite Christmas Day's ever! We all wanted to give each other gifts and to just be a little team/family/group (whatever you want to call it).

Here we are after showers. This is my dear friend BethAnn whom I got to know when I went through XTrack in the summer of 2007. Don't we look like Christmas?
Christmas day more fun people joined in and we had a 26 pound turkey and all the other great things that make up a festive dinner. Steve and Alyssa Dueck joined us... Why is it that Christmas trees are the chosen background for photos? :-)Here is Steve approving the table decorations. And then a photo of Debbie as she ponders how to deal with the huge turkey.. yes.. 26 pounds (after the legs were cut off)

One really fun part was the addition of Tim and Rachel Uthmann with their new daughter Joy! Tim and Rachel both worked at Multnomah when I worked there and I LOVE that God has them in Europe now! There is something so comfortable about people who know you from before your time overseas. we took one photo with Tim on the right... but it just looked funny to have Rachel and I in black and about the same height.. then Tim hanging out all tall and maroon to the side. :-)

During different points of the time in Rome we would wander the downtown areas of the city. I did not feel a need to see all the sights but it was fun to just enjoy the city. So as we walked through the city, we saw a couple fun things.. here they are...

A little band of three with this man playing with more joy and fun than I have seen anyone play an instrument for awhile! And of course he loved that I wanted to take his photo.
My friend's flat has this amazing view out the windows.. to the Mountains... beautiful!... God's grandeur gives a backdrop to the beautiful architecture that God inspired men to create and all the annteneas that stretch to the sky, created by humans which God inspired as well.
I had the privilege of spending Christmas in Rome Italy with some great people and seeing some truly historical things.It was so good to deepen friendships and to meet new friends! I love seeing how God is caring for me.