We took a public bus to the edge of Bethlehem, to the field where the shepherds watched over their flocks. I stealthily took this photo of a Muslim woman and her little girl.

We arrived at the area where the shepherds watched their flocks on the edge of the Judean Desert. It is very rocky with little vegetation...

...but olive trees grow on distant hillsides.

There is an archaeological site nearby where we looked at excavated dwellings from the time of Jesus.

Many of the homes were underground in cramped caves.

Jen and Teri in a cave dwelling.

This is the cave where the shepherds slept and were visited by an angel.

"In that region there were shepherds living in fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night. Then the angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid, for see - I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us." So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child laying in the manger." Luke 2:8-11 15-16

The cave opening has been bricked up, but in the days of Jesus it looked out over a field on the edge of the Judean Desert.

"Gloria In Excelsis Deo"

A chapel was built nearby and it had beautiful paintings in alcoves depicting scenes from the bible.

The domed chapel was beautiful. It had great acoustics too. We sang "Angels We Have Heard On High" and I got chills listening to the sound of our voices echoing in the chamber.

An Italian architect designed the chapel with a tent in mind. Perhaps a shepherd would live in a tent, right?

When we returned to Manger Square we found that people had crowded to watch the procession of the patriarch.

A swarm of altar boys preceded the patriarch, who was arriving for the midnight mass. I never did see him in the procession.

After the procession we visited the Milk Grotto. This is a traditional site where supposedly Mary nursed the baby Jesus. Legend has it that some of her milk dropped on the floor and caused the rock to turn white (this too is a cave, like many of the sites). Yeaaaaaah. Okay. That's a bit farfetched for me. Too bad the Greek Orthodox oil lamps have coated the ceiling with a nice black funk.

Mary nursing Jesus.

A shrine inside the Milk Grotto. Greek Orthodox style!

A portrait of Mary nursing Jesus.

An alleyway in Bethlehem near The Church of the Nativity.

Teri and Jen at the first Christmas Eve service we attended. It was held at the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church.

It's the moment we've all been waiting for folks! Jay met a Palestinian man at the Christmas Eve service who owns a hair salon. He offered to give me a haircut so that I would be clean-cut for the midnight mass. Teri took this "before" photo. It was rainy that night (and cold on top of that!) so my hair looked like a complete mess.

Ta-da! I got a haircut on Christmas Eve, in Bethlehem! HAHA! At least it is done now.

We went back to the hotel for dinner and to get ready for the midnight mass. I took this photo of Manger Square from my hotel room. Notice anything odd?

How about the sniper on the rooftop just across the street? This image has been enhanced so you can see him. I told the ladies in our group about him and they flocked to the window to look. He apparently noticed them because he waved and smiled. Snipers were on rooftops all around the square for security. It was a bit of a creepy feeling.

Later we entered The Church of the Nativity through a back door in our hotel and made our way to the Roman Catholic sanctuary where we attended the midnight mass, which was done primarily in Latin.

The church was filled with pilgrims from all over the world.

The mass was very long, but very beautiful. Especially considering people from all over the world were experiencing the same service with us.

About halfway through the mass the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas arrived to show his support. He is a Muslim, but relations between Muslims and Christians in Palestine are peaceful for the most part. This is due to their combined oppression by the Israeli government. The president ended up sitting about 20 feet from where I stood. Suddenly all of those snipers outside made sense... sadly.

Not long afterwards several scary secret service guys wove their way through our crowd to get in place to protect the president. They scanned the faces of the crowd and kept nervous watch over him.

The Patriarch of Jerusalem delivered a speech in Arabic.

On a cold, rainy Christmas Day we visited a Palestinian refugee camp. We saw many paintings like this in memory of people who had been killed over the years. This 12 year old boy was shot and killed for throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers. Not much of a match for an assault rifle don't you think?

This was a particularly wrenching bit of graffiti to me. I think it says it all.

A vendor in a shop we visited showed us this political cartoon.

Our tour guide of Bethlehem took us to his brother's shop where we bought a few souvenirs made of local olive wood. We chatted for some time about the situation in Palestine. Much of Bethlehem's economy is driven by tourism, but tourists have been staying away for years because they are afraid. In actuality Bethlehem felt very safe and had a lively atmosphere. The shopkeeper was extremely nice and even gave Teri two beautiful olive wood candlesticks for free.

A tour guide came early on the day after Christmas to take us to the Sea of Galilee, but before we left Bethlehem, he took us to portions of the wall that we could take photos of.