Yesterday we spent the day in Bethlehem and surrounding areas... visitng the Herodium (which is one of the more awesome things i've ever done - i'll write more about it later on after we visit more of the sites of Herod the Greats opulence) and manger square and the church of the nativity. I thought second Christmas in regular Israel was awesome - second Christmas at the literal birthplace of Christmas was even MORE awesome.

It takes about 10 minutes to upload each picture I want to from where I am right now so I'm going to wait to upload pictures and tell stories from the church of the nativity until I have a little better internet situation and instead let everyone laugh at what a nerd I am...

next door to the church of the nativity (the historical and traditional place of the birth of Christ) there is a Catholic church that has a cave underneath it that is said to be the workspace of Jerome - the man who first translated the bible into Latin vulgate. Rather than wait in line one hour to touch the rock where Jesus supposably emerged from the womb, James and I made a bee line to Jerome's cave because we are lame and love the translation of the Scriptures. The carving from the picture is on the wall in the cave and I was very touched by it.