Post Christmas Reflections

The BOB girls at Operation Christmas Child Warehouse.

The past few weeks have been such a whirlwind - from Thanksgiving to Christmas always feels that way - and now that all the hype is over, I'm looking forward to working off the five pounds I've gained and having a bit of time to breathe.

Rachel, Christina, Bethany and me at a Christmas Party.

Some of the BOB girls at our leader, Kathy's, X-Mas party.

 A couple weeks before Christmas, my life group girls and I all went to Operation Christmas Child Warehouse to sort shoe boxes which are delivered around the world to impoverished children. It is one of our favorite "serves" each year.




A couple days before Christmas I went up to Lake Norman to visit with Tiffany, her fiance Mitch and her whole family.  The house was a little crazy with 11 people and 8 dogs running around, but it was a lot of fun.  We spent the day running various errands and looking at a potential house for Tiffany and Mitch.  I'm so happy they are considering moving closer to Charlotte so I don't have to go all the way to Asheville to visit. On Saturday morning, before driving back to Charlotte, we all went to breakfast and met Tiffany's brother and sister-in-law and their three babies.  The two newest are twins and so sweet.  I enjoyed getting to hold them and look forward to the day when Tiff and Mitch will have their own.

With Erika in front of our neighbor's lights.

Saturday evening, my family had Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Bob and his girlfriend Cheryl over for Christmas Eve Dinner.  It was really yummy and we all played cards after the meal.

I also talked to Lieselotte on Saturday and was absolutely delighted to hear that she has gotten interviews for grad school so far at Duke, UNC and Berkeley!  I'm so thrilled for her.  It also means that she'll be back in the US for said interviews from early February to mid-March. Yay!!  I still have my fingers crossed that we may both end up together at Washington Univ., or that I will get into Stanford and she will get into SF or Berkeley, or that she'll go to Duke or UNC and I'll be close like Greensboro or Wilmington. I'm tired of being thousands of miles away from my best friend!

From my silk show.

It has also been on my mind lately to return to Europe.  If I can swing it, I'd like to go for the month of May - arriving in London and visiting London, Oxford, Amsterdam (where Lieselotte is) and then traveling with her down to southern Spain (where my friend Enrique and Carmen are). The only caveat is how much the flights are then, and the price of a Eurorail pass. At current prices, it is looking like the trip would cost about $1,475 for the flight and ground transportation between countries and cities.  However, I'd also have to tack on food money, subway transport within each city, and cost of museums or activities.  Thanks to Couchsurfing and friends abroad, I shouldn't have to pay to sleep.  But the point is, we're looking at a minimum of $2,000, after having just spent $1,000 on grad school applications and having just had to pay my taxes on Feb. 14.  I need to figure out how much I'll probably owe, and then I can determine if I have the savings for it.  Also, I'd need to book the trip before I know about where I'm going to grad school, and that's another consideration because some places will be more expensive than others.  Urrg.  However, one of my Christmas presents was a new suitcase of the exact right size for this sort of trip....

On Christmas day (yesterday), I got up and made breakfast for Mom and Dad, then we all went to church while Brett was still sleeping.  When we got back, I woke up Brett and we opened presents and then started watching "It's a Wonderful Life" before going over to Uncle Bob's for Christmas dinner with the crowd from the night before plus Kelly, Bob, and the two girls.  The girls were so precious playing with their new gifts and it was nice to be with everyone.

The Wednesday before Christmas I held a party at our house for all the BOB girls (Bevy of Beauties) - my life group from church.  It was such a nice party because almost everyone came and I made chili and everyone brought something - it was just delightful.  One of our old members, Jennifer, came with her baby Caroline.  It was so good to see them, but poor Caroline (5 mo. old) was a little overwhelmed by the 15 loud, talking girls. Also, Erika from LA came and stayed with me Wed and Thurs nights.  It was so good to see her again so soon!  We all had such a delightful night!  Vanessa and Christina and Erika all spent the night, and the next morning Erika and I went for about a three mile run around the park next door.  Then Erika had to run errands and meet up with other friends, Christina had to babysit, but Vanessa and I went with Mom to see Girl With the Dragon Tattoo which was really good - even though it was rather scary!  When Erika got back to my house that evening, Vanessa and I joined her and her former Charlotte roommate Rene for dinner at Sushi 101.  (I had fried rice).  Overall, it was a really great two days!

Also, on Dec. 18, I performed in my first silk aerial show.  It was a student performance, but there were many people there.  Mom wanted to come, but she had a migraine, so Bethany and Christina came to watch me, which made me so happy.  I was really flattered because after the show a few different people came up to me and said what a good job I did and that they couldn't believe it was my first performance.

Christmas Eve Dinner at our house.

I'm going up to Tiffany's parents' mountain house for a few days before New Years, and I am looking forward to that.  It's so nice that we've had a chance to spend more time together lately.