North Carolina: Christmas 2009

So, today was the one of the best days ever. My brother Andrew and his wife Marie and I went snow boarding. I didn't think I would like it at first but once we got rid of the instructor and the bunny hill cleared of people and I figured out how to stand up, it was actually kinda cool. As it turns out, snowboards make wicked sleds... wicked because they are awesomely fast, and wicked because they are near impossible to stop when you are sitting on your butt and not using your feet. haha!

Yesterday was equally as fun. My brother David and his wife Stephanie, along with my parents, went for a "walk." Said walk ended in a sledding extravaganza and kick-a snowball fight. It was fantastic. Pictures to come!

Today Sarah, Jeff and Zoe also arrived, which involved eating prosciutto and other italian delights and decorating a gingerbread house. The house's roof did not want to stand. I kept trying to explain that mortar does not hold walls together, but it was too late. We had to prop the roof up with tapioca pudding cups as buttresses. Good times.

Over all we are eating a lot and having a good time. What else do you do on holidays? :)

Cheers

York: White Elephant, 13.12.09

So last night we had a white elephant exchange. It was totally fun. Except for two things. I looked around for a gift on Saturday and had no real luck until I went into this awesome hippie store that had oodles of stuff to choose from. Anyway, I was looking at all the stuff trying to decide and then I noticed they had a grab-bag box. Well, everyone knows how much I LOVE grab bags. So naturally, I chose one. It was small but I had hIGh hopes. Okay, so we go to the party and I wrapped my tiny little gift (which I did not know what it was) in a HUGE box, you know, like ya do. And Heather, my housemate chose it. She dug through all the Sainsbury bags, the anticipation mounted, she found the gift, opened it and it was a freakin' CARD! A stupid little hand made card! I felt bad. Well, then I kept thinking that if something ever got stolen from me I would steal the card from her so she could get something cool.

Skip back to the beginning of the game. My housemate Stella got like 6 things in a row that got stolen from her. So, she got this fish thing that looks like Dori from "Finding Nemo" and I liked it a lot so I stole it from her. The fish got stolen from me, I stole something else and then after all this game, that thing I got was stolen from me too. I totally forgot about stealing the card and stole the fishy back. The girl I stole it from (Kendra) was kinda upset... well, I knew this, didn't I because I'd been encouraging other ppl to steal it from her the whole game thinking I could bargain with them. Anyway, when I finally had the chance to steal it back I didn't think about it. I just ripped the bandaid off and she was really sad.

Last night I dreamed I was on a bus with all these people from my house. Kendra and Rebecca were on the bus and I was sitting next to them. Kendra was bad mouthing someone on the bus and after listening for a minute I realized it was ME. She was bad mouthing me to my face except she was acting like it wasn't me. hahha. Now I'm all creeped out AND I have to go get a replacement white elephant gift... what a botched job! lol

York: Youth Outreach Center

Last night I went to the dedication of a small room in our ward building that is going to be used as a Youth Outreach Center. Basically, some general authorities visited the British Isles within the last few years and said that a huge majority of the growth in the church will be in the age group 18-30. So stakes all over England are starting these centers. When we have more people we will get a building closer to the Univeristy where ppl can stop by and chill, sort of like an institute building in the United States, but for right now since we are just starting we just have a room in the ward building. It was pretty exciting to go to the dedication. I thought that one time 50 years from now when this center is booming I'll be able to look back and say "I was at that dedication meeting" and maybe there will be a stake history or something saying who was there. Anyway, it felt important, and I was glad I could go.