it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

The Christmas season has arrived, and I am loving every minute of it. I brought lots of Christmas music back from break, and have enjoyed listening to it immensely. The countdown is coming to an end, as I am already past the one week mark. I can already feel the warmth of the fireplace at home, and the smell of goodness of the Christmas Season. My room here is quite festive with Christmas lights, a plate of Christmas cookies (from a dear woman at church), and peppermint pinwheel candies. Most of the time, I have my pine candle 'burning', but nothing beats the smell of a real Christmas tree mixed with pies baking. I don't think I have looked forward to Christmas this much since I was a child, and I don't really know why or what makes this one more exciting then the last, or the one before the last, but trust me, I am excited.

When I snap myself back into the reality of my life as a college student, I am thankful the Lord has gotten me thus far in the semester. I look back on several points of my semester, and have no idea how I survived, besides the fact that I serve an awesome God, and have many prayer warriors backing me up each day. This past week was one of those times, I don't know how I made it through. But God is good, and has carried me through on those eagles wings as He talks of. I have experienced the truth behind the verse that states "when I am weak, He is strong" (Becky paraphrase).

Wednesday night, I had the fun of being able to go over to the Peterson's home after church. Mr. Peterson teaches here at the school and was the staff advisor for the Mission's Conference Steering Committee. He and his family have taken the four of us students on the committee under his wing, and graciously welcomed us into their home. I had fun proclaiming the arrival of my sweet niece, and they all shared in my joy, which was much appreciated. While there, we enjoyed sweet conversation with some yummy Swedish treats (they used to be missionaries in Sweden). One of the things we had was a spiced drink that you drink in a tiny cup and put almonds and raisins in it--it was SO good! We also had some delicious Swedish cookies that reminded me a bit of a gingersnap, but they were very thin--again, very yummy! Once our bellies were full, we enjoyed sharing Christmas traditions, and I felt largely outnumbered as I was the only one who had not been on the mission field in the past. We left just in time to be back in our rooms by curfew, but what fun we all had.

Thursday was study day which means no classes. I didn't allow myself to sleep in too much, and got right to work on reading, projects, and other random assignments coming due. I worked studiously all day, and ended up having to pull late lights because of the pile of things due on Friday. My mind was so heavily into my work, that I completely forgot about devos, and after they had done all of their gift exchanging, they noticed I was missing, and sent Kelsey to come get me, haha.

I made it through Friday, which is totally a God thing. My day started with me freaking out because it was 7:19 instead of 6:00, which is what I had set my alarm for. I am proud to say I was still able to get ready in time! Several projects were handed in, and we wrapped the majority of our classes up in lecture. As soon as my classes were done, I raced back to my room to work on my Learning Center. If you don't know what a Learning Center is, let me just tell you it is a ton of work and time. Thankfully, I had the idea in my head and at about 11pm, I finished that up.

Saturday morning, I woke up and immediately got to some reading. I got to talk to my Dad on the phone for a bit, and skype with my niece. It was fun getting to see her in action. My Saturday was full, and I was thankfully able to start and finish my OT Survey notebook. My day crashed at about quarter of midnight when I was more then ready for sleep!

Today has been an interesting day weather wise. When I woke up, it was pouring rain, and at about 12:30, it started snowing. We are expected to get a bunch of snow between now and Wednesday. I was able to wrap up a few assignments, put some last minute touches on my Learning Center, and enjoy a cozy nap!

Now that you have heard about my last several days in extreme detail, let me give you a heads up about the next several days. We have classes Monday and Tuesday, but those will pretty much just be reviewing before finals. Final exams start Wednesday, and my last exam starts at 10am on Friday! The plan is for Daniel to drive up and pick me up, and then together we will head up to VT. Please be praying with us for good weather. I keep hearing rumors that we are to get a storm Thursday and Friday, but then others say it should be clear. We know the Lord has it in His hands, and are resting in that.

If there is any way I can pray for you this week, please let me know. I would be overjoyed to be able to pray for you in a specific way!