Thanksgiving, Cookies, and Goodness

Otgo, Candy, Sarah, and Matt making lasagna.

Candy and Otgo frosting sugar cookies.

I celebrated Thanksgiving a week ago with people from my course. Matt and Abby were gracious enough to open their apartment to us for the occasion. They took care of the turkey, stuffing, vegetables, and a couple of other things, like banaffee pie. The rest of us were supposed to bring things that we liked to have for Thanksgiving. My original idea was to take pumpkin pie, but alas the British are not as big of fans of pumpkin as we are in the States, and I couldn't find canned pumpkin anywhere. I did find some expensive pumpkins at the grocery store that I wasn't about to buy. So I changed from pumpkin pie to cookies. I was a little bit disappointed because I had some other friends that wanted to try pumpkin pie and I couldn't give them any. But so goes life. And I might try again some other time. Who knows. We played charades with just about everyone and it was a lot of fun. Ruby, Sym's daughter, age 4, helped me come up with clues to put in the pot. She is a very intelligent 4 year-old. She gave me the suggestions of Doctor Who and both her and her sister for a clue. People hated me until the found out that Ruby helped and then it was the greatest thing on the planet. My team lost, but we also had a very non-theatre person with us. But he tried really hard, so we can't blame him. Later we played Trivial Pursuit. It was great, it was Team Canada, England 1, England 2, and Team USA. Abby and I came in second. We were quite proud of ourselves.

I made sugar cookies the day before with Candy, Sarah, and Otgo. We had quite the time. Cause see, I lost my recipe. I tried to remember it as best I could, but I didn't get the recipe correct. But they still tasted good. We frosted them and put some sprinkles on them too. In between batches of cookies baking I taught Candy to waltz. She loves it. She makes me dance with her just about everywhere now. But it was good. We came back to Sarah's in the evening to make lasagna with them and one of Sarah's house mates, Matt. They made a white cheese sauce for the lasagna instead of a tomato based one. It was really good, but I had a lot of trouble climbing up the hill on my way back to my room. It was seriously a brick in my stomach. I don't think that it went away for a couple of days either, it just sat there being slowly digested.

Things are going well here. We have two weeks of classes left and then Christmas break. I have so far, applied for a job that would take me through Christmas. But I, hopefully, can find one that will go all the way through break. But life is good. I am fitting very well with my Nooma family. I find myself wanting to hang out with those people more and more. My love for them grows deeper and deeper as I spend more time with them. They are a true blessing from God. I am still struggling with how I am being the salt and light of God to my course mates and my flat mates. There are times when I get very discouraged, because I feel like I am not doing enough. But I do know that God is using me, and that the things that I do and say for God are not returning to God void. They are full of God's power and might and love. I just have to keep reminding myself. So if you can continue to pray for my course mates and my flat mates, that would be wonderful. I love you all!