A French Thanksgiving.

Today was beyond words one of my favorite days here. Ahhh it was just that good. This probably had something to do with it being the day we choose to celebrate Thanksgiving!

First we began the day later than usual because DEFI was tired . yes for DEFI. so Kristin, Noelle, and I spent the morning hours navigating the Casino nearby for all the supplies necessary for food prep this evening. It took us forever to get everything. My purchases consisted of 2 chocolate santas...because who can pass up dollar santas with cute chubby belly's and little fuzzy beards? not me. there are now two sitting on my kitchen table mocking me for spending 2 euros.

The rest of the day looked like this:
Petite deg.
Cleaning Chartreusse.
Cooking.
Morning Meeting. The funniest one yet.
Chorus. We all had such ADD today.
Painting the apartment and villa. ended with more paint on us than on the walls...nice one mike
Cooking. Painting. Cooking. Painting. EATING!!!!!!!!!!!!!

we had chicken (shh he thinks hes turkey...or a hampster depending on who you asked), stuffing, corn casserole, mashed potatoes, green beans with garlic, pumpkin pie, apple pie, and home made wipped cream and gravy. We went all out. After all for half of the group this was the first Thanksgiving dinner they had EVER attended. We sang and we ate and we talked. We had a few guests from staff and from Grenoble. They enjoyed the evening too je pense. I guess Blain has it best when he says that each group is differnet that comes through here. Our group is categorized by two words...well three I guess: family, love, quirky. That's us and I wouldnt change it for the world. Only 2 weeks left. :(

Then cleanup. This part almost needs a paragraph in itself. GREAT music tonight and of course that led to some scottish jiggs performed by none other than team equipier '07. That's right we all had a dance competition in the middle of the kitchen. It rocked everyones socks. Did I mention that I love these kids...well they arent really kids, but I love them still.

The rest of this week will consist of two more days filled with paintbrushes and hammers to take apart tile. AND THEN...ready for this...4 days off!!!!! Saturday night we have our big christmas concert in the alps and we're all heading up there for an awesome all nighter. We've been practicing for months and are excited to worship with some other people now. Kristin has a solo in one of the songs and it sounds soooo sooo good. I'll leave her to tell you more about how the concert goes in our next email update...coming soon. With pictures from tonight. Perhaps a video even!

Um...other than that. Life is amazing. I love this song. Our Love is Loud--David Crowder Band. This is a great song. If you don't know this song than you are no longer my friend until you do. Just kidding. But seriously go get the song and listen to it...it will blow ur mind. Make sure its loud.

I am great at random. I live randomly and so my writing tends to be the same. In keeping with this randomness...

I read this quote in a blog yesterday that I loved and can't stop thinking about. It's from one of the bloggers at BIOLA who's a Junior this year and being paid to write once or twice a week by the admissions office. Here it is (sorry it's so long):

"It seems that in life, we often are living for sometime that we will have freedom. I hear many people, and I myself, have said things like: “I am just holding out for the weekend…for when this test is over…for Thanksgiving…for Christmas break and summer…for graduation…for marriage…” If I jumped to this weekend, how many things would I miss? How many smiles, embraces, moments of fatigue, sleep, good conversations, laughter, thoughts - would I miss? It’s true I am excited for those things, some of them, but I am not ready for them yet. I am ready for today: for a shift in a cubicle, for dinner at six, for another shift in a cubicle, for homework, for a group meeting, and for sleep. I am ready for that. I do have a multitude of things going on in my life right now, but I don’t long for them to end, I desire to enjoy them. I have homework, arguments, tired eyes, emotional issues, bad days, and all sorts of things like that - but that’s life. Why not dig it and live off that stuff? That’s where I am at right now…and where I want to remain."-Andy Pandy Biola Junior

I guess he sums up how I've been feeling and thinking lately. So many times I catch myself thinking wow I can't wait for BIOLA, or for the Christmas season, or for this weekend, or my four days off, or Paris, or just life beyond France even. Because I am thinking ahead like this I tend to miss some things or even if I'm not missing I'm not appreciating the here and the now. Like right now. Life is quiet. Kristin is killing people with Justin on the computer...dont worry the people are villagers from the 1900's, Mike is reading, Verena is reading, Doris is making tea, Megan is talking to her mommy, and I'm writing and talking to friends, meanwhile as we're doing all these things we're listening to a mix of worship songs and when one comes on we all know the room fills with song. It's moments like these that I wish I could freeze time. It's times like these that I can't stop and thank God enough for, for these people, for this place, for everything. Life is very regular and it's these moments I want to remember forever. O and did I mention that we've been having acoustic guitar worship nights...this might be my new favorite thing to do with my time. I dig the acoustic guitar. That said I'm ending this blog to go and enjoy Life in the here and now. Have a good evening all. Or day for those of u silly people in differnet time zones a good afternoon. All my love to ya'll.