It's hard to believe that then end of the year is upon us. With the end of the year come Christmas. Probably my favorite holiday of the year because you get to spend time with family! However, this year I will spend Christmas abroad. This will be my first Christmas away from family. I said the same thing last year and ended up going home early, however I don't think that will happen this year.

A group of us (our family here) went out to Christmas dinner at the Mariott. It is so beautifully decorated and the buffet had tons of delicious foods!!

Rocking my UK scarf during this scarf weather :).

Sometimes it is hard to believe it is December let alone Christmastime. The weather here has just recently dropped to the low 60's. Back in the States I would have welcomed 60 degree weather with a light hoodie and jeans. However here 60 is like 40 so people are breaking out the winter coats and gloves and scarves, I love it though!

The tree that decorates the door to 2nd grade. Also there are handprint trees on the window with all their hands.

My school has decorated for the Christmas holiday. My roommate and I are on the event committee for our Christmas party so it has been fun (and stressful) getting everything together. This week our 1st and 2nd graders painted salt dough ornaments to hang on our beautiful Christmas tree. I also painted their hands so that we could paint the windows in each class. Grade 2 has handprint Christmas trees on the door window. Grade 1B has two wreaths on their middle window. Grade 1A has reindeer going across their windows. It was so awesome to see the smiles on their faces as they get to paint the window. They laughed so hard when I painted their hand. At the end of the lesson we had some beautiful decorations :).

2nd grade's Santa and reindeer handprints.

On Friday our staff is coming to our apartment for a Christmas party! We decorated our apartment this week (well actually Jen did most of the decorating). It's looks beautiful! We made sugar cookies to be iced and decorated at the party. Then we will share the Christmas story with them and then listen to and sing some Christmas carols!!!

It's beginning to look like Christmas, everywhere you go!!!

I am so glad i had the opportunity to attend the TeachBeyond Orientation at Wheaton College. I was so nervous at first, but once I got there it was amazing. Everyone was so nice and by the end of the week we were so sad to say goodbye.

It was so amazing to meet other people doing the same thing I am doing. I have a lot of people who are supporting me at home, but I am the only one going abroad. So it was so awesome to meet other people doing the exact same thing as me. They may be going to other countries but there was a bond between us that can never be broken. We are TeachBeyond Family.

Also at orientation I learned so much about TeachBeyond. It has been around for 60+ years but only called TeachBeyond for the last 6 years. Before it was TeachBeyond it was called Janz Team. Also they have schools in over 40 countries now! How awesome is that!!! They have missionaries all over the globe sharing the gospel! It just so amazing! I also learned more about the mission and vision. I knew it was about transformational education, but what does that really mean. George Durance said it so eloquently that I will never do it justice. But we are all about transformational education where the people are changed by Jesus and as they are changed they begin a change in their world.

I could go on and on about all the things I learned this week, but to be honest I might bore you. :) I also met some amazing people that are going all around the globe. We have already made plans to see each other and go on adventures during school holidays! It is so cool how in one week I met so many people that have become family! God is doing amazing things and I can't wait to hear about the things He is doing around the globe!