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!!!

Last weekend, my roommate and I had the amazing opportunity to go to SaPa. Sapa has an altitude of 1200m to 1800m. There are six ethnic minorities found there. There are also beautiful views everywhere you go. We took the 6 hour bus ride to this beautiful town Friday morning. We also took our administrative assistant with us! This was a great get to know her more and God opened a lot of doors.

We had the opportunity to go trekking on Saturday. We went to the mountain to Love Waterfall and Silver Waterfall. It was so beautiful; I enjoyed walking the beautiful scenery. I could have stayed there forever just soaking in the beauty that God created. I just can’t wrap my head around the beauty I was seeing and God saying that I am more beautiful than all of it! WHAT!!! We are God’s masterpieces! WOW! Seriously, we are so loved!

The beautiful Love Waterfall. I could have stayed here all day!!

The next day we went and hiked another mountain to Heaven’s Gate and the Clouds. It was really pretty, just a lot of stairs LOL. But it was really pretty to go to the top and look out and see the town below and all the mountains. The world just seemed so peaceful and beautiful! I can’t wait to go back again!

God also provided some awesome opportunities to share Jesus with our administrative assistant. She had some great questions! I pray that God continues to soften her heart and provide more opportunities for us to share with her. I really feel like a part of the reason God called me here is to get to know our co-workers and share Jesus with them. There have been many opportunities for us to get close to co-workers and build relationships. I can’t wait to see these seeds start to grow!

It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas!!!

Fresh Air... YES PLEASE!!!!