*Saturday, Dec. 17th, 2011: I am grateful for the Christmas spirit and quality time spent with the people I've grown attached to here in DC...my community mates, Brittney, Cara and Colleen. Today we did 100% Christmas stuff...we went to the National Tree (that pathetic looking thing) and saw all the little state Christmas trees around it. Then, we listened to some festive Christmas music, walked to get hot cocoa and returned home. We had a yummy Christmas lasagna and laughed about Christmas traditions in our families. Then we had our "not-so" secret Santa gift exchange. I was really excited and pleasantly surprised by how thoughtful the gifts were for each other...each person got something that was very specific to their tastes/likes/dislikes/interests. It was great and I got a Woody doll (from Toy Story)! Then we watched "White Christmas" (my favorite Christmas movie). It was a wonderful day, jam packed with Christmas love and joy. I am so grateful for that time we got together today.
*Sunday, Dec. 18th, 2011: Today I am thankful for our spiritual liaison: Bill. He took us on our monthly field trip today and this time it was to the Russian Orthodox Cathedral in DC. We participated in the 3-hour long liturgy and ate authentic Russian food at their luncheon afterwards and then took a tour of the St. Nicholas Cathedral with a Russian Orthodox priest: Priest Valery Shemchuk (such a nice guy and such a great accent too)! We got an in-depth description of the different icons painted in their beautiful cathedral. It was striking and beautiful and so incredibly powerful. I loved every minute of it and am so thankful for the chance to be exposed to a completely different (yet, not so different) religion. Some pictures of the cathedral are shown below:
*Monday, Dec. 19th, 2011: Today I am grateful for many things: 1) Letters from old family and friends. I got a Christmas card from my grandparents, but also an old family friend (which was a complete surprise). They are so sweet and it was so good to hear from them and see how they're doing. 2) Miriam's Kitchen. This agency interviewed me yesterday for a possible JV position and it went really well. I really enjoyed the environment and the people and the activities. It was all such a blessing just to have a small peek into their day-to-day activities. 3) FREE bus fares! The bus driver didn't make me pay to ride the bus home today! WoOt! 4) Our community Christmas card! It's hilarious so I'm thankful for it...it's being sent out today, so get excited. 5) Phone calls from my parents that are ADD and chalk full of bouncing from one topic to the next! My parents called tonight and about three minutes into the conversation my mom says, "oh shoot, I forgot I was making dinner!" So she ran over to the boiling pot to fix whatever forgotten catastrophe she had created. So funny how incredibly distracted my family gets when we're excited about something (like an amazing daughter coming home for Christmas). Between the two of my parents, I'm not exactly certain if any plans were actually made...in fact, I think we jumped around so much that nothing was really concluded in the discussion...hahaha...I love that. So much to be grateful for today!
*Tuesday, Dec. 20th, 2011: Today I am grateful for the ability to leave early from my job. I really needed to get a lot of things done before heading home and my job is so fleeting and falling apart that I was given the opportunity to leave early and get -ish done. So I'm happy and grateful for that opportunity because most people don't get that time to make sure things are in order before traveling.
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