Thanksgiving!!!

Me and Whitney (in Belgium!)

Yes, it might be November - but we are celebrating Thanksgiving! Woohoo! The Americans and Canadians have joined together to create the ultimate feast, and to explain to the French why we love this holiday so much!
It started with letting the Chef Olivier know about ALL that we would need for this wonderful weekend. Our list of ingrediants was long, our imaginations were running wild. Real food!! Now I need to let you all know that this weekend would not have been possible without wonderful Whitney (please refer to picture). Whitney is a wonderful Chef, and also as a side note a wonderful buddy all in all. Whitney and I are often found together - she is actually at my side right now. Anyways so Whitney gathered all the recipes together, wrote out all the ingrediants, had them translated into French, organized with Olivier and VOILA - Thanksgiving is a go!

We were so excited! On Friday night we had a big worship service to end our 24/7 Prayer week, but us Candians/Americans left early to start making the Cinnamon buns for the next morning's brunch (please note picture below!)...I got into the kitchen and truthfully I just watched Whitney work her magic, and cute Jessica be so precise in her measuring skills. I decided I would be spending my time more wisely if I went to bed! Morning came and we headed to the kitchen once again, we started making pancakes - plain, chocolate chip, and blueberry -- UMM YUM! Then the cinnamon buns were baked with yummy sticky goo all over them! Yum yumm!! Followed by bacon and eggs! Delicious! You have to understand we NEVER get to eat like this for breakfast. Breakfast for us consists of cereal and a baguette, yes yes I know we are in France but after a few months you just want some food from home. All the French were getting restless - what is this brunch thing? Late breakfast? They literally were waiting on the stairs and kept popping their head in the kitchen. We would come out and suddenly be bombared "Is it ready??!!" "Calmez-vous!". Betsy and I decided to take on the decorations (there comes a point in the kitchen when there are just too many hands!) we made it buffet style, found some "Thanksgiving-y" candles, fixed our leaf wreath (heehe), found some suitable music and set the table. They loooved it! So tomorrow is our actual Thanskgiving meal! Another early rise for us chefs so that we can make a delicious feast! So excited!

This is the brunch we made on Saturday! (It also had bacon and eggs!)

I also want to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my favourite BROSKI!! I hope you have a wonderful day, and I miss you so much <3 Love love love you Rossco!

Put it away, or imma punch [you]....

Mini-outreach: Charleville-Mezieres.

Bonjour tout le monde! If you'd like to see a little video of our mini-outreach in Charleville-Mezieries just click on the link below! It's only a portion of what we did!

Click me:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXJmFS8la5Q

Craft time!

Betsy and I went on a lovely walk today and found lots of maple leaves and thought we'd start decorating for Christmas. Impressive, I know!

This is my Betsy.

A Day in Belgium.

This is US!

Angels and Mortals.

The above picture is all of us girls (minus dear Lydie) at the dinner of a very long week! We were told to dress up (since we all live in our leggings and sweatshirts), wear some make up (since we all seem to have forgotten what that is) and just be ready for a nice dinner.

The week we had consisted of the usual lessons, which is enough in itself to wrap your head around. A crazy teacher from the States who was awesome, but none the less so ecstatic and exuberant all the time you found yourself needing a nap after every conversation with him. Finally, it was the week of angels and mortals. On Monday we all picked a name out of a basket, the name written on the piece of paper would be our "mortal" and we would be their "angel". This was to say, we had to do things that would make them feel blessed and loved without them knowing who was actually blessing them. It could be anything from a little note that says "Good morning - Love, your angel" or buying them chocolate etc. We all found it a little difficult to do things for our mortals after writing a note, getting a flower from the garden or buying them some chocolate. Living in a place with no stores around forced us to get creative. It was a lot of fun to both make people feel special, but  to also feel special in return from some unknown 'angel'.

The special dinner we had was the revealing of our angels. The staff prepared a wonderful meal, decorated the room with candles and we just had lots of laughs surrounding the dinner table. It was a great way to relax after a long week and just be together. OH and I cannot forget, dear Whitney made the MOST delicious brownies I have ever had in my life, with homemade icing. I told her that when she opens a bakery, I will be there on opening day. They were scrumptious. Concerning my angel, I myself feel that I had the best angel, but I know everyone is biased. Little pieces of love found their way to me every day and always cheered me up and made me feel better about the week ahead, so thank you angel.

Tomorrow we are off on our mini outreach! My team is heading up north to Charleville-Mezieres. It's very close to Belgium so we just might go and cross the border!! We are staying in a church, not having showers and have half a backpack each per person aka...this is going to be an adventure. We have been working on dramas and dances all week, and even though I know it will be exhausting I'm so excited for all of us to stretch our comfort zones!

In case anyone was wondering Panda is doing very well. He has watched the first season of Greys Anatomy with me numerous times (its the only season I brought) and I think is wishing that I brought more DVDs with me. But c'est la vie!!

xxx