It's almost time for Rwanda.

I miss my PT.

Christmas Break.

I have loved, loved, loved my Christmas break with my French family and tomorrow the rest of the fam arrives! We have been busy shopping for presents in the town, going to the grocery store I swear once a day because we eat anything we see and just spending time with each other. Yesterday was Charlie's 11th Birthday so we woke up to chocolate cake and presents, followed by a day of games.

I have seen Hugo Cabaret and understood every word but one, which made me very happy with myself, gone out for dinner, gone out for drinks, raked the leaves and the list goes on! The grandparents arrived a few days ago and we have been getting our time with them. Granny sits patiently with a pile of all our clothes that have holes in them. Popsie is busy doing his crosswords and reading his books.

I have expanded my shoe collection and wardrobe! Emilie and I did some damage in town today, she said first stop, and I yelled - bank, and from there it just went downhill. Other than that I have been busy reading, and loving every minute of it. I am currently reading The Paris Wife, and can't put it down, thanks to Devon for that.

Hmm, not much else. Can't believe Rwanda is in 2 weeks - not even! I will be living out of a backpack, sleeping on the ground and eating beans and rice and I cannot wait!

Just a little bit of everything.

Sorry for the long pause between blogs, it's hard to even know what to update people on. I am busy doing so much, but at the same time it seems like nothing truly exciting for the outside world. Let's see where to start...

I am finished the first phase of my trip, and am now on Christmas Holidays! Phase two begins on January 3rd when I am off to Rwanda!!

One weekend the "North Americans" went to Paris for the day to be your classic tourists - snapping photos at every given opportunity. We visited all the appropriate places, spent too much money on touristy nonsense and got to know the metro (subway) system quite well (even with one minor detour!). I myself was very proud of us navigating our way through, needless to say it wasn't hard to know where you were when all you had to do is look up and navigate your way to "that tall thing" in the sky. We made sure to stop at Starbucks, to fill our craving for a delicious specialty coffee or hot chocolate. It was high on our priority list as a piece of comfort from home.

After an exciting, yet exhausting day in Paris we came home and collapsed in our beds ready for a tour of the Champagne vineyards, as we are currently living in the region of Champagne, France.

It was great - we went on a train ride through the caves of the vineyard to see where it was all created, and of course ended the tour with some Champagne!!

We were also busy getting ready for Christmas with the decorations...

Spending a lot of time in the town nearby, Sezanne...

And finally having our Christmas dinner - the theme was that you were to dress up as your nationality. Question: How does a Canadian dress? As a lumberjack of course!!

Whitney and I only had our plaid shirts in our closets and thought it would have to suffice:

Indian :)

A German old lady, a French artist and some "Native Americans"

Anyways, as I said I am back at my aunt's house for the holidays. Today we had a lovely day strolling through the town with the Christmas market, had some coffee at the cafe (ha!). Lastnight we went out dinner to celebrate my uncle's birthday and tonight we are off to see a movie. Let's see how good my french is!!

I leave for Rwanda January 3rd and will not be taking a computer so posts will be few and far between as it will be when we encounter internet cafes. I will write more about where we are working and with whom. I cannot wait! We also cannot upload pictures when we are there (not sure why) so all pictures of Rwanda wont be posted until April sadly!

Merry Christmas everyone!

xxx

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!