FYS Christmas party!

The last week of classes I invited my FYS group over for one last party of the semester.  We did a white elephant gift exchange and ate snacks!  After a bit of talk about we are most looking forward to over break, we did a bit of photo taking and then went on about our evenings.  It was a fun way to spend a bit more time bonding before the end of the term.  I have REALLY enjoyed this group and will miss seeing them regularly next semester.

A great group!

front - Sasha, Olga, me, Elvyra, Laura Natasha, and Erika

back- Janis, Luicija, Matas, Iki, and Alexander

The required "CrAzY pHoTo"!

And one in the snow...my FYS group and snow...I couldn't be happier!  

Crafty business!

We began a new tradition last year of making a Christmas ornament to give to our student leaders at our Christmas party.  Monday afternoon the Community Life team got together to be crafty and make this year's ornaments.  We rolled up little tubes of red and green wrapping paper and made little Christmas trees.  Unfortunately I didn't get any photos of the finished product!  :( 

Alisha looks a little confused at the task that lays before her.

Josh seems really psyched about his craft!

Josh...photo bomber extraordinaire   

ICF - beautiful music

Many of the members of the choir for the Christmas program are also folks who worship at ICF, so the Sunday after the program, they did a few special numbers during the worship service.  Lovely!

Leona, Missy, and Erica

Marlene, Joren, Henry, Sherry, and Brady

Joren, Henry, Sherry, Brady, Mark, and Steve

Kitchen Fun

Amanda came over to help me bake cookies for our Community Life Student Leader Christmas Party!  We made 100+ cut out sugar cookies!

Amanda cutting out the cookies

Mmmmm....sugary goodness!

After we finished baking the cookies we made a deep dish Chicago style pizza for our supper..YUMM!

sausage with green peppers and onion 

delicious sauce

and LOTS of cheese

The finished product...oh, so good!

LCC Christmas Program 2012

The first Friday of December was our annual Christmas program   It was a festive event with live music and a beautifully acted nativity play. Here are a few photos from the evening...

The live band

The choir

the angel speaking to Joseph

dancing angels

Mary & Joseph & baby Jesus

the wisemen come to see the precious babe

the entire cast!

Latvian students singing carols

Moldovan students singing carols

Our lovely and talented director - Olena

music maestro extraordinaire - Josh

publicity and decorations queen - Alisha!

me with one of my favorite students - Ira

Wintry Day

One day last week everything was covered with the most beautiful layer of frost all day long.  I was very busy at work that day and daylight hours are very short these days, so I was only able to catch a couple snapshots from my window. Gorgeous, isn't it?!

A bus stopping at the bus-stop across the street from school.

That truck is usually quite ugly...red with yellow and black flames painted on the side.  The snow/frost covering makes it a much lovelier part of the landscape.  

ICF Leadership Team

As I have likely mentioned, I am on the Leadership Team at our little fellowship, ICF.  The other members of the Leadership Team are two feisty older guys - John and Henry.  Both have been pastors and educators throughout their careers.  It is a pleasure to serve the fellowship alongside of them.  They are wise and caring, AND they crack me up!  

John and Henry...wise, funny men of God!

They just happened to be wearing matching outfits one evening, so I had to take a photo!  

Baby Shower!

Inga, from HR, is having a baby!  Today we had a shower for her.  The gals in Student Life chipped in and bought supplies to make a diaper cake!  Egle and I (two single gals with NO kids) spent some time this morning doing a little "baking" of a different sort as we created the diaper cake.  It was so much fun and was a huge hit at the shower!  

Egle showing a properly rolled diaper.

me with the "un-frosted" cake

the "frosted" cake

the finished product

baby belly  :)

Inga opening gifts

me, Inga, and Olena with the cake

Neumann East Siders

The East Side Res Life team came over for dinner tonight.  We had quesadillas -YUM - and peanut blossom cookies.  Both things that are not Lithuanian and both things that were enjoyed by all!  :)  I had such a fun time with this group.  They were very "chill" - likely some of the influence of their RD Josh.  We had fun talking and laughing together.  When they left I felt so blessed to know these amazing young adults!  They are bright, thoughtful  funny, inquisitive, and just all around amazing!    

Kristine, Toms, me , Ieva, Vadim, and Josh

Silly Shot!  :)

FYS fun!

My FYS group and I were supposed to go out to a movie tonight.  We were going to see "Skyfall" the new James Bond movie.  I was pretty stoked for this since I have never seen a James Bond movie before.  Unfortunately the movie was sold out, so we couldn't go.  sad.  We almost went to see the new Twilight movie instead, but when a vote was taken there were more that were against that selection (myself included!)

Since we weren't going to a movie we decided to still spend some time together - by going to McDonald's.  We spent about an hour eating snacks and acting silly.  We had a fun time and did a lot more bonding than we would have if we had gone to see the movie.  Good times!

a "Family Photo"!

Elvyra and me

Laura and Liucija

~~~SILLY FACES ~~~

Aleksandr

Matas

Iki

Artem 

Laura and Matas

Artem & Janis - silly boys!

Pretty decorations in McDonald's

And the icing on the cake was that our first real SNOW of the 

season started while we were there!