December 3, 2007

I can hardly believe it's December already- with our car problems December 1st sort of snuck past. But we'll be visiting Ann Arbor as of December 22nd, and will be in Michigan until about January 8th. We've decided to fly to Sydney straight from Detroit instead of flying back to London and then down to Sydney, so that we can be here for the Scottish Ball in February, and also save on airfare. :) That will make for very interesting packing of course- it's spring there now, and will be summer I guess when we get there. :) But it'll also allow us to bring a bunch of our things back from Ann Arbor with us when we fly back to London in February.

The official news on the car is worse than we thought. We didn't completely understand the mechanic's news about it being not worth fixing- he really meant the car is basically dead, and if you fix one part of it the next day something else will break. So we're continuing to look for a new car. :) We're getting around just fine with the bus, although we have to be back in Swavesey by 7 because that's when the bus stops running. :) The Swavesey Garage has been really very helpful and understanding with the whole car thing.

I wanted to post some pictures of us putting up our xmas tree- I have video too if I can figure out how to get it on here. We couldn't bring our nice tree with us so we got one here- one of the kind you have to stick the little branches in. They make xmas trees slimmer here- this one is called Rocky Mountain Tree Slim. It has cones too like ours, and Nelly has been loving playing with the cone that fell off.

G made a good point about the xmas hedgehogs when we were in Tesco the other day stocking up on them to bring them back as presents. He pointed out that maybe British people think hedgehogs on your tree is an American thing, and they stock them in the store for Americans. When in fact Americans see them and think how funny and cool they are and buy them all up. :) We bought the last few they had- we'll be searching other Tescos for more hedgehogs as soon as we get a car. :)

Checking the directions

The directions for these things never make any sense. :)

The tree trunk labels...it's always hard to find the right branches for each level

Putting in the branches

Our tree looks so goofy!

Fluffing the branches

Putting on the lights

I hope you have all gotten your trees up and enjoyed decorating them. Our chch has been having carol servcs for 2 weeks now, and we have like 3 more yet to go. 2 more evening ones. If we have a car, I think I'll be in the choir again. It was a good way to meet people- lots of my international friends here recognized me in the choir, and it's a good way to invite them to a servs too.

Speaking of international friends, here are a few pictures of our ladies' group xmas truffle making get together. We had lots of time to talk about the real meaning behind xmas and why that is important to our lives.

We used the rice cookers to create a water bath to melt the chocolate, and everyone did different tasks, chopping the raisins and cherries, smooshing up the cookies (they taste like animal crackers), mixing, and stirring.

A new friend from Europe rolls out the fondant to make the teeny holly berries for the top of the truffles.

My friend S in the middle helped to plan the event. The 2 ladies on either side of her are from China.

Pr for our next ladies outreach- we're making mince meat pies! Which you might be interested to know have absolutely NO meat in them. :) Instead they have raisins and cherries and other dried fruits, and some other stuff- I don't know what all is in them. :) This event is a bit bigger, and we're having child care and a special speaker come in.

Also if you would, pr for a new friend M from Poland. Some friends of his came to the Monday evening course that I helped with, and he's investigating his beliefs right now. And I'm meeting with another new friend, E, on Thursdays at lunch who struggles with depression- pr that I would be able to support her during this difficult time, and that her medication would begin working soon so that she doesn't lose her job. Thank you for remembering them and us!