Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone,
O how the time flies, it feels like just the other day I was at Kaleo thinking about what it'll be like coming back home but hey here I am now. For the last week of Kaleo we were quite busy, we had a Christmas Banquet on Monday which was very nice but sad at the same time as it was the last event where some of the staff were going to be there before they move back to their homes. We enjoyed a amazing meal and then we also enjoyed a slideshow of our Kaleo highlights. Looking back at all the memories was incredible seeing how much we have done and how different we are from when we first arrived both physically and spiritually. For the rest of our last week we were busy finishing up our major assignments for both our Field Education (our church ministry) as well as Foundations of Church Ministry course. My highlight of the week however was our Kaleo Christmas. In the beginning of December we drew names for a secret santa so on Thursday morning we were woken up with hot chocolate and all of us ran downstairs to the tree. We then opened presents from our secret santa. One of my closer friends Dan ended up with my name which was perfect. He made a Aqua cd for me with our song that he recorded during the Talent Show. At the beginning he recorded his own little message wishing me a Merry Christmas so being the sentimental person that I am it was definitely a highlight for me. Along with that highlight also came the sad part, saying goodbye to the students on Thursday. It was so weird saying goodbye to them and thinking about what its going to be like when we all leave in April but whoa I'm not going to start thinking about it. After staying there until Friday we were rushed out to go to Victoria as it started to snow and we were worried about the roads. We had 20 minutes to pack in the dark as the power went out and we made our way to Victoria for the night which turned out to be a blessing in disguise as we stayed at Amelias house (a fellow students) and I was able to really connect with our student life leader Kristie. It was the most perfect way that I could have started out my Christmas break. Through our conversation I was able to reflect on the past semester and start thinking about what I wanted to do differently. Then on Saturday I flew back home to see my family. Now I have been home for almost 2 weeks and its been crazy. Its been nice to see some of my friends again and of course my family but its also been hard being away from my new friends at Kaleo. God has also been teaching me about so many things that I need to change this next semester. My time has been a continuation of Kristie and my talk and I've been blessed to stay in contact with some friends with Kaleo. One of the things I have really been thinking about is being more open as I've been realizing how hard of a time I've been having sharing with others how I'm doing and what's on my heart. God has definitely been stretching me in this area and has given me a jump start as I've been having a lot of good conversations with some of my friends at Kaleo and because of this I think that I'll have a easier time for when I do go back to open up and let others in. So that has been my break this far, I just thought I'd write a little about what I was up to at Kaleo on my last week and this far in the holiday. Hope you guys had a wonderful Christmas and that you have a Happy New Year!