The Christmas the kept going :D

Yes, normally I do update my blog on Sunday. This week was different because, well because I have started to get a life :) Since that is not where my week starts, you don't get to hear about it yet. The suspense just might get to you waiting!

Not much of note happened the first couple days of the week. I made sugar cookies, since that is what one does when preparing for Christmas. What one usually doesn't do is stroll up and down the aisle looking at things in a foreign language trying to find something as simple as powdered sugar and baking powder. After much consulting with the trusty translator on my computer, I was able to find the baking powder and something that resembled frosting (it turned out that it was pretty much royal icing in a packet). I was later taught why I couldn't find the powdered sugar, it is in a box apparently. Didn't see that one coming. After a lot of messing around, translating items in the kitchen, and finding a way to make frosting without powdered sugar, the final result was delicious! I will prove that I can still cook my food even in a foreign country with strange ingredients.

After much baking of sugar cookies and frosting, it was finally Christmas Eve. A family in my ward, the Manners family, invited me to share their Christmas. Tim and Michele were amazing and welcomed me into their home. Their children Makay, Riley, Spencer, Haydn, and Ashton were all fun to be around for this holiday as well. They took me to the ward Christmas party and there was a lot of beautiful singing and there and I sang along, trying to use my German. It was a little difficult because I was so focused on the words, trying to make the sounds, that I sometimes forgot to pay attention to the notes. It was all good because you all know that even if I had been paying attention to the notes, I still wouldn't have hit them :)

It was nice to be in a house where Santa was real again. Where there were shouts of "RACHEL WAKE UP!!! IT IS CHRISTMAS!!!" that were not needed since I am still a little kid at heart and was already awake :) It was a lot of fun to watch them open their presents and play with them. Just the excitement of it all was a lot of fun. The Manners.. I mean Santa... Got me a few things that I really appreciated too. The main thing that made me happy was the very German Christmas tower decoration. I have been wanting one since the first time I saw them. They have a fan on top of the tower and below it there are different scenes depicting , in my case, the Christmas story with the angels and wise men and such. On the bottom there are six candles and when lit, the heat rises and makes the fan at the top move. When that moves, it rotates the scenes on the lower levels. I LOVE IT!!!

Not only was the company great for Christmas.. but the food!!! Oh the food!! WARM AMERICAN FOOD!!! Ham, funeral potatoes, pumpkin pie, carrots, potatoes, yams (or sweet potatoes. the debate goes on), Roast beef (from American cows!), cookies, and more yummy things! I was in heaven! Good food, good company, all around an awesome Christmas.

I went home on Saturday night and woke up bright and early Sunday to start the trip to Church. I seem to have the habit of leaving the house really early or rather late when it comes to catching my train. This time I thought I was late, got close, then realized I was ahead of schedule. So I decided to walk on the train tracks... I got some funny looks for doing that. Apparently that is not all that normal here. Meh :) After a nice little train ride, and then a nice little skate, I was back to the place where I understand things!!! Yay for English church! It is nice to feel the spirit AND know someone says to you. Great feeling.

Right as sacrament was about to start, the couple next to me (McKenna and Josef) lean over and ask me what I am doing after church. After a quick mental run down of my plan for the day (go home, nap... read?) I say nothing and they invite me over for dinner. How fun! An outing! Once sacrament is over a lady in my ward asks me what my calling is, or more if I have an active one. I am currently in the activities comity. On hearing that she asked if I would be willing to substitute for her in the Young womens. SCORE! I told her I would love to! So next Sunday I am going to give a lesson to the entire YW... All four of them. It will be epic.

This Sunday I also had to say goodbye to one of my favorite missionaries. Usually the missionaries are the only ones who talk to me at the institute and FHE stuff so I know them better than the other people there. It also helps that most of them know one of my favorite people back home. Elder Eaton called me a hippie cause I bike everywhere and then I took my longboard to church. It is called cheap not hippie :)

Church was over and now I had a dilemma. I had my purse backpack thing, a bag, a longboard, and then a big ol box that contained my Christmas in it. Now how to get this home? I wasn't allowed to open the box until I got on skype so my mom could see. Mckenna saw me trying to figure out how to juggle this all since we were taking the train home. Bless her heart, she found us a ride to her place. It is a nice experience I rarely get these days. Ridding in a car.

Once we got to their apartment, she offered to let me call my mom, tell her to wake up and get on skype so I could open the box. The plan worked out great except too many people wanted to see me open it, but only one could... it was crazy honestly. Finally I got it open and found an amazing site. PILLOWS! Real pillows! The pillows here are just sad. They look big and squishy, then you lay on them and you can't quite tell if there is actually a pillow still there. They also gum. Amazing Stride gum. YES! and then a bunch of random things from ring pops to a Barbie key chain. All in all I loved it! My little brother also sent me some rockin jewelry that I love!

My Christmas finally over, I sat down and ate dinner with McKenna and Josef. They are a lot of fun! It was nice to just talk and enjoy the food and company. It is also fun because McKenna is from Orem, went to Timp and graduated in 2005, and was married in the Timp Temple. It is nice to have someone understand what I am talking about when I mention places or Utah things. I had fun talking to them about things like books (Josef works in a book store and said he would tell me where some amazing used books stores are in the city) and artsy things (McKenna is a photographer, you should check out her stuff! She is fantastic! http://makephotographie.blogspot.com/ ) After a nice meal and some fun games, we all went to the train station and they saw me safely on my train. They are so much fun and I am looking forward to getting to know them better.

The past few days have been uneventful. I have been feeling a little sick so I really haven't done much... really... not a whole lot. I went and visited Susie before she left back for the states, and got milk. That is all. Other than that I have been reading (finished the 3rd HP book in a day....), researching and making notes of the places I want to go while I am in Europe, and playing with photo shop. I have been spending WAY too much time on photo shop, but I am having so much fun and I am not half bad. I want to learn more with it.

So I think that catches me up. If I forgot anything, I am not likely to ever remember it so it is lost forever. Hopefully it wasn't too important.