It's the Craziest Time of the Year

Well...it is! Just in this past weekend I have gone to the ISPP International Day, Advent Day #1 at Church, and the Christmas Fair. So perhaps I should start at the beginning...

International Day:
The day started out with my family rushing to ISPP where we found Abby dressed up in full Maori garb. Ok, not really full Maori garb, but she had a tattoo-like thing on her chin, feathers in her hair, and a shirt that said "Kiwis in Cambodia". The day went by with me eating way too much food, standing in way too many lines, and having a complete blast. Abby attempted to teach Kristine, Lisa, and me how to use the poise (I think I spelled that right), long string-type things with pom-pom-like things on the end. They're pretty hard. The highlight of the day was when the New Zealanders came on stage... First they sang a couple of Kiwi-songs, and then the girls did the poise. It was great. Abby was especially great. All those flying pom-poms looked amazing. Fleur, Abby's mom, did the poise too. After that all the guys came out and did the haka (I know I spelled that wrong). That was also great. Not to mention hilarious! Todd, Abby's dad, was really into it...and oh it was fun to watch. There were three little boys in the front who really did not know what they were doing. They were adorable. After the Kiwis went off stage we ran around doing all sorts of things...wandering around, pooling our money to get Hannah some lunch, eating ice cream (Ok, so I ate ice cream), and so on. We also went through the strenuous (not) process of finding New Zealand on a globe. Oh, how difficult.

Christmas Decorating:
After getting back from International Day we hung out with Hannah for a bit. But after she left we broke out the Christmas decorations! We fluffed the tree (a difficult task), figured out which lights worked and which ones didn't, strung lights around the tree, strung tinsel around the tree, and decorated the tree! It was very fun, we had Christmas music playing and it was, as I said before, fun and Christmassy. The tree looks great and we have lights, tinsel, and wreaths scattered all around the house.

Advent Day #1 at Church:
At church, since this is the first day of advent, we had the first verse of the candle dance, which was lovely, the kid's choir, three soloists (Jeanette, Greta, and Abby), and a puppet show (starring....Kristine!!). Jeanette, Greta, and Abby sounded absolutely beautiful and the kids were adorable. Everything went reasonably well, although the sound system was, as usual, way off. My dad led the service, and everything was great. The sermon, also, was very good.

Christmas Fair:
After church we rushed out to the annual Christmas Fair! All of my good friends were there, so we hung out and did what girls do best (or at least what people seem to think that we do best)...shop. I spent way too much money, but oh well, that's what happens to me every year at the Christmas Fair. I got some great Christmas presents for people, as well as some nice candles and a leather book for me. I think that the most interesting part of the day was definitely when I dragged Hannah (literally dragged) across the room to the lady dressed up like a reindeer in an attempt to get us some candy canes. The lady gave us a huge handful. Hannah forgave me for dragging her. Anyway, the day was great and very fun.

Yes, I have been busy lately. Too busy to update my blog much.... I'll try to do better. Merry Early Christmas, everyone!!