Friday: I went shopping with my discipleship group, we spend a few hours in a Christian book room...it was wonderful! I bought a devotional book for next year, and a really great cd that was on sale. After a few more fun stops at Bulk Barn and Dollarama we headed back. About an hour later Amber and I had English together for the last time, definitely a bittersweet occasion! (The bitter had NOTHING to do with liking the class!) When English was done, it was time to get ready for the Ballet. Our Spaghetti was sooo yummy, and we enjoyed listening to music and getting ready together.
The Nutcracker was beyond amazing - everything was so much bigger and more extravagant than the last one I saw, plus we were right in the middle near the front, so we had a spectacular view. It was stunning! I wish I could have taken pictures!
After the Nutcracker Amber and I went to the end of the Campus for Christ Christmas party, and then walked back to rez. The only bad thing about the night, was walking waaaaay to far in heals!
And to make the night even more marvelous, when I opened my advent calendar at the end of the night I found a chocolate nutcracker!
(See more pictures on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=139230&id=538346974&l=4f7ed03eee ) PS- can someone who doesn't have facebook email me and tell me if these links actually work?
Saturday I had a nice slow day, listening to Christmas Carols and moving around my photos. This of course was in an effort to tidy up...now two walls are different and I have ornaments and an angel hanging in my window. Tres belle!
I was in the lounge eating my dinner when I noticed some strange lights in the sky - like search lights, scanning the sky for a plane (superman, batman, Santa?) Back and forth they went - it reminded me of when Charlie brown and Linus go looking for a Christmas tree, and there are the giant spot lights in the sky, showing them where the trees are. It turns out they were for the Santa Claus Parade, which I went to with a bunch of girls from the floor.
All the kids were there, bundled up and cheering for Santa. We let a dad and his two young boys take our spot on the road, so not only did we get the joy of seeing the parade, but we got to watch the little kids get all excited. (Though Becca, one of the girls I was with, was maybe just as excited as they were. No Santa Claus parades in Saskatchewan, apparently!) After two hours we were getting pretty cold, but we couldn't leave until Santa got there! The dad asked a fireman how much longer it would be. The fireman replied that Santa was float 70, and 69 was just going by. By this point, the parents were cheering more than the kids. Some were sleeping, snuggled up in strollers, others, mesmerized by the lights and focused on their giant stack of candy canes were content to just sit and wait. And then, in the distance we see a van. Soon Santa begins to take shape. An inflatable Santa. Everyone starts freaking out. The kids are screaming, the parents are angry, the students I'm with are in disbelief: did we stand in the cold for 2 hours for an INFLATABLE Santa?
Santa gets closer, and we can see that he's turned in a weird way, like an owl, his head is facing behind him. We realize that he looks like he's falling apart, his pants are hanging from strings, away from the main, inflatated body. THEN we see it. HO HO HO, written across the behind of this large, inflated Santa. His pants go up, and down, and up and down.
We waited two hours to be mooned by Santa. The kids start laughing - I think that photo developers in the Ottawa area will be seeing lots of kids buts with writing across them when the christmas photos come in this seasons. We cant control ourselves: frozen, and tired, we watch the obscene Santa drive by. A few minutes later, the real Santa comes down the road, basically at light speed trying to catch up to the rest of the floats. So there was a Santa - but not that would outdo the inflatable.
After the parade, some thawing, and some hot chocolate I did homework for a couple hours, and then had cookies and Milk with Veronica. With only the Christmas lights iluminating the room, and carols softly playing in the background, it felt like Christmas Eve. It was a weird realization when we began talking about how over Christmas, we wont see eachother for two weeks! We were still talking when Taylor came in with her friend. So much for going to bed early - it was 2 or 2:30 when I finally went to bed.
Oh yeah, my advent calendar had a Santa chocolate inside. That's two in a row that matched the day! Main lesson of the day? I HAVE to buy socks and boots this week.
Taylor left with her friend around 3 am, while I was happily sleeping. An hour and a half later, it happened.
The fire alarm goes off, and I admit, after my initial disorientation, the first thought that popped into my head was rather murderous. I pull some jeans and a sweater on overtop of my pj's, grab my jacket, keys, and phone, and head out. Two floors down there's smoke in the stairwell, it's foggy and smells like chemicals. Panic breaks as groggy students realize there actually is something on fire. We get outside, back into the cold. People gather around, phones on trying to find friends, calling parents. And we all stare at the lights as the fire trucks come in. Fifteen minutes later they move us into the University Centre. We sit, exhausted, waiting for news. We care for some drunk friends, for some having panic attacks. We wait for the updates from Michael who runs around looking for info. This is when the floor is really a family.
Turns out someone was being stupid, and maybe there was a small fire,d but a lot of the fumes and what looked like smoke was actually from the extinguisher which was aimed into the bentilation system as well as into the staircase. We get back in at 5:15, and go back to bed.
It was certainly hard to get up at 8, and stay awake on the bus to Orleans. It was REALLY hard to stay awake as I sat, with my eyes closed, listening to the soft, slow prayers. After Church I went out for lunch with Lane and some other youth from the church, before going back to Lane's to do some work.
After an afternoon of studying and listening to Christmas music we had an amazing dinner as always, and did some more work before Jim drove me home around 9. When we went out to the car, there was snow falling, and the road had been covered. It was quiet and beautiful.
Back in rez, I look out the window to discover that the canal is white - obviously there's enough ice that the snow could cover it too.
This morning, I woke up slow, and I'm listening to carols as I prepare for my day.
Lovely.
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