Well folks, it's Christmas Eve yet again. Wow how time flies! I remember a year ago today I was sitting in my Grandma's house in Cleveland. I was probably taking a nap around this time because earlier that morning, about 6am, I was woken up by the sound of a rat running across my floor....one of the most memorable Christmas Eve mornings I've had haha. And now, it's Christmas Eve morning again, and instead of my Grandma's house in Cleveland, or another family members house, I find myself in London, England 3,000 miles away from Cleveland, Ohio and the rest of my family in the States. It's a surreal feeling as you could image having arrived at this familiar day without experiencing any familiar people, surroundings, or traditions. It certainly makes me pause and think about what I appreciate most about this time of year.

In the past for me, a lot of this season has meant familiar faces, traditions, smells, good eats, decorations, and activities that my family carries on around this time. Thinking this year I won't be having any of that has been an odd sensation, but being here in the United Kingdom this year has also been such a blessing. This year I am surrounded by new faces, new traditions, and new activities that make up meaningful memories of the season for other people, and being welcomed into that experience has been very precious and sacred to me. I have always wanted to experience Christmas in another country and sharing moments of Christmas that have become precious to other people has become a treasured Christmas memory I will carry with me the rest of my life.

It's crazy how much can change year to year, but I find myself comforted with the thought that even if you celebrate the same traditions each year, with the same people and same surroundings, no year is quite like the last one. During my celebrations here in the UK, I came across a little Christmas book called Sharing Christmas Every Day by Helen Steiner Rice. I have taken to reading a few poems and devotionals from this book every night before I go to bed to keep up the familiar Christmas spirit during an unfamiliar Christmas year. As I read, one devotional especially stood out to me. Though I feel I have read these words and thought about these ideas before, they never really had as much meaning as they do for me this year. As I read Helen Steiner Rice's devotional called Love Unchanging, I find myself being inspired by the words written.

"Every family carries certain Christmas traditions from year to year and generation to generation. Some go to church on Christmas Eve, while others get up with their kids before dawn on Christmas morning. Maybe Grandmother always stuffs the turkey with oyster dressing or a certain aunt brings her amazing cherry pie. Traditions like these bring families together and give them a sense of heritage.
No matter how many traditions remain the same, however, no Christmas is exactly like the last. Maybe there's the happy addition of a new in-law or grandchild, or the silent sorrow of a loved one not present. Perhaps Christmas will be celebrated in a new home, or under circumstances very different from last year's.
Time may have changed how you will celebrate Christmas this year, but one thing time can never change-that's Jesus, God's greatest gift to us. Though Jesus' birth, God showed His compassion, His understanding, and His desire to embrace all people. God and His love will never change, because God never changes.
This Christmas, give thanks for the traditions you observe form year to year, for new experiences and new traditions you might begin, and most of all, for the people with whom you will share this dearest of holidays." -Helen Steiner Rice

This devotional has helped me stay focused on what is really important this year. Even though I am away from familiar family and traditions I still have so much to be thankful for. As the real reason for the season is Jesus coming to save the world, I am reminded that this greatest of celebrations can be shared with anyone and everyone no matter where you are in the world. Even though I am not next to my biological family today and tomorrow to celebrate the birth of Jesus, I can still celebrate with them miles away and with new friends and family just the same. I realize that it doesn't matter what Christmas looks like. The traditions you hold over the years make up who you are but having new experiences and choosing how you celebrate each year are just as much part of becoming who you are too and what makes Christmas for me is all those things combined.

For me this year, my Christmas list doesn't consist of objects and money, like admittedly it does most years. Instead this year, I have only two wishes for my Christmas list. #1. That my family at home and all families around the world will be happy. Even though things may change, loved ones come and go, and situations vary year to year, I hope my family and others will be able to appreciate the little things and the loved ones present with them this Christmas. I hope that despite the sadness and frustrations that this time of year often bring, people will remember the true meaning of Christmas and know that no matter what each year brings, good or bad, the good news has already come. Jesus Christ has died for our sins and we are saved. #2. I hope that my family and others around the world will be healthy. Even though we all go through up swings and down swings with our health, I pray this year and especially over the next few days that the health of the world can stand strong so that loved ones can be with one another this Christmas. I pray that my family at home stays healthy this year and the next so that even though I am not with them this year, I will be able to see them again and celebrate Christmas together again with them next year.

A blessed Merry Christmas to everyone.

Hello all! I know this is a bit late seeing as it's three days before Christmas but I finally had time to finish this post so I wanted to share it anyway. After all, there's always time for giving thanks. So, I wanted to share with you my photos from my Thanksgiving this year in the UK. For those of you who may not have given it much thought, England doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving. Instead, in the month of September or October, England celebrates Harvest Festival. This is the time that schools and churches give thanks for a successful harvest and everything God has given to them. Typically, people bring food donations to a special Harvest Festival Service where donations are put on display in front of the church before they are later handed out to people in need. So Harvest doesn't have a national holiday in England like it does in the United States or Canada but it still serves as the time of year where Brits give thanks and count their blessings.

So this year I had the choice of letting American thanksgiving pass me by or sharing it with my new British community. Well I figured what the heck and decided not only was I going to have Thanksgiving with my host family this year, but I was going to have thanksgiving with my host church. We decided to do a bring and share style meal so I started putting announcements in the church bulletin. Then, over the next few Sundays leading up to Thanksgiving, over thirty people signed up to come. I thought that was amazing. I couldn't believe so many people were interested in sharing my American holiday with me.

So a few days before Thanksgiving I got busy planning and preparing how I was going to host this Thanksgiving and explain to my new British friends why in the heck Americans sit down on this day every year and eat our body weight in food. This really gave me a time to reflect and get refreshed on the Thanksgiving traditions celebrated with my family and around the United States. Figuring out how I was going to explain things like the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade were fun for me because I really hadn't thought about the why or when of some tradition's like this before.

After a few trips to the grocery store, some YouTube video searches and some prayer that it would all go smoothly, November 27th came and I spent most of the day setting out long tables, laying out table clothes, preparing table settings and for the first time, cooking green bean casserole. With major help from my host family, who cooked the turkey :), and everyone that made and brought food via the public transportation system, the evening went tremendously well! It was a really fun night and a new way for me to look at Thanksgiving. Even though I was missing my family and traditions at home, I was able to share a part of my heritage with new friends and family around the world and for that, I was truly thankful.

In the church kitchen preparing green bean casserole and center pieces before everyone arrived.

Voila! Apple candle centerpieces! Thank you Pinterest.

There's always a turkey decoration at my family Thanksgiving. So this year to incorporate that, as everyone came in the door they were asked to write down something they were thankful for on a slip of paper and put it in a turkey jar. 

Food table prepped and ready

Long table style just like at home because Thanksgiving should be shared with family.

The table settings. The far right is my attempt at a cornucopia....

I wanted a way to remember this year not just through pictures, so I bought a cotton table cloth and fabric crayons for people to make turkey hands, a classic American Thanksgiving tradition. Then later I ironed on the crayon so I could keep it forever :)

The 2013 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in the background so people could watch a Thanksgiving parade as if it were Thanksgiving morning.

The party begins.

Everyone lent a hand to make the hand turkeys.

Busy making last minute preparations in the kitchen.

My host family being SUPER helpful with the turkey, gravy, and pumpkin pie.

Time for food!

The completed plate! Turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn muffin, rolls, green beans, sweet potatoes, cranberry jelly, etc. It all tasted wonderful and all the traditional foods were present!

My 2014 Thanksgiving family at St. James.

Watching the history of Thanksgiving YouTube video.

Going through my slide show. Explaining the Macy's Parade, traditional foods my family eat on Thanksgiving Day, and pictures of my family and friends.

The food after first rounds.

The desserts. We also celebrated two birthdays that night! We had traditional pumpkin pie that was phenomenal and a traditional British dessert as well, asst. fruit crumble with creme.

And in the end, everyone pitched in to clean up. Not a single person left without helping out in some way! I felt truly blessed to share this Thanksgiving with my St. James family.

Hello all! Merry Christmas! I hope the season is treating you well. Here is a quick update of what I have been up to in the last month or so.

On November 5th we celebrated Guy Fawkes day. This is a British holiday commemorating the failed gunpowder plot by Guy Fawkes and others to blow up the parliament building in attempt to get a Catholic monarch back on the throne. A lot of people may be familiar with Guy Fawkes and the gunpowder plot from the movie V for Vendetta, which is not about Guy Fawkes but a man fighting against the government wearing a Guy Fawkes mask for symbolism. It is also known as bonfire night and they also light off fireworks. 

This is outside the youth club lighting off fireworks.

Also in November was Remembrance Day or Armistice Day. This day marks the end of World War I and day the British remember those who gave their lives for such a tragic and pointless war. This year was the 100th anniversary of World War I. Poppies are placed over graves and at memorials around the UK because the poppies symbolize the blood shed and also the hope of new life after tragedy and death.

I was put in charge of making new bulletin boards for the two children's clubs I work with during the week, Get Set and Adventurers. These are some pics of the kids working on the boards.

For the older group we decided to do a space theme and make planets. We used shaving cream, paint, and plastic wrap to make cool spacey like designs for the planets.

Some of the planets drying.

The finished product! 

I made eggs and toast one Sunday afternoon. At home we make eggs or pancakes sometimes for Sunday brunch so it helped me feel less homesick. :)

This is another product of my attempts at cooking for myself. Veggie soup. Not too bad for my first time.

One Saturday toward the end of November I visited the famous Oxford University! (My favorite place so far). It is a beautiful and old campus. Full of tradition, the University has been around since the 1200's.

The mysterious heads of Oxford. No one knows where these heads came from or why they were put there. They are often targets of many well mannered pranksters who put lipstick or traffic cones on the figures.

This building, among being a historic place for student exams, interviews, and ceremonies, is also the building where several scenes from Harry Potter were filmed.

This college at Oxford was the first to accept women. Yay!

This building is the history building and is the most photographed building in Oxford because of its unique architectural features like its circular shape. 

This Oxford college is the most selective college in the world. Only seven students are admitted every year and only those who are students of this college have actually seen inside it.

This pub was where C.S. Lewis got his inspiration for the Chronicles of Narnia. If you look at the "lion-like" face on the front door it may remind you of a character from the book. Also, if you look at the "half human, half fawn" figures on the sides of the door you may see another famous character inspiration from the books.

And if you look to the right of this door you see the lamp post itself that marks the entrance to Narnia from the wardrobe.