Continuing Christmas Spirit

It's a bit late I know, but I wanted to post a picture of my mini Christmas tree. I have enjoyed my tree all season and even though the other decorations had to come down on Saturday, I plan to leave my little tree up for awhile longer. It is still green and healthy and makes me happy.

Flat 8

I thought it would be impossible, but all 7 of us from flat 8 got together last night. This was the first time all of us were able to get together since leaving London, and not because we haven't been trying. It was the one year anniversary of our arrival in England and a goodbye party for the Brants, who are moving to Stockton. We caught up on what everyone's been doing, but spent most of the time remembering stories from our time in London and cracking ourselves up. Here's the group: Jen, Juan, Alicia, me, Ashley, Charity, and Darrin. Although I now miss them again, it was wonderful to see everyone and share an enjoyable evening.

Happy Arrival in London Day

One year ago today I landed at the Heathrow airport with 19 fellow CSU Fresno students to begin 12 weeks of studying in London. That first day was brutal and exciting. We arrived early in the morning after a 10 hour flight during which I hardly slept at all. It took 45 minutes to drive to the Sienna Building, where we would be living, then we had to get all of our stuff unloaded and into our flats. Our teachers gave us a tour of our new neighborhood and we walked down Hatton Garden, along Farrington to the tube stop, over to the Chancery Lane tube stop, past Boots, the bank, Sainsbury, and the many jewelry stores that lined our street. The first day was the only time I ate at Eat, which had grab and go type sandwiches and snacks. The excitement, nervousness, and lack of sleep made for an interesting mix as we tried to take in as much as possible and learn everyone's names. The hardest part of the day was the afternoon as we tried to stay awake until a reasonable bedtime in order to be rid of the jet lag as soon as possible. This was made more difficult because we had to listen to Stewie, our property manager, tell us the do's and don't's of living in our flats. Then our teachers both said something too. I lasted until about 7 or 8:00 that first night. This picture is actually from the next day when my flat went out to explore. I have many great memories from those 12 weeks and my wonderful flatmates.

Christmas

Christmas was relaxed at the Chandler house this year. We started the day off at with our church's traditional Christmas morning service. Then we returned home to finish wrapping presents and have a quiet afternoon. The Nickells and Trevinos arrived for dinner, then we opened presents. The kids sang "Jingle Bells" in front of the tree to get things started. This was a tradition that Dad and Mom started when we were little. Michelle and I got new pjs. The kids excited about a train set from Grandpa and Grandma, which they got to play with while the rest of us finished opening gifts. I drew a picture of the three kids for Isaac and Heather. We even managed to finish the day with something unusual in Central California: a white Christmas!

Catching Up

I'm behind on my blog. In order to get up to date, I've decided to give you a quick rundown with photos. I hope you enjoy! Evan made name cards for everyone for our Thanksgiving dinner.

The family at Thanksgiving.

Chandler family tradition: Christmas tree hunting the day after Thanksgiving.

Uncle Jonah bought popcorn and instantly became the most popular person.

Smelling the trees. Isaac was interviewed for the news! Loading up the trees. Face painting at Bless Fest.

Family picture taking for our Christmas card, this was a challenge with 10 people, but it turned out well. The COS dance show. I was in the day tap class and we danced to Michael Jackson songs. Making gingerbread houses with graham crackers. The finished village: my house, Heather's, Michelle's, and Evan and Micah's. That's a brief overview of what's been going on the past few weeks. An important event that was not photographed was the end of the semester! This was a tough semester for me and I'm so thankful it is over. Also, I have been getting to do more baking at work, which I enjoy. That's it for now, I hope all of you are enjoying the season and are ready for Christmas!

Race Against Hunger

Mom, Heather, Michelle, and I ran the 5k to benefit Visalia Emergency Aid this morning. Isaac, Heather, and I ran it last year and it was fun to do it again. Here we are at Jonah and Michelle's house before the race. We decided to dress up this year and be festive. It was fun and we got a number of comments, particularly about the jingle bells on our shoes, people called us the Jingle Bell Girls. These pictures are from during the race, they were difficult to take while we were running.
We also took a runner's view video.

We all finished together and it was a fun way to start Thanksgiving and a beautiful morning for a jog.

Shhh, Don't Tell

Jonah, Michelle, and I did something bad today, we cut down Christmas trees before Thanksgiving. Terrible, I know. But we had the day off school and there wasn't going to be another time that we would work out as well, so what can you do? We made a trip to Calvin Crest for our trees (they gave us permission to cut them) and it was a great trip. We arrived early afternoon and got to visit with our friends Joel and Kirsten and their baby, Nathan. We decided to go on a walk and passed through the Crestview campfire area. I was the happy camper and Jonah the cool kid. It was a beautiful sunny day and we enjoyed the fresh air and trees. Most of the fall leaves had already fallen, but some trees still had their leaves and looked great. Then we hiked the Shadow of the Giants trail. We were sad to have missed the Dogwood trees with their fall leaves, but it was still a good hike. Jonah and Michelle in front of one of the Giant Sequoias. Next, we headed to Sherwood and found the perfect tree. Michelle and Jonah got this big one plus a little one and I got a mini one. Fitting the tree in the car was a challenge, but once we got it in, it fit pretty well. The car sure smelled good while we drove back to Visalia.

Nursery Demo

We started a nursery renovation project at church today, here are some before pictures: This picture is not a true before picture because it shows the new windows, which are quite nice.

The first order of business was kicking out the panels at the back of the half wall/cabinet; the boys had a lot of fun with that, as did the adults in the group. It was highly satisfying to kick out a wood panel, especially since I was still wearing my skirt. We continued to work at tearing the rest of the half wall out and taking it apart, stopping for a break to have pizza. Things progressed well over the afternoon and we got the whole thing taken apart as well as purchasing new wood, drywall, and lights. Michelle and Mom got the pieces cut for the new half wall and Jonah started nailing it together. About that time we decided to call it a day and head home to cut up our bounty of wood. Everyone came over and we had dinner and the first fire of the season.

Party Time

We had a costume party at work tonight and it was fun. Everyone was dressed up and looked good. Jonah and Michelle were the cutest couple there, but Sierra and Sam were great too. First up for the evening, we had a contest for best costume, then a pumpkin carving contest. My pumpkin is on the left and Michelle's is in the middle. I won second place, for which I got fluffy socks and a candle. Next we had a mummy dressing contest. Michelle, Jonah, Mark, and I were on a team; Mark was our mummy. He looked great. David had to carry their mummy over to the judging area, quite a feat since Sam was their mummy and he is considerably taller than David. The three mummies, our mummy, Mark is on the left. After that, we went across the street to get drinks. Michelle and I got lavender Italian soda, but they were super strong, so we couldn't finish them.