Home for Christmas

a little delirious with joy ...because even though my sister began wearing my clothes immediately...
i'm home, and beating my brother at table hockey (only because I cheat).
much more to come - i love Christmas & the many special events that surround it.

Exams

Three girls.
One night.
An embarrassing amount of caffeine.
Hey who hasn't pulled an allnighter in university?

Christmas Card Photo

School has never been canceled for snow - until this year! We had a splendid blizzard and all classes were canceled - a blessing from heaven. After supper we went out in the snow and jumped around - me in my jeans - thank heavens for long johns! They are worth their weight in gold.

New York Has My Heart

My very first time in New York City was an eye-opening experience - and I fell in love with the city. Hopefully one day i will be able to spend much more time there! The crazyness of NYC is intoxicating. Went by much too fast - 40 some college kids cramped on a bus for a 14 hour drive there and back - was definitely worth my while. Now - here are some - admittedly - touristy pictures of the trip!

1. Overwhelmed, the first place we went was the familiar - McDonalds - in Times Squares. Yet the coolest McD's I've ever been in.
2. Here's a really touristy one - wasn't going to BUY any I heart NY stuff, so had to take a picture with it :)
3. Since almost everyone at ABU cheers for the Boston Red Sox, Natalie and I had to buy Yankees hats. I don't even like baseball but HEY. it's the New York YANKEES.
4. Our favorite show - Gossip Girl. You can barely see the billboard. This was in Chinatown, the creepiest part of NYC that I was in.
5. CHRISTIE'S.
6. Of course. It is a marvelous and thrilling statue experience.
7. NBC Studio Store.8. The famous, famous outdoor skating rink. 9. To skate here has always been their dream - the two on the left are figure skaters. 10. In the Marriott - a gleaming and glittering rich hotel that I will stay at one day. When I'm famous, you know.
11. Virgin Records - fantastic store. I could have stayed there for hours. In front of it with my best friend Natalie. 12. The point of the trip was to see Relient K & Switchfoot in concert. Here we are, waiting in line for 2 hours!
13. Finally inside the Hammerstein Ballroom, some of us quickly put on our newly purchased band shirts and prepare for probably one of the better concerts you could ever see in a lifetime. RK and Switchfoot are two of the greatest bands in the history of Christian music. Both creative, original, energetic, dedicated, and talented. Next year, anyone?

Campobello & the Fab Four

One marvelous long weekend, the fabulous four set off on our very first road trip to Campobello. And what a weekend it was - many long hours in the car - new dance moves invented - six times across the border - freezing cold exploration of the island - becoming wilderness women. Here are a few of the places we visited.

1. The ferry that we had to take twice because we went to the wrong place...
2. the hotel in St. Stephens with huge lawn chairs
3. a beautifully built church on the way to Bangor, ME
4. a wild blueberry field on the way to Bangor, ME
5. Roosevelt's cottage on Campobello 6. At the most photographed lighthouse in Canada? I think. I like this picture because our faces are actually blue. I have never been so cold in all my life.
7. Natalie, our little Renaissance angel. the Wharf, Campobello
8. Our last stop on our love trip - an old shipwreck.
Good friends, good food (so many restaurant stops), adventure - twas a wonderful weekend. Sadly, as it is exam time, I don't have enough minutes to elaborate, but here is an excerpt from the trip - I wrote this for a class, about our lodging for the cold, dark nights...

Car-bound, for seven hours, two days in a row.

Our theme this road trip is repetition: two (unnecessary) ferry rides; six border crossings; the same songs flashing on the radio; identical scrubby trees floating by the windows.

Edith Lank Memorial Christian Camp lingers mutely in the darkness at the end of a loosely graveled driveway. A single steel street light glares over the camp, but we still can’t really tell the layout of the grounds. What we know is that the ocean lies blackly beyond the radius of light, and the salt wind scorches over Campobello Island, and we’re cold and headachy from driving. Our only desire is to settle into the house for the night.

Of course we’re locked out.

As we sit in the car, contemplating the situation, the house stands there quite complacently, squat in its white siding, curtains teasing us through the windows. There is warmth and shelter here. Just a regular farmhouse, nothing exotic or exciting, not unique, but square, well proportioned, settled into the earth – it’s seen a day or two.

Off we go to Pastor Robert’s home, because he’ll have a key.

Driving over the hard and scrubby hills and bridges, I can’t really see Campobello and I don’t really care to – don’t really care about sensing the feel and motive and attitude of this island. In the black of night it’s my own motives and feelings that I care about, and all I wish for is a marshmallow bed and a crystal clear sleep, and plenty of hot water in the morning.

None of us are cold-weather people. We’re here for Gabby, who head cooked at Edith Lank this summer, and who wishes to share the experience with her closest friends, but frankly, it’s not summer – it’s November – and we’re not getting the vibe. At Pastor Robert’s, we sit restlessly in the car and watch them converse through the window. In the window, Pastor Robert hands her keys to the camp. Time to drive back – the hill, the bridge, the trees on the gravelly road.

Of course the keys aren’t right.

Hunched over, shivering, Gabby fits one key after another in the lock, while we offer what little encouragement we can. “What about the other door?” and “C’mon, Gab, it’s freezing!”

“Grow yourself a Canadian body, Gabby!” Natalie yells, like a football coach. Coming from a tiny brunette shaking on the front porch of an old farmhouse, it is hilariously bizarre. And it’s no use – encouragement or not, keys that don’t fit, don’t fit, even as I close my fingers over Gabby’s chilly hand, and try myself.

After some driving around, looking for a set of keys, any keys that will open the farmhouse, we meet Pastor Robert, who is driving to meet us halfway on the gravelly road. “House is open, hot water’s on!” he calls to us cheerfully, and lucky for him we’re in different cars, or he might have received a kiss or two.

We stumble wearily into the deceptive house. So much for warmth: only the kitchen is heated, and the hot water certainly isn’t on. That night, we sleep in mittens and scarves, and I wake up curled around Danielle’s warm and sleeping form. I can see my breath in the frosty air, but I need the bathroom badly. As I stumble into the bedroom closet by mistake, my weary eyes focus on a small white box on the wall – yes, it is a thermostat. After cranking it up as high as possible, I run around the house, searching in every closet, behind every couch, and along every wall, until I’ve found the other four thermostats, and cranked them with numb fingers. So! The night before, we’d heated the kitchen and someone had shut the door in the middle of the night. That’s a story you’d rather not spread around.

Now, as we wash our hair in the Edith Lank Memorial Christian Camp dining hall dishwasher, the only tap that brings forth hot water (in a separate, unheated building, down the hill), we award ourselves the title of “wilderness women”, and think happily of the steaming hothouse that finally awaits us at the top of the hill. Pastor Robert might cringe when the oil bill arrives, but - at least - by now, we must have grown ourselves Canadian bodies. Our reward must be a little warmth.

Margaree in Autumn

There is no place like home, and no place like Margaree in the fall, when the mountains are vibrant with color. Every season has something to offer but Fall is one of the most lovely and heart-wrenching when the leaves come off.

The Morrisons in Autumn

For a thanksgiving treat we traveled home to Margaree. Of course I snapped pictures. My darling daddy, marvelous mother, scandalous Samuel, joyful Joanna and loving Luke.

:)