My cold Christmas holiday.
As I sit here in the airport in Minneapolis
I look outside to my right, of the window, to see the snow on the ground and a
dull sky that is grey with no sun. To my left a little girl is singing let it
go by frozen. HA. It reminds me that so often God is saying to me not to let it
go but to give it to him. In such a simple way.
My holiday began 1 week ago after I
submitted my assignment for the little bit of the semester, and man was I
relieved to be done.
Let me go back a little to before I went on
holidays. The week before school finished was CRAZY busy, with so much going
on. I was finishing off reports and getting ready to leave as well. In the
midst of all of this I was doing my assignment and then I got sick. A whole
week of it is not exactly my ideal way to begin my holidays, but I’m so
thankful to be better now, I spent pretty much the whole week in hibernation,
where people who I work with even began asking where is Carly. To which I was
actually hiding to get better and to complete my assignment for uni.
I got on the plane and then headed for
Indianapolis, to meet my friend Wendy. It was freezing, but I cam e prepared
this time to be able to handle this cold time. Jackets, thermals and a beanie.
CHECK.
I arrived in Amsterdam and hung out there
for ages, before being asked a million and one questions about where I was
headed. I also had the full pat down. I caught my next flight to New York where
I literally ran through the airport, like one of those people you look at and
think wow they are in a super big rush, but I made it just in the nick of time, rushing through all the terminals, picking up my luggage re checked in to catch
my next flight; I finally stopped and caught my breath, for a short and I do mean very short second it was warm. Well perhaps that's because I was wearing about 6 layers of clothing... The warm feeling quickly disappeared as it became very cold once boarding the plane again.
I met Wendy, and then the first week with
her just flew by. The first few days, she showed me around the cold place of
Indianapolis, to which I was amazed that everything is huge here. I mean the
small cups are like a large almost. Anyway enough of the size of things. I got
to see many of the sights like the museum and walking in the snow down town. On
the final night I was able to see the lights at the zoo, and a dolphin show. It
was freezing. My skin is all dried up from the amount of coldness we have here.
I think my coldness almost compares to climbing Killi and Meru, though without
the altitude, I can just replace it with the jet lag. We have warm places to be
able to sit though, and coffee too.
So I make it onto the plane and arrive into
Billings Montana. (Check out my pictures on Facebook). Beth’s dad greets me and
he takes me to greet Beth. We then head over to grab some lunch, where we are
given this amazing choice of bread. The snow is covering the grounds and the
sun is shining. I’m now sitting waiting for Beth to be done with work to then
go and eat some dinner. I have enjoyed coffee and am watching the sunshine out
the window on this cold Friday afternoon.
Leading up to christmas day, we went out to the yellowstone national park, and stayed in this cool little place called Chico. I survived swimming in minus 5 or 6 degree temperatures, (Its a hot spearing pool) and thankfully the pool was heated. It was super cool as it was snowing while we were swimming. Christmas eve was celebrated with my friend Beth's family where we ate chilli and celebrated. That evening it snowed and we woke up to a true white christmas. Was super cool. At around 1:30 am my time I was able to Skype with my family. Love that technology and internet are fast enough to do this. We ate brekkie and then went for a walk and followed the day through with a yumo lunch. Later in the arvo we drove back to where we were staying and then took a look at some amazing christmas lights. Lights have been taken to a whole new level here, this is still part of my favourite thing about christmas.
Right now its just lovely being inside a warm house with a blanket looking outside at the snow on the ground, and from time to time the deers will just wander around the yard too.
On that note I shall go. I do pray and hope that your christmas day, boxing day and the new year are filled with joy and many blessings, as Jesus is the reason for being able to celebrate all of this.
I will try very hard to keep in contact better, though if you check out my Facebook you will see the pictures to my adventures, otherwise if you would like please email me. I love hearing from people and what you have all been doing over the holiday break. In case you have forgotten my email is greeningcarly@gmail.com
