Christmas Cultural Lesson #1

So everything they say about fall in Michigan is true - it's beautiful. But kinda leafy. Especially after living in south eastern Idaho where a tree doesn't grow unless you water it.

These pictures are from camp's November event: Rake n Rock. The local Christian radio station hosts it and local youth groups come help us rake leaves. This is me pretending I raked this giant pile of leaves myself. It was raining (well, okay - had rained all night and was misting) and cold and I was helping to host the high school leaders in training with camp and it was hard work! Turns out wet leaves are heavy when you have to drag acres of them into the woods.

This is me laying in the leaves . . . really only because I was already filthy and I like pictures. Thank God for oxy clean and my friend Em who washed my stuff!

Before and after pictures of Jabri. Her mom combed her hair out and we were going to take pictures and Jabri was like, wait - this needs a guitar. Funny. I did these braids! :-) I'm clearly still tickled that I'm learning how to braid. Yesterday I did braids and beads in 1 hour and 5 minutes! Wahoo!

I found gas in Michigan for $1.83! You know me - had to take it's picture . . .

Me and Shawneesha. She loves me, just not pictures.

These pictures are from our Partners in Discipleship (PID) Christmas party. We had 34 people there!! It was a lot of (loud) fun! Yes, I too make fun of people who do Christmas things before Thanksgiving, but that seems to be what worked out, so . . . It was a chance for the mentors and kids to come to a party together and meet others involved in PID.

So, apparently white elephant is not a multi-cultural game - who knew? Maybe I should have guessed since it's called WHITE elephant, but . . . We had to do some creative explaining to get people to play. It appears that people in the city do not think that having their present stolen is fun. However, once we got going the kids got their hussle on. The kids (and some adults) who didn't like their gift would try anything to get the next person to steal it. The bottom picture is of some kids trying to convince Miss Frances that she should choose their gift - it was loud, crazy, and fun. Picture an auction with about 10 auctioneers. :-) Or if you are from the city you can picture the guys that walk in traffic to sell stuff, about 10 of them.

(We are taking suggestions for next year's gift exchange. :-)