It's the holiday!

As the end of the semester approaches, I've been seeing a lot of chatter online from my friends who are still studying about the stress and terrors of finals week.  What a blessing it is to be done with school!  My days are certainly full of activity, but I remember the feeling of days that were overflowing with activity and I'm glad those days have past.  Good luck on your finals, everyone!

Instead of writing up essays and preparing for exams, I'm spending my time writing up lesson plans and preparing for camp.  It's so exciting, and it's just around the corner! Personally, this holiday season is going to be fantastic for me.  I get to go home for Christmas (I leave in ONE WEEK!) and then I get to come back and go straight to camp. As if that wasn't exciting enough, guess who's coming back with me?

Wyatt and a sheep. Why? Bleats me!

That's right! My one and only beloved little brother Wyatt! If everything goes according to plan, he'll be coming back with me at the end of the month (THIS month, it's all happening so quickly!) to help at camp and meet my friends and family here.  Little does he know (and he won't know until he gets here because he admittedly doesn't read my blog, that bum) that he's going to be Peter Pevensie, High King of Narnia.  It's pretty exciting, let me tell you.  Here's our camp poster:

Our official camp poster, courtesy of Madi

When Wyatt and I arrived, after a day or two of recovery, we'll head up to the base on the 31st to celebrate New Years.  In Russia, their biggest holiday of the year is New Years Eve, instead of Christmas, but there are many similarities in the ways they celebrate, like having a tree, putting up lights, Santa (Father Frost over here), presents, parties... The Christians here celebrate Christmas, but it's a very private family holiday without all the above-mentioned accoutrements that we find in our American Christmas. 

New Years Eve on the base will be excellent; most of the people volunteering as counselors and helpers are my dear friends, and I can't think of anyone else I'd want to spend the holiday with.  I also will be spending this New Years with someone special; we're not quite ready to shout it from the rooftops, but I think it's fair to let you know that I've been going on a lot of long walks with a certain someone.  One day I'll write about the perils of dating in the conservative Church culture here, suffice to say that it's very very different from our way of doing things. But enough on that subject, I'm still shy!

Christmas, camp with my brother, New Years with my friends. In short, this is going to be an excellent Russian Christmas.

Пока ребята, Russian Jane