T’was the night before Christmas…

I remember exactly where I was last year. I was lying on the couch in the living room since my relatives were occupying my room. "T'was the night before Christmas" and everyone in the house was asleep, except me. I couldn't get comfortable. I kept staring at the living room window, smelling the fragrance of the evergreen tree, and thinking. Why this moment stands out so much is because I distinctively remember thinking "I might not be here next year." And then I started to panic. During this point, I had been thinking about participating in Radical Journey but I hadn't decided "officially" (and maybe even hadn't applied yet). I am not sure why I remember this moment so clearly, but it materialism a very real thing that might have kept me from going overseas – my family.

For those of you who have been reading my blog, you know that December has been a really hard month here. Yesterday, in particularly has been really challenging for no particular reason besides the fact that I am here and not in North Carolina, or Kansas, or Illinois. Yesterday was even killer hot so it didn't even seem like the "big day" was coming up.

But today was different. It's been cold and rainy and I must have woken up with a new perspective because I wouldn't have had it any other way. Tomorrow is supposed to be "cold-ish" too and I am super pumped about the rain. I knew this morning as my team moved around the house in a sad silence that I needed to do something awesome to keep this day for killing our spirits.

So Connie and I baked. All day long. It was awesome.

First though we had to run uptown to Pick N' Pay (which was utter madness) to pick up some stocking stuffers that we decided we wanted to have. (Okay, this was a great PnP experience, despite the fact that we had to crawl over people in the store. There was a man there playing the violin for everyone. After he played a Christmas song he asked an employee what her favorite song was. Since she was busy with a customer she kind of waved him off. So instead of leaving the man starting playing that song from the Lion King. You know, "In the jungle the mighty jungle…" followed by the national anthem. Weird but awesome). On our way home we stopped at this Indian food place that we love to get samoosas and roti rolls. Yes.

Then we baked and baked and baked until our feet ached and our kitchen table was covered with goodies for BCI staff.

It was a beautiful thing.

Then we ended the day by eating Pakistani Kima in the living room (since our table is still covered with baked goods) and then watched Third Watch.

I still wish I could be back home right now but still, it's been a good day.