So, today is smack dab in the middle of the two major December Holidays, Christmas, and New Years. In the past, these days have typically been spent in an overall state of relaxation, where I can enjoy myself spending as much time as I want catching up with old friends and chilling out with family. However, this year I am spending these few days no differently than I had been spending them last week, or the week before, or the week before that -- working. Oh the joys!
But enough groaning! :)
I don't actually feel as miserable as you might imagine I would be after you've read the above paragraph. The past month since my last update has been an overall good time for me. :D I spent a lot of my time during the past few weeks shopping for everyone's Christmas presents. I must say that this is the first time that I really put a lot of thought and effort into choosing the gifts I gave people! I'm so proud of myself! hehe Total, including all of the time on the buses and walking and such, I probably spent at least 20 hours searching for the right gifts. :) And it definitely payed off in my opinion~ I am proud to say that everyone really enjoyed the gifts that I gave them, or were at least pleasantly surprised by them. :) To sum this all up: Attempt to practice the Love Language of Gifts -- Huge success!
On December 20th, our church had "Bring a Friend Day" and had a special service for the occasion. I was really happy to have Kevin and Ira come out! I hope that they were blessed by the fellowship and I'm praying that maybe they'll come back again some time. :) The special events after the sermon consisted of the "Everything Skit" (which you can see here) and the Cardboard Testimonies (which you can see here). I nearly cried at the end of the Everything Skit. :*) I know that a lot of people were blessed by the event, and I know that many of the things that happened that day have yet to be revealed!
Next on the timeline is last weekend. Thankfully I had Christmas Day off, so I had a nice three day weekend filled with some good times. :)
Thursday night I spent with Gina, Ira, Sara, and Kevin. We had a mini Secret Santa between the five of us, which actually turned out pretty well. :) I got a Banc Sweater, pencil holder, and a pair of socks from my Secret Santa Gina. (Which, I actually need to go get some time soon, since I left it over at the Jeons' apartment...) Kevin's present for me is my favorite, my new mac keyboard! Its awesomeness is due to the fact that it has the 한글, or Korean characters, on it, so it makes typing in Korean a lot easier for me! I'm so excited to put it to good use in the near future! 아싸~!
I spent all of Friday at a couple church events! This is also when I gave out all of my presents. :)
At around noon we went to an orphanage a couple of the women at church are working at and had what we called the Secret Angels event. We each chose an orphan to buy a gift for and on Friday we gave them a present. Unfortunately for me, the girl I had bought my gift for was not at the orphanage on Friday, so I wasn't able to give my gift to her directly.. A few of the church members performed the Everything Skit for the kids and Pastor Myunghwa gave a short message. Again, I know that many of the girls were blessed at that event. :)
note: Pardon my over use of the smiley! I just can't help it! Reading it seems so boring without them. But I guess that's just my personal preference..
Following that event we went to the AIM (Associated International Ministries) Christmas service. The service is a joint service that is held for all of the English-speaking churches out in Seoul, so there were a good amount of familiar faces there. :) We got there about halfway though the message unfortunately, because we spent a little too much time at the orphanage. Afterwards was a time of joint fellowship, where we ended up loitering for a little too long.. But that is only to be expected. :P
We had dinner at Thai Garden in Itaewon, which, as Thai food goes, was not the best, but was definitely satisfactory. :)
We topped off the evening with a gift exchange, which we had to split off into two groups. From what I heard our group fared a little better with the loot. :) I walked away with this nice organizer. :D
Thank you Jen 누나~! So, all in all, Christmas was awesome!
Finally, on Sunday we had our Leadership Banquet! The banquet was such an awesome idea. :) You might think that it's only something a young church like ours might do, but even if that's true, I think that it is an event that every church needs to have yearly. The evening's purpose was to give honor where honor is due, and I know that all of our leaders were encouraged and blessed by it. Next year I'll be up there for sure~ ;)
Sorry for the long entry! I realize I didn't update very often this month, but I hope to be able to update a little more frequently next month. :) I hope that this delay hasn't stopped any of you from checking my blog! I will update again soon!!
Note to self: Repost blog posts from tumblr account here later.
