Christmas...

Seeing as my housemates and I will all be dispersing for the Christmas holiday, we decided to declare last weekend "Christmas Tree Day" in our home. I don't have any pictures of the tree, but hopefully these shots will satisfy those eager for some photographic evidence of my life (i.e, mom).

Here we are enjoying our Christmas Tree Day brunch. Note the festive Christmas crackers and crowns. One housemate is missing from this photos, but I'm sure he'll show up on here eventually.

I included this shot to prove that I was actually there. I didn't Photoshop myself into this one, I promise.

Festive, London-esque Christmas Tree Day centerpiece.

After brunch we went to get a Christmas tree from a home supply store. I don't have any photos of this leg of the day. This is unfortunate, because it was slightly hilarious.

We were a bit short on ornaments, so we decided to make birds. I was borderline obsessed with bird Christmas tree ornaments last year in Mozambique. Apparently that's carried over a bit.

Housemate L takes her turn.

Clearly an emotional moment between crafter and craft.

She deserves a lot of applause for cutting out roughly 239, 494, 202 cookies.

This is only a fraction. Some we ate, some we hung on the tree. Some...are still sitting in Tupperware containers in the kitchen.

Last but not least, here are our beloved chickens (Annabel, Bruiser and Joan) in front of their coop! The third one is around there somewhere.

Our chickens used to live on a commercial egg farm and were a little lacking in feathers and high on post traumatic stress disorder when they came to live with us. However, they get prettier all the time and seem to love their new life in our back garden.

I finished up my first term at LSHTM on Friday. It was a great term, definitely the most challenged I've been academically (ever), but I do feel like I've learned a lot and I'm looking forward to jumping back in come January.

If the weather here cooperates, I should be back in Canada early next week for some rest and some time with a lot of my favorite people. Looking forward to seeing many of you very soon!

Beauty...

I'm still fresh out of pictures of my London life, but I wanted to post these photos.

I've been thinking a lot about Mozambique lately, partly because I've settled into some sort of routine here and have had time to stop and think about all the changes that have come about in my life in the past few months.

During one of my last weeks in Mozambique The General and I headed out to the school to meet up with the girls who were learning to sew. We had a lovely morning together. They were so excited to finish their first animals and so proud of their accomplishments. We laughed and chatted (as best we could!) and just had a wonderful hour. It turned out to be our last time together, and I hope that it is as good of a memory for them as it is for me.

Anyways, here are some photos from that morning of the girls and their creations. Aren't these girls beautiful? If you are of the praying persuasion, you can pray for them- that they will be safe and healthy and able to continue going to school.