Christmas

I love Christmas! I could make a list of everything I like about it, but that would be boring for you to read. I will just stop at the most important thing... Celebrating the birth of my Saviour and Friend, Jesus Christ. I've often tried to imagine how it must have been for Mary and Joseph to hold the little tiny baby boy in their arms, knowing that He was the Son of God. I wonder if they knew what that really meant... what went through their minds?

I like speculating about that and I guess that is why I like these Christmas songs so much:

SMILE!

There is NEVER a reason not to smile! ;)

If you don't have a smile, I'll give you one of mine. ~Author Unknown

People seldom notice old clothes if you wear a big smile. ~Lee Mildon

A smile is a curve that sets everything straight. ~Phyllis Diller

Wear a smile - one size fits all. ~Author Unknown

The world always looks brighter from behind a smile. ~Author Unknown

Start every day with a smile and get it over with. ~W.C. Fields

The robbed that smiles, steals something from the thief. ~William Shakespeare, Othello

I've never seen a smiling face that was not beautiful. ~Author Unknown

Keep smiling - it makes people wonder what you've been up to. ~Author Unknown

If you would like to spoil the day for a grouch, give him a smile. ~Author Unknown

A smile is something you can't give away; it always comes back to you. ~Author Unknown

If you smile when no one else is around, you really mean it. ~Andy Rooney

Everyone smiles in the same language. ~Author Unknown

A laugh is a smile that bursts. ~Mary H. Waldrip

Smile - it increases your face value. ~Author Unknown

Old pictures - great memories!

Just a few snap shots from my childhood. Looking at those old photos brings back so many great memories... I'm so thankful for the family God blessed me with and for all the experience I had as a missionary child growing up in Ethiopia. I wouldn't trade it for the world. I absolutely LOVE my childhood.

My sis and I got along pretty well most of the time. In the picture above I am about 2 years old and my sister is only a few months old. In the picture below we are 2 and 4 years old, wearing dresses that our grandmother Vilborg made us.

I said we got along MOST of the time ;oP Haha.!

I'm covered in flour (pic above) while my sister is covered in dirt (pic below).

Just love this picture (below). Here I am with my father's coworker in Kibish.

I wasn't all that innocent, haha! This picture was taken the day that I put vaseline in my hair! I just wanted to be like my girlfriends who put butter in their hair to keep their braids nice. It took my mother a few weeks to wash it out.

Christmas in Konso (pic above and below)

Family picture taken the night my baby brother was born (above). Below is a picture of Gísli, my brother, and Alle one of our neighbour's daughter.

Just taking a bubble bath (above). A picture of us siblings when we were about 8, 6 and 1 years old.

Well, that's it! Hope everyone is enjoying themselves! I am, cause I have time off from school and stressfulness :) Later! God bless!

Enjoying time off :)

Ahhh! It feel so great to finally get some time off without any school work at all! I've baked some Christmas cookies, decorated the house, made some Christmas presents and relaxed... Love it!

Today I decided to go through piles and piles of paper... school notes and all kinds of other paper stuff that tends to pile up cause I just can't be bothered to put it in it's right place the moment I get it... Not so fun to have to go through, but I have myself to blame for that, haha. I'll be done soon enough.

Once my room is tidy and out of paper piles I'm going to post some fun photos my sis and I were looking at a couple of days ago, so stay tuned!. It brought back such great memories from our childhood and reminded us of how blessed we are to have had the experiences we had in Ethiopia. Man, I want to go back there!

About time I blogged!

Wow, I don't think I've ever gone without blogging for this long... Thought it was about time I gave a sign of life.

This semester has been pretty good and not nearly as stressful as last school year. To tell you the truth I think it's hard to beat last years stressfulness and busyness, I'm SO glad that year is over :) The 5th year is more fun and I've been able to enjoy being a med student. I just finished my exams last Tuesday and Thursday (neurology and psychiatry). Now I have about 10 days off before I the next course starts. I was supposed to be in the US right now, but had to cancel my trip because of the echonomical situation :( Such a huge bummer! I'll just have to go some other time!

So these days I'm just relaxing and preparing Christmas, which is nice. Today I spent the morning with my mother and her sisters making "laufabrauð". My sister and I are going to bake some Christmas cookies and make a ginger bread house one of the coming days :) It's been quite a few years since we did that! Brings back great memories! I remember one Christmas in Ethiopia when we made a gingerbread house it had completely collapsed one morning and noone understood why. We had "glued" it together with melted shugar so it shouldn't be able to collapse like that. We took a closer look... You know what? The sugar was GONE! How? Well... let's just say the ants had had quite the party! Haha! They had eaten all the sugar and left the gingerbread alone... so in the end it collapsed. Oh, well... we just melted some more sugar and "glued" it back together ;)

Anyways, I hope everyone is having a great time preparing for Christmas in spite of the crappy echonomical situation! ;)