snowed out

there is this much snow in belge. roughly two centimeters worth. it was negative five celcius today. brrrr.

on our drive to the meetinghouse this evening, we got word that the meeting where i was to teach salsa to the combined youth was cancelled because of the snow. i don't speak french and i don't really salsa, so i was pretty much okay with the cancellation. were it not for the joy that comes from being with the saints i'd be thrilled:)

since we were already out, we drove around to see the way europeans do christmas lights.

i can't believe it's december first. 

"Love is what inspired our Heavenly Father to create our spirits; it is what led our Savior to the Garden of Gethsemane to make Himself a ransom for our sins. Love is the grand motive of the plan of salvation; it is the source of happiness, the ever-renewing spring of healing, the precious fountain of hope. As we extend our hands and hearts toward others in Christlike love, something wonderful happens to us. Our own spirits become healed, more refined, and stronger. We become happier, more peaceful, and more receptive to the Holy Spirit."

Dieter F. Uchtdorf

too true not to share

Noël in Paris

i am so unstudied. i have never been to another country for Christmas. sadly, i don't know much about all of these sights, except that they are lovely and so was Christmas in Paris.

tree lit Champs Elysees with Arc de Triomphe in the distance 

the ever-calling crepe

Christmas market with gorgeous music playing

biking on Champs Elysees, just like Lance Armstrong, no?

Avenue Montaigne, the nicest shopping street in all of paris. my new favorite street in france.

Arc de Triomphe and the most mesmerizing round-about. we watched cars for 20 minutes.

belgium dressed in snow

it started last night. i woke up this morning singing "over the ground lies a mantle of white..." the white stuff from heaven has made it's graceful arrival. i think white is my favorite color. i love seeing it blanketed over the everything. my favorite attribute of snow is the tranquilizing affect it has on the whole earth. with snow things feel little more still, more peaceful, more calm (once the blizzard is over and if you don't have to drive in or walk through it, right?) those are the exact feelings this holiday season needs. no wonder Heavenly Father put angelic snow and the Christmas season timed them together so perfectly.

Pair-ee

the weather has been our excuse for not going out the past few weekends. plus after 15 straight weekend "day-trips," we were easily tiring of the tourism thing. 

despite that, we trekked down to la ville lumière (the city of light) this weekend. as we crossed the border we noticed snow on the ground(it doesn't really stick in belgique). paris was full of dashing women braving the cold dressed up to the hilt and smothered in furs. we thrived on a whole day of bikes via velib for only 1 euro each and whizzing around crowds in breath-showing temperatures. i guess we are bigger fans of bone-splitting cold than rain.

after a full day in the city we found our car, parked on a big street, and noticed the back window of the car in front of us has been shattered. freshly broken glass. we felt watched over, and that hasn't been the first time we've felt that.

chills

i have chills today.

not only because this very moment is the first time my little eyes have seen snow fall this season. what a magician our Father in Heaven is-he creates the most magical things.

but i have chills today because my spirit feels like it is going to burst out of my body, it is that full, and my tummy is too. though i'm thousands of miles away from the nation and people which honor the holiday we celebrated, today i am grateful. grateful that i have arms that can whip cream by hand, and a voice that can invite missionaries over for an american mock thanksgiving, fingers that can open the sweetest messages from people i love, and ears that can listen to handel's messiah.

this has been a thanksgiving we are sure to never forget. we've never done it by ourselves before, and it was surprisingly fulfilling, and a tad bit lonely without the clan. BUT absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Two thoughts that are foremost in my heart:

“I find that when I get casual in my relationships with divinity and when it seems that no divine ear is listening and no divine voice is speaking, that I am far, far away. If I immerse myself in the scriptures the distance narrows and the spirituality returns” quote

We should not underestimate or overlook the power of the Lord’s tender mercies. The simpleness, the sweetness, and the constancy of the tender mercies of the Lord will do much to fortify and protect us in the troubled times in which we do now and will yet live. When words cannot provide the solace we need or express the joy we feel, when it is simply futile to attempt to explain that which is unexplainable, when logic and reason cannot yield adequate understanding about the injustices and inequities of life, when mortal experience and evaluation are insufficient to produce a desired outcome, and when it seems that perhaps we are so totally alone, truly we are blessed by the tender mercies of the Lord and made mighty even unto the power of deliverance quote

hope you are hitting up the black friday sales for me! 

now on to Christmas.

life altering europe

oh europe, you bring the crossroads to us.

of course devin's path is completely different because of the two years he spent living in sweden. nothing altered his course so drastically up to that point of his life.

 in germany, a few days before my nineteen birthday, i got my first european battlewound: a softened heart and a broken eye socket. i stood at the fork then, and tried to make the best decision i could.

then together we came back last summer. a particularly poignant decision occured in paris when our credit cards were frozen for renting bikes, we lost forty dollars, and we had booked our hotel for the month previous and had no where to stay- all in about five hours, and we were unclear about our future job. i think it was one of our lower notes in life. we plowed forward.

then of course came the miracle, on a flight home from europe in 2009 we met the owner of the company we now work for. hard to believe that was merely fate.

now, here again in twenty ten, revisitng the same tutelage, the same proving grounds. like how to have a soft heart, how to get by on less, and how to be away from family when the road gets tough.  

europe is no different than anywhere else. it's just a place to learn

our heaven on earth. 2009 interlocken, switzerland.

dinner wtihout the flash

we ate out. took pictures without a flash. saw the madrid basket ball team-long lurpy giants i tell you. asked for lemonade, the waiter didn't know what that was and gave me fanta instead - .20 liters of fanta for 3 euros. asked for frites, duh, and our accent was so bad they only understood when we asked in english. a new waiter came who could understand us. paid no tips or gratuity-it's worked in the price. learned a new lesson.

we learned, probably not the first time, that we could use more dates full of distraction-free time for nothing else but each other in a great atmosphere and enjoying good food. it is no wonder they tell us to continue to court(an underused term) in marriage. nothing beats it.

take home chronicles: dormers, skylights, and small attics

skylight, sky bright... i'm in love with skylights.

 we have a few of our own, and there is something really magical about seeing a pillar of light (when there is sun) streaming in overhead. it instinctively elevates thoughts, to say the least, not to mention all the cheery light washing over you. my grandma just installed two in her home, maybe when i'm a grandma i'll be able to afford such treasures.

because of space cramming, any and all rooms that fit in the small part of pitched roofs with windows that pok out are extremely common here. dormers as they call em, seem just my size and i'm considering converting my attic the minute i get home. love.

these are just a few of my favorte skylights, dormers, and attics from our stomping grounds here.

amazing.

meet my namesake

this is aunt marilee, my mothers sister. she is serving a full-time mission in mexico currently. her defining characteristic lies in her name, she is merry. her name is her guide. i love having someone to live up to, a namesake. i love being called aunt marilee, just like i so lovingly called her.

I think this is why i've always loved Helaman 5:6, because I can relate to Nephi and Lehi.  

"Helaman, Their father, named them Nephi and Lehi to remind them of the faith of their fathers. Likewise, many of us have embedded in our names a legacy of faith from ancestors who had soft hearts and found it easy to believe the word of God."

Michael T. Ringwood, “An Easiness and Willingness to Believe,” Ensign, Nov 2009, 100–102

are you named after anyone?

petite français

when my dad observed his first full ballet class last year he said to me afterward, "that was three hours of another language." it's true for any field of work-computer terms, anatomy names, fabric types, etc-we just have to learn the language. i should thank my heavenly stars that i took a few ballet classes in my day because if you know ballet, you can practically speak the language of love.

croix-cross
pas de chat-cat
glisse-glide
corps-body
en haut-top
tombé-fall
passé-past
coupé-cut
frappé-hit

sad that it took me coming across the puddle to realize that people actually use these words. whether at church, in the store, while reading the book of momon, or listening to a colleague, i usually flinch everytime i come across them, and proceed to rush to devin telling him that one of those words someone said was from ballet. my french is pathetic, almost as pathetic as the picture below. laughs on me. happy monday world.