Christmas Break

Kristy, Melissa and I at Kristy's New Year's Bash:)


Brian and I snowboarding (more aptly 'snow-falling' for me:)

Sad to think that Christmas break is finally over. I am sure I will get a lot of sympathy considering the six weeks of vacation I had. I did, however, get some work done on my thesis...really:) Truth be told, it was a wonderful holiday time with a lot of great moments with family. Both the Aune and Lorang families chose to unite in the Great Falls Inn for the Christmas celebrations (I suppose it is about time we give those grandparents their much deserved break from hosting the masses:) Food, presents, and lots of pinochle were the ever continuing themes. It was particularly fun having so many of the great-grandkids around to bring a youthful cheer. I still don't think Grandma Dort ever picked her favorite "great".:) Impossible decision, I think... Thanks to my dad's exceptional event planning, my immediate family went to Anaconda a few days later to go skiing, snowboarding, and hang out with Dirk (who is working up at Discovery and couldn't get Christmas off). Again, food, presents, and pinochle (with The Farming Game thrown in there :). I also learned that the older you get, the harder you fall...don't try and take up snowboarding if you are over twenty and have a propensity for hitting your head! Ouch! Yet, good times were still had...Fairmont Hot Springs cures all:)
On a more serious note, now that the craziness of the holiday season is over, and before the busyness of the semester begins again, I have a moment to stop and reflect on all the ways the Lord has blessed me this last year. This is my second year living here in Missoula, and I have to say that, in spite of the Cat/Griz rivalry, I have really enjoyed the garden city. It must also be noted that at this very moment the temperatures are a balmy:) eleven below zero and everything around me is covered with a fresh coat of snow-so I am not exactly feeling this 'garden city' thing:) As I have mentioned before, one of the best parts about living here is how close I am to friends and family. Most of my family are still in Bozeman, Missoula, and the Great Falls area, and I love being able to go see them for the holidays or random weekends. As for my friends...I have been so blessed. I get to have an amazing friend as my roomate and I have met so many zany fun people here in Missoula that there is never a dull moment. It reminds me of a quote by C.S. Lewis in his book The Four Loves:

By having a great many friends I do not prove what I have wide appreciation of human excellence. You might as well say I prove the width of my literary taste by being able to enjoy all the books in my own study. The answer is the same in both cases -- "You chose those books. You chose those friends. Of course they suit you." The truly wide taste in reading is that which enables a man to find something for his needs on the sixpenny tray outside any secondhand bookshop. The truly wide taste in humanity will similarly find something to appreciate in the cross-section of humanity whom one has to meet every day. In my experience it is Affection that creates this taste, teaching us first to notice, then to endure, then to smile at, then to enjoy, and finally to appreciate, the people who "happen to be there." Made for us? Thank God, no. They are themselves, odder than you could have believed and worth far more than we guessed.

I have been equally blessed by a God-fearing exceptionally wonderful man for a boyfriend. I enjoy every moment I get to spend with him.

The opportunity to be in school here in Missoula is also a gift from the Lord. My thirst for knowledge is continually being satiated and I dream of how sweet it would be to continue as a professional student:) Truth be told, I might get tired of writing papers after a while, so, I suppose a teacher will have to do...

This brings me to the most often asked question in my life right now: "What are you doing next year?" The answer to that is unequivocally: I don't know!:) I have a few ideas, and I will keep you posted on my decisions. Right now I am just trying to focus on writing my Thesis so that I can defend it by the end of May. I do hope to get back overseas as soon as possible... God willing:)

My nephew Eli after I buried him in the snow (What a wonderful aunt I am:)