A Postcard From The Hansons: Christmas at LCC

Hi Everyone,
We are winding down the semester, and no surprise, life is busy! But going ok. We are looking forward to the break as much or more than the students, I think. But I guess it is not a competition (everyone wins when the competition involves looking forward to something). :)
This week is the last week of classes, both here at LCC, and for my online class. Sometime this week I need to find time to write my final project, and then I will be done with my class for this semester. It has certainly been very enjoyable.
Next week is finals week for the students, which means that toward the end of the week it will be getting busier as students are checking out of the dorm for winter break. We are excited though, because at the end of the week, on Sunday the 20th, we will also be leaving for a little break. For the first time ever as a married couple, we will be having a Christmas tradition (every other Christmas before this was celebrated in a different city/state/country/etc). Yay! I think we're raising the bar pretty high as far as Christmas traditions go, but if that means we have to find a way back to Tallinn, Estonia every year, so be it.
So, for the first part of break we will continue our annual tradition of going to Tallinn for a couple of days right before Christmas as our Christmas present to each other. Here is a picture from last year:

Tallinn Christmas market....lovely

I am very much looking forward to going back!

Then we will have to come back to LCC for a few days, so Steve can be on duty. We will be here for Christmas eve and Christmas day...so will probably hang out with the random students and faculty that will also need to be here for various reasons. Will be nice to spend it together.

Then we are hoping to go and visit various friends in Germany for the New Year and a few days after. Should be an adventure. Nothing set in stone there yet.

And THEN more good news (seriously, we will find things to blog about in the next few weeks, just introducing all of the ideas now). Even though no one was hired for the Leadership Coordinator position, someone here at LCC has offered to take over the leadership development program for next semester. A HUGE relief and blessing for me. And definitely an answer to prayer. Next semester, then, my main responsibilities will lie in coordinating student leadership hiring (for all student leadership positions), hiring student orientation staff for next fall, and all things housing (guest housing, student housing, summer and fall housing, etc). Should still be busy....but since I won't have to run the leadership development program, there will be more time to do things I want to do, like help lead a Bible study, and take more classes at North Park via the internet. Woohoo!

So that is life in a nutshell right now. We are busy and looking forward to break and next semester.

Hope all is going well wherever you are.

Laura

Oh! PS: I just looked at the title of this post and remembered what I originally intended to sit down and blog about (I live in the future, apparently!). Here are some pictures from the Christmas program, where I sang in the choir, and Steve was Santa again. Also, we've decorated our little apartment :)

Hallelujah Chorus