California, Christmas cookies and Connecticut

First I want you to meet Pancho. A connection from our organization, who I believe God brought to us in order to help us develop a new partnership to get some creative access to short term mission opportunities for teenagers. Ron, (my boss) and I met with Pancho last Monday. He loves teens and he is passionate about construction projects for missionaries! Be prepared to hear more about Pancho in the future! I believe he is an answer to our prayers for what God wants to do with our ministry to teens!
Now here you can also finally meet the famous Rio, my first friend from California! She's the little one in the middle! I held a Christmas party (my first in CA) in honor of Rio, who will be traveling to Asia for 6 mths. She is such an inspiration to me. If anyone is inspired to pray for a young 22 yr old who responds to God's call and goes anywhere, even to war-torn countries, let me know and I'll get you in contact with her! She will need serious prayer partners!!
I flew to CT on Tuesday and am now beginning to celebrate the Christmas season with family and friends. I was so honored to be invited to a friends home and learn to complete their Italian cookies, of which the name escapes me! It is this cool, tiny anise cookie smothered in honey! The Corica family makes this a holiday tradition and I was allowed to be a part of the party! We hung around rolling, cutting and baking for a few hours and I totally enjoyed myself. It was fun to be back in a home that I have great memories at from High school and with people who are special to me.
I've spent a day baking cookies with Mom and we've got all kinds of holiday plans including skiing in Vermont with a friend from Virginia! I've joined the choir for the Christmas season too. What a privilege to sing under our great choir director Marjie Brake! :-)
I met with some members of the San Diego Mission Project on Monday as we planned ways to better pray for the youth ministries of San Diego and from now until January I'll be working from Connecticut. Already I've got a list of practices to learn our organizations database and I'm helping to plan the retreat in January. I've got another training meeting in Orlando in January too! Seems like I'll be continuing the travel schedule on into the new year!
I wish you a very Merry Christmas and thank you again for your interest in my ministry and life. Your friendship and interest make my life much fuller! Thank you!