Mietzke's Holden Adventure

Today was another good day. The snow stopped and the wind blew clouds of snow in blasts across the hillsides and through the village. The sun peered through the clouds in between the mountain peeks and it shown white in the sky. A woman named Ani and I went snowshoeing into the forest to cut branches to decorate the hall. We waded waist deep in places even with snow shoes. Once the branches were cut we brought them back to the dining hall and people gathered and made swags and wreaths to finish the decorating. When we were through the dining hall looked beautiful and smelled even better.
Jordyn started working on weaving a rag rug and she was having so much fun working on the loom! I was so inspired by seeing her work that I began a weaving project of my own. I think that Jordyn learned the technique much faster than I.
The library is coming together I have been sorting through paper work that has been here for a long time. Today we got rid of thirty boxes of old books and the library is starting to look open and inviting. I am feeling more and more at home in the library now. Yesterday Matt, the previous librarian dubbed me the new queen librarian. I am really starting to have a vision for the space and I think I have most of my tasks down.
Nyrie and Jordyn had their class play today and they were wonderful. In only a week and a half they memorized their parts and made them their own. They even helped make the programs. It was fun to see them participating with the class and making it their own. The story was about Saint Nicholas helping a poor family with three girls in it and the blessing of kindness that he brought with no need for recognition for himself. It was sweet and funny and they ended the performance with a recitation of Twas a Night Before Christmas. The whole village participated, but the children remembered way more than most of the grown ups.
The moon is out and beautiful casting its blue light on the snow. If you look closely the snow it sparkles almost like water. The glimmer on the mountaintops is spectacular and takes my breath away as I look out on the village. I think that we might have a full moon on Christmas which would add to the magic of this place.
It is supposed to be a cold night and the village is low on power so we have brought up a lot of wood for the fire. I love how accepting everyone is in the village. If we are low on power everyone makes sacrifices to help things go smoothly. This week the village will go from 50 people to a little over a hundred and fifty for Christmas. It is fun to see new faces and hear new stories. There is a lot of preparation that is being done to welcome the guests for the holiday season.
Dave has been making a stable for the outside nativity. Each chalet is creating a nativity figure that they will leave on the pathways in the village. Anyone who finds one of the nativity figures will move them forward ten paces until hopefully they all make it to the safety of the stable escaping the deadly roof-a-lanches. Nyrie is making baby Jesus and Jordyn is making a cow. One of the village carpenters made a cartoon cut out of Elvis for his “King” bringing murr to baby Jesus as an offering, I have no idea what others will come up with… It should be a fun activity and I am interested to see the creative things the villagers come up with to express their own picture of their character.
I love the worship assistant job the pastor I am working with is kind and talented and full of great ideas. He is really gifted at bringing people together.
Something that I have loved about being up here is that I am free from the bombardment of Christmas commercialism. We are experiencing Christmas in the every day activities and peoples attitudes towards each other. It is nice to see people banding together to make the season special without all of the commercial nonsense and stress. Blessings to all, we will update you again soon. How are all of you? We miss you and hope to see some of you up here soon. My folks and Karma are coming up on the 28th and I can’t wait to see familiar and much loved faces. I am looking forward to sharing this experience with them.