My day started early, since Libby and I were on breakfast this morning. We made pancakes, bacon, and fruit salad, which everyone quickly ate before getting ready for church!

Yesterday, we'd been asked to prepare 3 songs for worship and a skit, so that's how the Christmas sermon started. Ashlyn, Abby, and Aubrey led worship, and we all participated in the skit on the birth of Jesus.

After church, we took group pictures, and I started baking my dish for dinner! Each cooking pair (the way we'd decided to organize who cooked on which day for as long as we were here) contributed one dish, and I'd decided to bake Angel Biscuits!

Converting all measurements from metric to imperial made things a little complicated, but thanks to my trusty converter app, everything turned out delicious! It took a long time, because I made a big batch without a big pan to cook them on, but I used the time to hang out with Abby and plan the rest of my Christmas!

We'd been invited to a pool party during church, but since I was baking and it was brutally hot out (How many people can say that on Christmas?), I opted to stay behind. Abby also stayed back, and we watched The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe in the coolness of our room.

By the time we'd finished, everyone had come back and started making their Christmas dishes. We had salad, sausage, green bean casserole, Mac 'n cheese, mashed potatoes, and biscuits for dinner, along with cookies, Oreo balls, and cake for dessert.

We talked of family Christmas traditions as we ate, and when we'd finished, I called my family. It was so sweet to see them all together, and while I was a little sad not to be there, it didn't feel as heartbreaking as I'd expected it to. I couldn't stay on the phone for too long, because we had a gift exchange to participate in!

We'd decided to do a White Elephant exchange (except with good gifts, and not terrible ones), so we all drew numbers and let the gift giving begin! It was hilarious to watch people open good gifts, and immediately start begging people not to steal it!

When it was all over with, I ended up with a chocolate bar, a bag of M&Ms, and a small puzzle. After a little hanging out, I went to bed. It was after 10:00, and I was exhausted!

It was a sweet day, and while I definitely don't want to miss the next family Christmas, it was good to experience something different! After all, you can't really know what something means to you, until you have to take a break from it.