Winter Has Arrived!

Winter has hit Lynchburg! 

This morning, it was 10 degrees when I left for work, and I was extra bundled-up, with my scarf, gloves and winter coat. The wind was blowing and it was COLD. Very cold. Dallas heated up my car before I left for work, but there were still ice crystals on my windshield when I arrived. Brrr! 

 I love winter. But, mostly for two reasons- Christmas, a celebration of my Savior's birth, and SNOW! 

 Lynchburg had it's first snow of the season last weekend, on December 4th. That's the earliest I've ever experienced snow, and it definitely caught me by surprise. Snow is like a birthday and Christmas present tied up in a beautiful bow delivered especially for me. I.LOVE.SNOW. Like an it-brings-tears-to-my-eyes kind of love. So when I saw the first flake fall on Saturday while Dallas and I were eating lunch, I could only muster a "SNOW!" before I jumped out of my chair and glued my face to the window. 

Only about an inch of snow actually stuck on the ground, but it was beautiful to watch the snow fall and exciting to see where it stuck. 

 

Unfortunately, it wasn't enough snow to shut things down, and most of the snow had melted away by Sunday morning. So, Dallas and I headed off to church, where we were surprised with a going-away luncheon in our honor! Our Lynchburg church family has been so sweet to us during our time here and have blessed us with so much, but especially parties, parties, parties. 

They made a cake for us, and had us pose for wedding-style "cutting the cake" pictures.

 I wish I had a picture of our paparazzi. Hilarious. 

On Monday night, I had free tickets to the last Liberty Hockey game of the year. Dallas LOVES hockey, so he was super excited about our last Liberty sporting event. Liberty was playing Virginia Tech, so our office gave out tons of free tickets. I invited 29 people to the game! We even invited our English classes, and 3 of our students joined us. It was really fun to watch the game through their eyes and to answer their funny questions about the game of hockey. They could not understand why the guys were allowed to knock each other over and why everyone was cheering for the White team. 

We are getting really excited about our big move to Georgia, but we will definitely be sad to leave our Lynchburg friends behind. I will always look back on our time here with fond memories and remember all of the people who crossed our paths. 

Thank you to all of you who have made Lynchburg feel like home!