Last weekend an incredibly generous family, whose child Matthew is in my class, hosted the whole Highlands staff for a traditional Thanksgiving feast in their home a few days early. (Just a reminder: They don't celebrate Thanksgiving in Bolivia.) It was such a blessing to have good food and wonderful quality time with my family here, especially since I miss my family in the States so much. A really touching moment was when we were all sharing things we were thankful for and the mom who hosted broke down in tears when telling us what a blessing the school was to her. It's really amazing to see how we can bless each other and build each other up...I don't think she'll ever really know what a joy it is to all of us to have Thanksgiving at their home each year. After a delicious dinner, we watched "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" and played games around the fireplace. I'm thankful for such a sweet time. It made missing Thanksgiving with my family back home a little bit easier. 
On another note, this past week at school we celebrated Spirit Week with Crazy Hat Day (her hat says "I love first grade"),
Tacky Day,
Favorite Book Character Day (I was Olivia the Pig. If you haven't read any of her books, I highly recommend them),
Pajama Day (this kid didn't soil his pants, he just sat in the dirt...too funny, especially in his onesie!)
and Team Day, which was like a big field day for the whole school. It was really incredible to watch the high school kids lead the little ones and encourage them in the events (and also a nice break for the teachers!). I was able to observe the students from my station, and it just became so evident to me how much God's hand is over the school.
This was refreshing, especially since that evening my roommates and I were invited to a student's house for dinner and, heartbroken, I observed the parenting skills, or lack thereof, of a single father. It seems many parents at our school try to buy their way to kids' hearts, don't know Jesus and try to depend on their own strength day in and day out to guide their children, and put the responsibility of raising their kids onto their hired help. It can be overwhelming, but by the grace of God, I'm thankful to be at Highlands to try to point my little ones to their Heavenly Daddy that won't ever fail them.
Thank you, God, for the beautiful people in my life, who all teach me so much every day.
In other dress-up news, it didn't work out for my roommates and I to have our costume/masquerade party Halloween weekend, so we scheduled it for the following. We were not characters, but rather an era--an incredible decade in which fashionable clothing was at its peak of classiness and hairstyles were big and beautiful. We were the '80s. Here's the female crew in attendance. L to R: Sarah Palin, 80s chicks, pregnant hick lady, Tim the biker, butterfly, and ant
Since my roomies and I can be overachievers, we didn't settle for just dressing up in 80s attire--oh no. We learned the dance to "Thriller" and performed it for everyone, leggings, hot pink lipstick and all. Who says missionaries can't throw fun parties?