Christmas Lights and the Hat
Fun, fellowship, and food plus lights
After our Friday night Bible Study, where as a fellowship we learned how to tell our story of how we experienced God concretely to our friends and family, we went to celebrate the holidays and the end of finals by going to see Christmas lights! Since Irvine did not have large neighborhoods filled with Christmas lights, we had to go out of the city to Lake Forest to see more holiday spirit. But the drive there took some time and by the time we got there a lot of the houses had turned off their lights :(
Thankfully, there were still a number of houses that were lit up, so we got to walk around the neighborhoods and admire the beautifully decorated homes. As we walked around on a (relatively) chilly California winter night, we had a chance to talk with others in the fellowship and tell stories about the Christmas lights and other holiday traditions of our hometowns and families. One freshman student from Canada explained how seeing Christmas lights with white snow is an entirely different experience and looks the best. My hometown in particular has a neighborhood nicknamed, Christmas Card Lane where the tradition of putting up lights for the holidays has been going on since the 1960s. As we were leisurely enjoying the lights, conversing with one another and looking at all the giant pop up decorations, I even learned the (admittedly distressing) news that Olaf, the snowman from Frozen, might be taller than me.
After finishing a loop around the neighborhoods, we loaded up in our cars to end the night at a nearby restaurant, The Hat, that’s famous in SoCal for its delicious pastrami dip sandwiches and fries. And typical of our Christian fellowship, we filled the restaurant with loud laughter as we squeezed into crowded tables and booths – where someone even decided to sit in a high chair to join a full table – as we fellowshipped over all the food people generously bought for one another to share. Looking forward to the day that we can do this again!
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