The End of The.... Year (and beginning of 2013!)

So, I see you've survived the end of the world! (A funny way to look at the end of the Mayan calendar: Yeah, my calendar ended, too! On December 31st!)

Anyway, I've had a fantastic break so far, aside from the three extra days of break I received due to my stupid tonsils that appear to be strep magnets or something ridiculous. So that was disappointing because I didn't get to take my teachers their goodies and carefully baked gluten free cookies. 'Cause you know, I was sick and busy bein' miserable and puking 21 times in one day. I think that's the standing record for this family.

The Saturday before the actual Christmas was supposed to be Christmas with my mom's family but that got moved to the 27th due to my tonsils that suck. Nobody wanted to chance it because they get strep there all the time anyway.

Christmas Eve we were going to go to church but that got blown off due to the fact that my parents really wanted to go to Aunt Jenny's because my dad's sister and her husband and the twins from New York were there. And we have this tradition of having potato soup on Christmas Eve every year that we like so everything worked out.

I don't know if I've told you guys about the potato soup story, have I? Well, almost all my family is German, so that's where the story starts. They have lots of potatoes there and for the poor people, potato soup was what's for dinner. Potatoes, and cream, butter, cheese, plentiful staples. When my grandpa (I'm not sure how many "greats" he has by this point) came over on the ship to America, he got this stomach thing and had surgery to get part of it taken out (see how lucky? I hear the prospect of having surgery way back then wasn't very good.) and guess what he ate that was soothing and not painful to eat and reminded him of home. So the story goes and we like our tradition.

So after eating our potato soup we bundled up and drove to Jenny's to see everybody and my cousins who were home from college. Man, I love those people. It was good. Aunt Kim felt bad about not going to Christmas Eve church so she wanted my dad to read the Christmas story from the bible, which he did, and we sang Silent Night, and then Uncle Mike sang part of it in German which was hilarious.

We drove back to our house and I slept upstairs so we could all go down together in the morning.

7:30 in the morning, Esther gets up and wakes everybody up. "Everybody, it's Christmas! I want everybody up in five minutes!" And she's three. How cute.

It was magical. Esther got a ginormous Barbie house. I got a Wii Fit and the John Green boxed set (of books; too bad it wasn't a John Green boxed set with containing John Green!), and Abigail got two Wii games. Just to name a few. We hung out in our pjamas all morning and went over to the neighbor's to exchange gifts. They really are lovely people and I'm so glad they're our neighbors. They just had a baby and boy, is he cute when he's not fussy! I just wanna eat him up, you know?

On the 27th or whatever day it was (I really don't remember; it's all sort of a blur now.) we drove through the snowy Illinois roads and played cows, but there really weren't that many cows. You know, cows is a game that is really great when everyone in the country has cows (like in Wisconsin, not so much Illinois). We stopped at Wendy's for lunch and continued on to Uncle Joe's for Christmas with my mom's family. Grandma Judy ate her legendary Jell-O salad. It has watermelon Jell-O, green olives, and celery, all mixed together with like the olives suspended in the Jell-O and stuff. Yeah, I'll let you decide if you want to try it, but she loves it.

We stayed the night at Uncle Joe's and hung out there and the next day had the Hooperdoodle (I have decided that I'm using Hooperdoodle as my last name on the Internet instead of my actual last name) Christmas at grandma Linny's house with my dad's family and such. It was very fun. I was appointed the new Santa's Helper by Aunt Kim, who has been the Santa's Helper forever and so now I'm the new Santa's Helper. All the little kids helped me. Jake told me I run a tight shop. (I'm sure he and all my older cousins were jealous that they weren't appointed new Santa's Helper.)

The Christmas Eve snow was a couple of days late. It snowed in St. Louis the night we drove home from Illinois. It had a sort of, um, magical effect as we drove through our adorable neighborhood and watched the (still up) Christmas lights reflected on white though the windows.

It was a good break.

I can't decide if I'm excited to go back to school tomorrow or not. I really have enjoyed sleeping so much but I think it will be nice to get back to structured routines and seeing my friends and teachers at school. Alas, it's no Hogwarts.

Now I Do the Catching Up

Christmas was two days ago.

We opened our Christmas dresses on Christmas Eve, only didn't wear them because we didn't go to Church.  We didn't go because the weather was nasty and Esther was whiny. 

Me and Abigail went to bed at 8:00 and I woke up at 11 because I really had to pee.  I also woke up at 4 because I had to pee and didn't fall back asleep because I was so excited.  I dozed until about 6 and everybody went downstairs around 6:45.  I wish I hadn't woken up so early!

I always look for my big, unwrapped present(s) from Santa first.  Well, I see if he ate the cookies, and then I do that.  This year he brought me a typewriter and Guitar Hero for our Wii that he brought last year.  After I checked that out, I opened my stocking.  That's my favorite part.  I got two awesome keychains, TONS of candy, a gyroscope, an American Girl Doll hairbrush, and a popcorn holder thing (it's awesome!).  From my parents I got a Monchhichi,  and iPod case, headphones, and fuzzy socks.
This is a picture of a Monchhichi.
  \
(in case you didn't know.)
Innit so cute?!? Mine looks a little different (this is an older version) but it is still equally as cute!

On Christmas day we went to my aunt's for brunch and I had a homemade sesame bagel, egg quiche, and a muffin.  It was so good!  My aunt got me a Rubik's Slide and this awesome hair towel.  I used it today and it dries your hair really fast!

Yesterday we went to one of my other aunt's house for Christmas with my dad's dad.  My "Santa Bag" contained candy, a pencil, some erasers, Bloonies, and more fuzzy socks (you can never have enough!). 

Today I practiced my typing a lot and the noise drove Abigail crazy.  Today we also played "Guess Who?" a bunch and Abigail won most of the time.  It was still fun.

Well, that about wraps it up! 

Silent Night

Well, it's Christmas Eve, the Eve of Christ's birth.

I wonder sometimes about everything that happened when He was born.  I think maybe that all the animals wanted to be around Him and there were Angels singing and Mary was crying and Joseph was astonished and everything was so wonderful. God's plan turned out perfect.  You know it always does.  I am so thankful that it did. 

                                                                              •••

Soon Santa will be here.  Our house smells like potato soup and cookies.  It is warm and cozy and smells like Christmas.

Right now there is snow silently falling outside and everything is white.  It is so pretty.  All the trees are bare and everything is quiet.  Oh, silent night.

Christmas Eve Eve

Well, today is Christmas Eve Eve, being the Eve before Christmas Eve.  Today my dad wasn't working and he took me to do some last-minute Christmas shopping and I must say, I think we did pretty well.  Man, I can't wait until it's Christmas Eve instead of Christmas Eve Eve and then after that it will be Christmas day and I can't wait!!!!  I'm so excited I could jump up and down. 

Today my mom baked cookies and our house smells really good.  After dinner I get to help make another batch!  Mmmmm, oatmeal chocolate chip.  My mother makes the best cookies.   I can't wait to eat them all (eccept the ones for Santa, of course!). 

Well, only 1 more day until Christmas!

A Day at the Mall

Today we went to the mall while my dad was at work.  We got him, well, I shouldn't say because he might read this.  I guess I can't really say anything we got.  Dangit!

On the way my littlest sister who is about two wouldn't stop saying, "Ho Ho?"  Every time we would have to answer, "Yes, Esther, we are going to see Santa."  So we finally get there, we're waiting in line to see the guy (who by the way actually had a beard!) and she totally freaks out!  Pretty ironic, huh.  No way was my mom going to buy a picture, and the "elf" sure was ticked off.  It was funny.

After that we went to do most of our shopping for our immediate family.  Me and Abigail made presents for mom this year and today we bought each other stuff.  Gee, I can't wait! 

Well, only two more days untill Christmas!

A picture without Santa and with Esther...

Esther had a cupcake from our favorite local bakery today...

We had some snow last week...

Sick Sucks

I couldn't get on the computer yesterday because it was Sunday, I was SICK, and we had family Christmas #2.  I got a Sing-A-Ma-Jig, a latch-hook project, new pajamas, a Spirograph and a scarf.

I think this is the sickest I've ever been.  It started out in the morning when I got up, I threw up a stomach-full of snot.  Then I had a bad fever and continued to throw up all day.  Now my throat really hurts but I think the throwing up was the worst part.

I can't think of anything else to write now.  Merry Sickmas!

It's the Most Wonderful Time.....

Today is day 1 of like 6 Christmases.  Oh my goodness, I love Christmas....

We always have Christmas with the M. (I'm not going to name names...) family the Saturday before Christmas.  It's always been like that for as long as I can remember and I hope it always will be.

My grandma Judy makes the best ham ever.  It's really amazing because she smothers the outside with mustard.   It's crazy good.  We also had Jell-O salad (yes, Jell-O, my family is crazy), mashed potatoes, and corn from our farm.  My grandma also makes the best rolls.  Mmmmm...

After we ate we had  rainbow sherbert punch.  It's sooooooooooooooooo good.

Present-wise, I got a sweater, a scarf, a book, i-Tunes giftcard, a flashlight, and a watch.  Ooooooh,  I can't wait untill Santa comes!  That's my favorite part.

Oh Indiana Jones is on, gotta go.

Family Christmas

We had an early dismissal for school today and we also had an assembly.  It was a concert and it was FUN!  It was kind of a rush at the end of the day, though, beacuse we didn't have as much time.

Right now I am at my uncle's house because tomorrow we have a family Christmas.  This year we are having it at my grandparent's house and Grandpa is super excited.  I can't wait!  I wonder what I will get.....