Happy New Year!

2011 is officially over and a new year has begun!  It's been a pretty good year - several times of stress, but changes for the better and many joys that were made sweeter coming after difficult times.

This year I...

Joined The Lakehouse forum - Definitely a highlight of this year.  It's been wonderful to meet so many awesome girls and talk, get support, and have fun with them.

Got into Professor Layton and Phoenix Wright - I've enjoyed these so much.  My brother likes them as well and we've had a lot of fun with them together, including dressing up as Professor Layton characters for Halloween and listening to the Phoenix Wright musical songs together.  PL also got me into fanfiction.

Confirmation - I was confirmed in the Catholic Church this year!  When we're confirmed we take a saint's name (they would be like a guide or role model); mine is Therese, after St. Thérèse of Lisieux.  She has always been an inspiration to me.

Script Frenzy - I wrote a 100 page script in April!

Musical - This spring I was in a musical.  It was a really good experience; I learned a lot, improved myself, and made some new friends.  And it was a ton of fun!

Starting this blog - It's been a lot of fun to write, and it's been great to get to know friends better and meet some awesome people!

Spanish - This fall I took an online course through a community college, and got credit for high school and college.  This was really hard but a great accomplishment.

Christmas Concert - I was in a big Christmas Concert this fall!  It was very cool.

And all the times I spent with family and friends, whether in person or over email, chats, etc.  Those were the best times.


This year, 2012, I plan on...

Seeing The Phantom Menace in 3D - This will be the first Star Wars movie (besides The Clone Wars) that I've seen in a theater!  Should be fun.

Getting a drivers license.

Participating in another musical.

Graduating from high school.

Attending Celebration VI and meeting a bunch of Lakehouse girls!

Starting college - gulp.

Seeing The Hobbit! (it's actually coming out!).


Some other things I hope to do are...

Make a fanfiction.net account and write more.

Do Script Frenzy in April.

Get better at music, writing, and my recent interest of drawing.

Make a Jedi costume for Celebration VI.

Read more...and not just fanfiction.


It seems like this is going to be a big, life-changing year.  Learning to drive may be boring and difficult, starting college will be scary, but I'm excited as well.  And there are a lot of good things to look forward to as well.  Thank you all for being a part of my life this year, and I wish you all the best for the next!  May the Lord be with you!

The Twelve Days of Christmas - Day 12

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Today, the last day of this challenge, is one favorite Christmas memory.

For me, it was a few years ago.  I think it was after dinner on Christmas day, we went to church just to pray for a bit (maybe we had gone to Mass the night before).  Instead of coming right home afterward, we drove around and looked at Christmas lights.  We played the CD "Christmas with Gisele" and all sang along - even trying the parts that are in French.  I think at one point we pulled off somewhere to watch some fireworks.  It was so beautiful, fun, magical, and I felt really connected with my family.

And that's it!  Thank you Sarah for coming up with this great challenge, and thank you to all who read and commented!

Hope you all had a wonderful day, and may the Lord be with you!

The Twelve Days of Christmas - Day 11

Two favorite Christmas recipes...

These are (imperfect) snowman top hats.  Mom and I saw them in a store once and thought they looked really cool, so we tried to make our own allergen-free version (three out of the four of us have food allergies).  They're kind of tricky to make, but so, so worth it.

They are made with chocolate, large marshmallows, and Oreos/sandwich cookies.  To make them, first melt chocolate chips (we used a make-shift double boiler).  The way I assembled them today was I dipped a marshmallow in chocolate, put it chocolate side down on the Oreo, spooned more chocolate on the top, and used a toothpick to spread the chocolate on the sides of the marshmallow and Oreo until getting something resembling a top hat!

I don't really have a second recipe, but I wanted to share a couple pictures of the cookies we decorated yesterday!  The recipe we use is a basic cutout cookie recipe from my aunt with powdered sugar frosting.

Here is a platter with cookies decorated by my mom, brother and myself...

And a few I did just for fun.  First is Piglet, then a japor snippet from Star Wars, Bilbo Baggins (as best as I could do by memory), Phoenix Wright, and Professor Layton (a snowman version, at least).  Piglet has frosting and the others were drawn with food coloring markers

Definitely had a lot of fun creating these Christmas treats and doing it with my mom and brother.  It has also been fun to eat a couple!

'Tis the night before Christmas, our goodnights have been said.  We're going to Mass in the morning, so I better go to bed!  May the Lord be with you this Christmas night!

The Twelve Days of Christmas - Day 10

Three favorite Christmas outfits...

I did mention I liked A Charlie Brown Christmas, right?

I'll be wearing this on Christmas with black pants or a skirt and a bracelet a friend made me a few years ago.

That's all that I have, so I'm making the third my dad's Christmas tie.  It plays music when you press it, which was the coolest thing when I was little, and it's still special now.

It's Christmas eve eve!  I really cannot believe it's so close.  We decorated the cookies today which was a lot of fun.  Tomorrow we'll be making a couple other treats and then it's time to enjoy the holiday!  May the Lord be with you!

The Twelve Days of Christmas - Day 9

Four favorite Christmas traditions...

Did you say...tradition?

Traditiooooooon!  Tradition!  Tradition!
Traditiooooooon!  Tradition!  Tradition!

When it is light on day after Thanksgiving,
Since us kids were children, we'd hear music blare,
For I Yust Go Nuts on Christmas, and Giselle,
Are always played throughout our home.

By Papa!  By Papa!  Tradition!
By Papa!  By Papa!  Tradition!

Then at night on Christmas eve we're all at home,
Our quiet home, our darkened home,
Singing Silent Night, the music filled our home,
And then we went to bed and sleep we took.

In pajamas!  Pajamas!  Tradition!
Pajamas!  Pajamas!  Tradition!

Our family, we will go to Mass,
That morning, Christmas day.
At home we eat and open gifts,
With bows so pretty.

And this year we may each,
A brand new custom fix.
Before our glass nativity,
We'll say a prayer Mom picked.

To the Father!  The Father!  Tradition!
The Father!  The Father!  Tradition!

Because of our traditions, we've enjoyed Christmas for many, many years.  You may ask, how did these traditions get started?  I'll tell you:

I don't know.

But they're our traditions.  And without our traditions, our Christmases would be as shaky as...as a reindeer on the roof!

---

Sorry, I couldn't help myself.  So those are our four traditions:

1. We play two special CDs, I Yust Go Nuts at Christmas (one of my dad's favorites) and Christmas with Gisele (not sure if we did this one this year) on the day after Thanksgiving.
2. On Christmas eve night we sing Silent Night together before bed.
3. We go to Mass on Christmas morning and return to breakfast or lunch and presents.
4. This year Mom found a prayer to say in front of a nativity set that she suggested we do.

That's all for now!  We baked cookies today and will decorate them tomorrow - should be fun!  Have a great day everyone, and may the Lord be with you!

*in case you are not familiar with it, the above song is based on "Tradition" from Fiddler on the Roof.

The Twelve Days of Christmas - Day 8

Five favorite Christmas crafts...

I love Christmas crafts!  I usually do something each year, though this year only cookie decorating.

This is a wreath ornament made with pipe cleaners.  I made this a several years ago (when I was seven, I think) with a good friend that lived across the street at the time.  She has since moved away and I've only seen her a couple times, though we have emailed and written a bit.  It's not the craft that I love, but the memories.

We made a bunch of these at a homeschool field trip once.  The theme was recycled holidays, or something like that.  We had circles cut out of greeting cards which we folded and glued together into ornaments.  Of the ones we made, this is one of my favorites because it has Tigger on it (does anyone else go "T, I, double guh, er," when spelling Tigger?).

These my mom and I made a year or two ago.  It's a cookie cutter with Christmas fabric glued to the back.  I have to say, these were a lot more difficult to make than we anticipated, but most of them came out looking really cool.

Our traditional Christmas cutout cookies made by me, my mom, and my brother.

Some other cookies I made last year.  Piglet was made with a cookie cutter, and the others were shaped with cookie cutters, a spatula, and a toothpick.


And there we have it!  See you tomorrow for day 9!  May the Lord be with you!

The Twelve Days of Christmas - Day 7

Six favorite Christmas stories...

Hmm...not sure if I can come up with six.

1. THE Christmas story
2. The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry.
3. The Twelve Bugs of Christmas (it's a pop-up book)
4. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
5. Does it count that one of the cases in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney takes place on Christmas?
6. The Star Wars Christmas story, one of the funniest Star Wars or Christmas videos:

Be sure to watch through the credits!  Have a great day and may the Lord be with you!