Holiday Post by Bode

Holiday post: What Does My Family Do For Christmas?

What my family has been doing since I was 7 years old is to go to my best friend’s house because he always has a Christmas Eve party. What we do there is celebrate Christmas, eat a lot of dinner and eat more dessert. Then my best friend’s uncle who is really good at playing the piano and my best friend plays the saxophone. So what they do? They perform a song together in front of everybody. My Aunt, Uncles, Cousin, and Grandma all come to our house before the party and they stay on Christmas Eve and celebrate Christmas with us.  After the party we go back to my house and go to bed. Whenever I go to bed on Christmas Eve I always stay up in my bed all night because I just want to get out of bed and open all the presents. Then finally when it’s the morning I’m always the first one out of bed and it’s so annoying because my grandma always sleeps in till like 9:30. Then we open all the presents and celebrate.    

 West Point Christmas Tree Stanley Zimny (Thank You for 16 Million views) via Compfight

The Holidays by Tess

I personally love the holidays! I love the food, the presents and all the different cultures that come with it. Every year I celebrate Christmas with my friends and family. We all come down and have a great dinner that includes ham and amazing sides. After the meal most of my family leaves, but my aunt and cousin stay for Christmas morning! Usually my cousin and I come out of our rooms first but sometimes it’s me and my brother. We come to the top of the stairs and look down at the present piled Christmas tree. There is a rule in the house that is no going downstairs on Christmas morning until everyone is ready. So we wait and wait until we try to wake up our parents.  And of course after all of the present ripping and unwrapping, it’s finally time for my aunt and cousin to go home. I think Christmas is my personal favorite holiday. Most people think it’s because of the presents (which it kind of is), but it’s also about the family and the fun you have!

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Photo taken by Tess Copyright_Sign2

 

HOLIDAY CELEBRATION – Eamonn

Over the holidays I usually just hang around my house until Christmas Day. On Christmas Eve my family and I decorate anything that can be and then watch Christmas movies. Then we go to bed and wait. I usually get up in the middle of the night because I get bored of waiting so I go and  see if anything is under the tree. If there isn’t I go back to bed, and if there is I go and sit in my bed and think of an excuse to get the rest of my family up without getting yelled at and delaying them even longer. Then I give up and just run into the room and do anything that I have to to get them up.

Then after an half an hour of persuading they get up and we go into the living room. Then we start to open up the presents. I open one and then wait for my sister to open all of hers before continuing. I do this so that my Christmas lasts longer than hers. Then when all of the presents are opened and I am checking them out my mom makes breakfast. Then we get in the car and start “THE JOURNEY”.

After one hour in the car we get out at my uncle’s house. To me it is like a mansion with a pool. The first thing that we do is go into the living room and open the presents that my dad’s family has for my sister and I. This lasts about 45 minutes before all the presents are open and looked at. Then we go into the dining room and have yet another breakfast. Then we get into the car again and start “THE JOURNEY PART TWO” .

We head to my grandparents’ house down in Pennsylvania. By the time we get there it is already dinner time. This is the final stop on “THE JOURNEY” so we get to relax when we get there. We do the same thing like at my uncle’s except this time we don’t eat breakfast………….. …………we eat dinner. Then after spending the night at my grandparents we start, yet again, “THE JOURNEY PART THREE” witch is back to my house. When we get home I enjoy the last part of my break and check out all of my new stuff.

The famous Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree in New York City

Picture from Wikipedia

Holiday Celebration – Anna

The Holidays are my favorite time of year. My family celebrates Christmas.  I just love the smell of cocoa and hearing the Christmas songs in the background as I do my holiday shopping. My dad is friends with a family, the Kanes. We always go to their house for a party on Christmas day. I get a little bored at the party because I am the only kid my age but I still enjoy seeing the people I have known for about seven years.

The food at that party is amazing. They always have salmon, steak and more. The desserts are my favorite. The guests can bring a dessert to the party. It’s so cool trying all of the ones that look good. I can’t wait to see all of the people, eat food and have fun with my friends and family.

I also celebrate Hanukkah. My Mom, Dad and I always light the menorah and give each other gifts. I like celebrating two different holidays because I get to spend more time with my close friends and family. I know the holidays are not about the presents but I really like getting gifts and I think everybody does. I also feel really good when I give gifts to my friends, family and sometimes people who do not have as much. That’s what the holidays are about – family and giving.

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                                                                                       By Yatharth from Wikipedia

 

 

Holiday Celebrations – Jane

My Holiday Celebration

My family and I celebrate Christmas. Every year we have a Christmas tree and lights up outside. This year my mom and I put up multi colored lights across the railings of the steps outside, and light up candy canes on the ground next to it! The Christmas tree has mostly red and gold ball ornaments, but a lot of the special memory ones too. Ever since I’ve remembered, I’ve had a chocolate advent countdown calendar. Every day of december I get a chocolate. The chocolates never taste good (usually stale), but it’s still fun anyways!

Over the winter break I love to go skiing at Catamount. My brother also works at the Catamount Ski School so we go every weekend. Last year, my family rented a house in Great Barrington for a week. Catamount was less than 5 minutes from the house. I had different friends over for the days and we all went skiing. When my friend Anna came over, we also went to the town. We got TONS of candy, so much that later that night I threw up. But the candy shop was awesome there, so can you blame me? We also went to the movies and saw Saving Mr. Banks. It was really awesome.

One of my favorite things to do during this time is watch Christmas movies. Especially Home Alone and Elf. They’re both really funny and cheerful. Ice skating is also another great part of winter. I definitely love playing in the snow with my dog. He’s white so he blends in with the snow and it’s hard to find him most of the time. Anyway, my family always goes to church on Christmas. It’s nice to sing all those Christmas carols. And over the winter break I have a lot of fun. Doing all the seasonal activities is the best part. I look forward to Christmas all year! It’s such a happy time filled with love and joy.

cutexmastree.gif Blinking Christmas Tree by Natalia-Factory

Holiday Celebration Blog Post – By Audrey

It is almost time for winter holidays, and there are lots of holidays of all different religions coming up. There are many different festivities and traditions, and I am going to talk about what I do during this time of year.

Since my parents grew up Christian, my family celebrates Christmas even though we are not very religious. We celebrate Christmas for the giving and the time with family, because almost every year I get together with my family and we all have a big celebration, even if it isn’t exactly on Christmas. This year, before Christmas, I went up to my aunt and uncle’s house for a big party with my grandparents and my cousin. I was very happy to be able to exchange gifts and play games with relatives I don’t get to see all the time.

Even though my family celebrates Christmas, we have some traditions, special only to us. For instance, my family usually has a Christmas Eve dinner of Squid soup,  because it is an italian tradition. Although this year we want something different. It is one of the only times we use the table in the dining room, because usually we don’t all have dinner together. But it is really nice to get together at the table!

Another tradition we have is opening the presents from relatives on Christmas Eve night instead of Christmas morning. We always open one present at a time in a certain order, and we all talk after everyone open’s each present. I love getting to open my presents a day early,and then waking up the next day to Santa’s presents, which are always unwrapped.

I don’t have many plans for New Years this year. I always watch the ball drop on television, even if the time is an hour earlier like it was in Chicago. I always spend time with either friends or family, and most times I stay up until twelve. But some years I’m so tired I fall asleep!

I am so excited for Christmas to come, and I wish everyone a Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!

Attribution:

From Flikr – Christmas Fireplace by Christian Marineau 

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My Christmas and New Years Traditions – Manny C.

I celebrate Christmas on the 24th instead of the 25th. The reason for that is because my mom is Danish and that’s the way she has always done it.
On Christmas Eve my family and I get up early in the morning and start cooking the dinner. We usually have 2 ducks, mashed sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, green beans, broccoli and oven roasted potatoes. I help my mom prepare it all and then since my sister and I get to open one present in the morning, we do. Then the whole day my sister and I spend using whatever we got.At around 3 o’clock my Grandmother comes over. We call her Mormor because that’s Danish for mother’s mom. (Now that she has a house near us she doesn’t have to fly in from Denmark). If she was still living in Denmark she would have to fly over on the 19th or someday near that and stay with us. The only thing I miss about Mormor coming is she always brought Danish candy that you can’t get here 🙁 . When Mormor comes over on Christmas Eve she brings the rice pudding which I will explain later on. She stays with us and just helps my mom with the last of the cooking.

7 or 8 is when we start eating the feast that was hard to prepare, but even harder to eat! There is always so much food and only 5 people. We always have leftovers for other days. After my sister and I are done we have to wait until the parents are done eating. For dessert we have rice pudding w/ almonds, and a cake. Once my whole family is done eating my mom gets out her fancy 100 year old glasses that she keeps in a cabinet in our living room and pours in some rice pudding. We have an exciting way of eating this.

At first when the rice pudding is done my parents and Mormor put some peeled, chopped up almonds into a big pot with all the rice pudding. There is one whole peeled almond and it is dropped into the pot. They then stir it all up. My parents serve it to us in those glasses and tell us the rules. You eat and look through your cup of rice pudding to try and find the one whole almond. If you find it then you get the amazing marzipan pig that my sister and I sculpted.

After we see who got the almond and they claim their prize, it’s time to open presents! We do this like presenting the present to that person. My sister and I spend the whole night using and playing with our presents. 

My Christmas Eve 2011


This year my Christmas Eve could have been better.

On Christmas Eve in the morning I, as usual, helped my mom with the dishes and preparing the ducks with my sister. When we finished the ducks my sister went to go outside and found a present in our storm door. We opened it and found out it was “Just Dance 2 Wii”. We thanked our Mom and Dad and went right to playing it.

My sister and I basically played it for the whole day and then we stopped at around 3 to watch The Nutcracker and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer as a tradition. Mormor watched us play the Just Dance game again until 5 so she and my sister helped my mom. My dad and I watched the Lord of the Rings all 3 movies on 6 discs and they were great. We didn’t watch them all on Christmas just the last disc to the last movie, The Return of the King.

At around 6 we had to eat because, this is why my Christmas wasn’t so good, my Dad had to work. He had a concert scheduled for Christmas and I was really bummed. He stayed only to eat and then he left 🙁 . I opened my presents and I was really happy that I got Dre Beats Solo HD (which are headphones designed by Dre) from my dad. I also got shoes and clothes. My dad gave me a crash ride cymbal and I freaked out! I played it so much that my sister almost shoved my drumstick down my throat. That night I was so happy.

 

My New Years 2011 – 2012


In about a week it was New Years and again, my dad had to work 🙁 . I was really mad and sad so I just hung out until 12 with my mom, sister and Mormor watching movies and eating cake. I guess it could’ve been more exciting but it was okay. I also read my book that I started called, “The Misfits by James Howe”. It is a really good book and I like it very much.

 

Some Danish Vocabulary


Mor = Mother
Far = Father
Mormor = Grandmother (mother’s side)
Morfar = Grandfather (mother’s side)
Farmor = Grandmother (father’s side)
Farfar = Grandfather (father’s side)

This year my Christmas Eve could have been better.

 

Winter Vacation – Remy

Each separate piece of writing is a different free write. Free writes are times when you sit down for some amount of time and write about what you are thinking about.

Each picture goes with the piece of writing above it and will tell you the time of day and the weather when I did the free write. Hope you enjoy!!!

Being sick really  is horrible because you just get to sit in bed and do nothing not play outside or anything. I think doing homework is better than being sick. Being sick also makes you feel bad to the point where you think you’re going to die. Right now I’m in this situation and I’m hoping to get better soon because I really hate being sick. 


As I was thinking about being ill I started to wonder how I got ill this time and how I could prevent it next time. I went through all the times I touched something public and didn’t go wash my hands afterwards. The only time I could think of was when I went to the Apple store in NYC and looked and some devices that everybody had touched and then later on in the ate a cookie. That is probably how I got sick this time. Always wash your hands when you see a sink. What are some of your theories of how you got sick?

This picture was taken around midday

on 12/30/11

Sleep. I really like it because it gives me energy. I always wondered how closing your eyes and sleeping can give you energy. I think of sleeping as if I’m shutting myself down like a computer and then turning on in the morning. 

While I’m sleeping I sometimes dream. Did you know that while your dreaming your body is figuring out things that you have read or been told that you didn’t understand. This happened to me the other day when I had just read my report and Joe my math teacher gave me a suggestion and I didn’t understand what he meant. That night I went to bed and I was all of the sudden in Joe’s room doing a little project in class in my dream. When we finished lots of people had rough drawings but there projects were done. Mine was really neat but I wasn’t able to finish the project. When Joe saw that I had not finished he suggested something to me “It’s more important to finish it then make it so neat. That is what he said in my report. That is how I figured out what Joe my math teacher meant in my report. What are some of your dreams?

This picture was taken around midday through

a screen on 12/28/11

Christmas is a wonderful time. Christmas is all about being generous and giving to other people and not just caring about yourself. When you are young you really think that there is a Santa Clause and that he travels around the world giving gifts to everybody. When you are young you see your Christmas tree one night with no presents and the next morning there are presents. I think that Santa Clause is supposed to teach little kids to give and be kind and follow Santa’s lead. Now that I’m older I get gifts for other people with my own money and follow Santa’s lead. Another thing that changes when you get older is that all the presents go under the tree before the day of Christmas. Right now all my presents are under the tree. Same with all the presents that I got for the rest of my family.

Now that I’m older I’m not just buying the most expensive gift, that’s not what Christmas is about. It is about giving something meaningful. When I wrapped my presents this year I wrote messages on them. Plus I made a very special treasure hunt that will lead my sister to her gifts. When I had the idea for the treasure hunt my parents told me that my sister would love it and that the treasure hunt would be better than the gift itself. That is what Christmas is about.

This picture was taken the night of

12/23/11

Sleep. It is a wonderful thing to have a lot of though many people do not get the amount they need. The average person needs at least 8 hours of sleep every day. In my perspective probably ⅓  of us Americans get that much sleep. 


I know that I get at least 9 hours of sleep every night except for once in a blue moon. At my age I should be getting more than that. I actually just researched what percentage of Americans get less than 8 hours of sleep and one source which was the news said 95%. Right now while I’m writing this I felt sleepy since I got about 8 hours of sleep for the past two nights (I guess there were two blue moons, one right after the other). You need your sleep and it is better to get more sleep than to stay up studying for school. If you just go to bed you will do a lot better in school with more sleep and the studying at night will not stick to your brain.

This picture was taken around midday

on 12/21/11

NYC has many big corporations which are not that fun. NYC also has many unique stores that sell very cool and interesting things for many different people which are fun. I am about to leave to go to the train to go to NYC and I’m going to MoMA which is a very fun and interesting museum. We might also go to some cool restaurant with one of my friends. We were going to go with one of my sister’s friends too but she was sick so she is not coming. I’m planning on having a great time though I worried about getting sick again since NYC is densely populated and there are a lot of germs everywhere. In NYC there is a lot of trash on the streets and in many other places. I hope to have fun and not get sick in NYC. Again.

This picture was taken around midday

on 12/19/11