January 8

Today I am leaving to come back to Jakarta. It has been a really fun holiday in the States. I had family,

snow,

and dogs.

It was good to be home.

January 6

Happy Birthday to me! I got up today and made my birthday cake, chocolate with chocolate frosting....yum!

Tonight I went to a movie with my mom and dad. Most of my family will meet tomorrow night at Pepitos, Mexican food, for a birthday/goodbye dinner. I want to have a fun cake. Just because I am an adult doesn't mean I can't have

fun.

January 3

Fun today! I watched the Vikings play the Giants on a GIANT TV at my sister's house. The Vikings will go to the play-offs now. Yippee!!

January 2

Today I flew back to Minneapolis and went to see my nephew Karl compete in a swim meet. He is in 7th grade and swims with a high school team. It was pretty exciting

to see him. He 's good!

After that I went to my other brother's house to babysit. I took some pictures of the the Christmas lights in the neighborhood on the way over.

The next morning I went to an Epiphany program at my brothers' church. The girls were all in the program so we went to see them. They were good readers!

January 1 2010

Happy New Year! It was kind of a lazy day today because we were up until about 3:30 last night! My cousin Martin came home from Houston this afternoon and we had home made ravioli for dinner tonight. It was pretty yummy.

Plus, I was on fire today so I had a job once I woke up. At my cousin's house, the heat comes from a wood burning stove in the living room. Whoever gets up first and stokes the fire must be "on fire" all day and keep the fire going.

The good part about being on fire is that you don't have to go out and get wood from the wood pile and bring it into the house. That is the tough job, especially after the snow.

Everyone has a chore to do in Martin's house. In

this picture you can see his son Dylan washing dishes and Quinten helping to make food.

Later on the adults went out but we were all tired when we came back...Martin fell asleep on the couch with his son.

January 31st New Year's Eve

The last day of the year. Wow! In some ways the year has been great and in other ways it has been tough. I am really glad that I am spending this new year with my cousin's family. We stayed in and a family friend came over with his kids. So it was an

exciting evening with three adults and fours kids. Mostly we played Wii or watched the kids play. There was a full moon tonight. It was the second full moon of the month, that is known as a Blue Moon because it happens so seldom. The next one a January 31st won't happen for another 19 years. I took a picture.

January 30

Today I didn't do too much, but Eagle drove me to his brother's house in the morning so he could get on a flight to Houston. We got to Tonganoxie before the household was awake so I watched some TV and hung out until everyone woke up. We mostly relaxed to day, but it was my cousin's wife, Sandy's, birthday today. We sang happy birthday and ate cake that her kids had made for her.