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.

December 29th

Today I slept late while Eagle worked. He finished at noon and then we went to the WW I national museum in Kanas City. The museum begins with a short movie to explain the causes of the war. On one side of the museum

the early years of the war are represented. There were artifacts on display as well as models of the

trenches in which the men had to fight. The other half of the museum was dedicated to America's involvement in the war. I learned that although women were not in combat, 350 of them died during the war and that of all the people who died, about half of them died because of deasese, not because of combat. This war had a direct affect on why WWII occured.

The museum was very well done. My cousin told me that it had recently reopened after being closed for a while. I was glad to visit it and left once again feeling humbled by the sacrifices people have made.

Eagle and I spent the rest of the night watching comedy and enjoying each other's company. He was leaving early the next morning to go skiing with Connor in Utah so it was our last night together. I'm glad I got to spend the time with him.

Eagle has two little weenier dogs that follow him around like he is the King! Robbie is the dog with long hair and Sly is the short haired dog.

December 28th

This morning I got up early to fly to Kansas City where I am planning to spend a week with my cousins. My cousin Mitch, who we have always called Eagle, came to pick me up at the airport. We went for breakfast and then out to his brother's house in Tonganoxie, Kansas to see the family. My cousin's son Connor and his dad Martin, were leaving the next day to see the doctor in Houston so today was the only time I would see Connor. We went shopping at a pretty amazing store. It was really for hunters and fishers, but also had displays of wildlife from all over the world. I was a bit speechless. This is me and Connor pretending we are in Africa. Can you find Shannon in the other picture? It is hard, she is in the camouflage section.

We spent most of the day shopping or returning things and then went for a movie that night. I fell asleep again, I know, big surprise. I saw a lot of it though.

December 27

Today we celebrated my niece's 8th birthday. I remember when she was born because I was the second Lord of the Rings movie with my brother and my sister-in-law made me promise to have him call her when the movie was over. My niece was due and Leigh Ann had to see the doctor to see if Sigrid was going to be born. Sure enough, my brother called and had to leave the theater right away to go to the hospital. My niece was born soon after. She was and still is a cutie. Have you ever seen a kid so excited about pencils? Her grandpa built her a cool desk and she wanted supplies for it.

Christmas Day

It snowed all night. Big, fluffy, wet flakes. Everything was covered. Santa came, but we had to wait for Besta and Bappa (my parents) came over for breakfast before anything else could happen.

My niece prepared a wonderful fruit and cheese plate for breakfast while her mom made a yummy cheese and potatoes dish. Doesn't it look great?

We finally got to open the presents! I think my brother was a little tired, but my niece Sigrid really enjoyed playing with her new computer. She even tried to show my dad some new tricks!

December 24 Christmas Eve

Today I went shopping with my dad for some last minute Christmas

things. The snow sure is high in Minnesota!

We had an interesting visitor in our backyard today. If you look carefully you can see a bird on the fence. We think it was either a hawk or a female or young bald eagle. Either way, it was a bird of prey

just hanging out in the city.

It is a traditional in our home to go to Norwegian church on Christmas Eve. This year my mom and I dressed up in traditional Norwegian dress, Bunads, that belonged to

my grandmother. I got to wear the one that my grandmother made herself. It felt pretty cool to wear it and made me think of her.

My whole family came over for dinner. We had Swedish meatballs, mashed potatoes, salad and lefsa for dinner. We were too full for our rice pudding so we had to wait until after opening presents.

Before presents we had a show. The girls played instruments and sang and the boys read stories to us. (I fell asleep for a little bit. I was still jetlagged!) Then everyone got to open their presents.

Soon it was time for everyone to go home. I went with my brother and his family to spend the night. The snow was falling.....