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.....

Wednesday, December 23

My teeth are really clean. I went to the dentist this morning. It sure felt good. After that I went to the Mall of America to pick up some last minute shopping things.

I spent much of the rest of the day wrapping presents and enjoying being at my parent's house for Christmas. My dad does a great job decorating the tree and my mom gets out all her Nativity scenes. She collects them and I have given her many over the years from the places I have lived or visited. There are a lot now.

My brothers and sisters are coming over on December 24th for dinner so dad started to get the table ready today. The bells in the middle of the table belong

to me and my sister. My mom gave them to us when we were little. Mine are the 12 days of Christmas and my sister's are a Nativity scene. My mom is doing some of the cooking that can be done early, including my favorite, rice pudding.

There is a big snowstorm coming this way. It was supposed to begin snowing around four in the afternoon. By 9:00 it was already coming down pretty hard. I am glad I don't have to go out driving!

Tuesday, December 22

I finally got some Christmas shopping done today. I spent over two hours in a bookstore! I got books for everyone in my family. All the adults get funny books, but I bought a variety of different books for my nieces and nephews. Some of the books I bought were books that we have read in grade 6 this year. My nieces and nephews are giving me lots of suggestions of other books that I need to read. I ordered a few of them and hope that I can read them out loud in class when we get back.

After the shopping frenzy I went to my brother's house for the annual Christmas cookie decorating party. I was very excited because it was my first time. I have never been home in time to go before.

My sister-in-law, Susie, makes TONS of sugar and gingerbread cookies and then invites all the family members from her side and my brother's side to come over to frost

them.

Susie collects cookie cutters. She has a huge amount and one of the fun things about the day is trying to figure out what each cookie is. Some are easy but others are pretty difficult to figure out. As the day goes on, our guesses get sillier and sillier. The decorating does too.

It was fun, but also messy. It is a good thing they have a dog. She kept going around and licking all the frosting off the floor.

Now I can't wait to eat them!