Monday, January 16, 2023

13 Years, 11 Months...Christmas, volleyball, planning for the future!

We started to have our Christmas events.  Our family went to the Cedar Ridge Christmas concert for Emily.  It was fun to watch it as a middle schooler, and to hang out with Lila during it.  I performed in the OMS Reader’s Theater for my theater class and my family came.  I really do enjoy performing as other people on a stage.

We hosted the volleyball Christmas party for our team.  I helped Mom cut fabric for fleece tie blankets while watching the 2nd Hunger Games movie.  The party was a lot of fun. We started with Secret Santa and Landrie had me again this year!  We hung out, tied our blankets, ate, and laughed a lot.  Most of the moms stayed for the party too and we didn’t mind.

I was so glad for Christmas break.  It started off with a lot of cold and snow.  We only had one day before Christmas, and I went to Aaron’s house to decorate gingerbread houses.  I really enjoyed getting to hang out with him and get to know his family better.

We had a busy and fun Christmas!  We went to Papa Ron and Linda’s on the 23rd.  Mark and Chase came over and we had lasagna from Aldo’s-yum!  We spent the night there and really enjoyed playing games and laughing.  Papa Ron made us a big breakfast on Christmas Eve morning, even though they were hosting a Christmas at Linda’s house.  We spent some time visiting Grandma Rose that morning.  It is always good to visit her.  Then, it was off to Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Tom’s!  I always love hanging out with my cousins and eating good food.  Uncle Steve made a saran wrap game this year and we had a blast demolishing it!  We hated to leave, but we headed to our Church’s Midnight service (at 11:00) for the first time.  It was weird when they turned off the lights and everyone lit candles and sang Silent Night.

We got to have Christmas at home again.  That is truly my favorite way to celebrate Christmas.  My Santa gifts were a Hopeless Romantic sweatshirt and a soft gray blanket.  We had a nice relaxing day at home.  Nana Arden and Papa Rodney’s Christmas was rescheduled to the day after because Catherine was sick. We got together for Christmas for the first time in three years at Aunt Lisa and Uncle Otto’s.  We enjoyed visiting and playing games.  We visited Nana Arden and Papa Rodney recently too and actually went into their house for the first time in three years!

We were able to do some fun things after Christmas too.  Landrie and Lilah spent the night at our house, and we took them to practice the next day.  I really love my teammates!  I also did another positional camp at Stephen’s over break. I finished all my Christmas thank you notes.  One of my presents was to get my ears double pierced.  Mom took Emily and me to a tattoo shop to get this done.  I acted very brave, but then realized I had been holding my breath and felt like I was going to pass out. All is good now!  Emily went to her friend Avonlea’s house one day and our family was invited over for dinner.  I REALLY did NOT want to go, but Mom coaxed me into it because she thought I would love her mom, Aurora.  Well, she was right!  She treated me like a grown up and we talked about books and played a fun game all night and I didn’t want to leave.   I also got to hang out with the original Lila at her house as well over break.

New Year’s Eve went exactly how I had hoped!  Aaron came over to celebrate.  We decorated cookies (even though Emily knocked his name on the floor and he ended up being ARRON), watched movies, played Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza and Throw Throw Burrito with Mom and Emily.  He said they were a lot of fun!  He even gave me a quick kiss at “midnight”, which was really 11:00.

I was able to see Aaron a few more times this month.  I went to his basketball game against Oakland after practice one night and went to his last middle school game the next night.  I even got to meet his grandparents! My mom and his dad took us on another “date”.  We went bowling and walked around the mall.

Our Church had another brunch worship, and I got to go to Youth Group again because practice nights have changed! Another huge event was that our family finally joined the Church.  I was really nervous and uncomfortable in front of all those people, but I’m also glad to be a part of all of them.

This month has also been all things volleyball.  We got our new backpacks, had three practices a week, had some positionals, and had our first tournament!  We played in the Gateway League (13s-15s) in O’Fallon IL.  Our team went 3-3 overall. We beat the 13s teams, lost against the 14s and 2 15s teams, but several of our losses were close.  Our team played well together and was much more competitive than our teams in the past. I struggled in one set and was taken out.  The other team was targeting me, and it shook me pretty bad.  Everyone said that I did really well though.  Papa Ron and Linda came to support me too!

It was hard to go back to school after having time off.  I can’t believe I only have one more semester of middle school left.  I have been playing it cool with high school coming up and have been super excited, but once we started selecting high school classes, it got pretty real.  I’m starting to get nervous and anxious about my future classes and what to take and how I will do.  I know it will all be fine, but now it is happening fast!

Narrator for Reader's Theater

Elf
Opening gift from Landrie
She had my name for the second year in a row!
Tying blankets
Jayden, Alyssa, Lia, Alaina, Mya (and mom's)
Anna, Lilah, Callie
MG and Trisha
Callie, Jayden, Alyssa, Lia
This took forever!
Twist and Anna became good friends
Taking time out to eat
The finished products!
I got to see Ali at one of our practices!
Gingerbread decorating with Aaron

Mine is better!

Visiting Great-Grandma Rose

Helping Emily with her Harry Potter melty beads
Ready to open
Our usual places
Taylor Swift CD!
The three musketeers
Getting ready for Santa (after midnight!)
Bye Elmo!
Hopeless Romantic sweatshirt from Santa
The bear I wanted from Bass Pro
Athena, the Christmas pup
Our gifts to each other
Helping Emily paint her Minecraft creeper
Christmas at Lisa's
Rodney being silly
(Almost) the whole family
Playing games with the cousins

Ready to get our ears pierced
I played it cool, but I was terrified!
Yikes!
The finished product
Should Molly get hers pierced too?
Molly was getting used to Aaron
Playing games
After Aaron's game at Oakland

Decorating cookies on New Year's Eve

Ready for our first tournament
I was with Landrie
Team selfie
Warming up
Team huddle
Celebrating a point

Ready for anything!
Passing
Our whole team (and coaches)
Silly picture
Ready for day 2
Our white uniforms
Playing #7
My forever fan
Our whole family
Choosing high school classes
Hanging out at the mall
A true "egg-head"
Reading scripture at Church
Saran Wrap ball

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