Johanna Speaks

Our Christmas went great this year! Our whole family came!

Noelle, Cameron, Caleb, Risa, Gideon, Nicholas, Jonathan, and french Jonathan all came to our house for Christmas! I said french Jonathan because he is our friend from France named Jonathan, so we call him french Jonathan not to get mixed up with the other Jonathans in our family.

The day before Christmas, Noelle, Cameron, Gideon, Jonathan, Nicholas, and french Jonathan went to our house. We had soup and homemade bread for dinner and snacks and sang some carols, and Nicholas played his guitar. And we all talked for a while and played video games after midnight! I played Minecraft, and Jonathan, Nicholas, Gideon, Ezra, and french Jonathan all played a different game which I forgot what it was called.

Noelle and Cameron didn't play any video games because Cameron wasn't feeling well. And Noelle went with him to take care of him. They slept in a tiny little trailer that was in our front yard that they brought to sleep in. It was hooked up to their car. It's not like a small RV at all. It just has a bed because that's all you can fit in it. But that's just what it's for, to sleep in only. They said the bed is very comfortable to sleep on. And you can't stand in it fully up. But besides that, it's a great little trailer to sleep in. So that's what Noelle and Cameron used to sleep in that night in our front yard.

So we played video games, except for Cameron and Noelle, and stayed up until 12:15 AM. I fell asleep around 1:00 AM.

The next day was Christmas!! We didn't open presents yet. We would do that after lunch because everybody would be here by then. And also that day was Sunday! My mom and dad, and Gideon went to church. Cameron, Noelle, Ezra, Simeon, Sophie, and I didn't go to church because we had a slight cough, and my mom and dad didn't want to risk taking us to church because we might get people sick. Cameron didn't have a cough he just wasn't feeling well at all. And Noelle didn't have a cough and wasn't sick or anything, but she stayed with Cameron to help care for him. And the rest of us had a slight cough.

After my mom and dad and Gideon returned from church, Gideon, Ezra, and Sophie went to build legos. I was pretty tired and went on a chair next to them and watched and tried to fall asleep. And Noelle was with Cameron. And then Caleb and Risa came! And 10 mins later, Jonathan and Nicholas and french Jonathan came too! We all had lunch, got dessert, and started to open presents!! Everybody had a lot of gifts to open! We had a grand time opening and eating!

I got a microscope from Jonathan!! I put a piece of my hair under it, and it looked so creepy and cool at the same time!! Then Jonathan said I should get some blood and see what it looks like under the microscope! Noelle said it should be french Jonathan's blood because then we could see french blood! :^) So, french Jonathan said he would do it! And got a sharp pin and kept stabbing himself with it in the finger, but nothing came out, so he kept doing it, and finally, blood started to come out. So he quickly put some under the microscope, which was cool to look at! You could see the blood was moving a lot! I wish I had a picture to show you, but I have no idea how to do that when it's under a microscope. So I am very sorry for that. It was pretty cool, though!

I also got four books that are excellent stories to read that I am excited about reading, and I got a lovely journal that I needed, RGB LED Strip Lights that are really cool, really nice shoes, and nice smartwatch straps for my smartwatch that I have. Also, I forgot to write a blog post about that, so I'm sorry. And one more thing, a decorating baking tool. I think that's all! So yeah, we all got pretty cool stuff!

Here is a video of the lights I got for Christmas!

And Merry Christmas!

I had my choir performance on Dec 13. It went pretty well! I had lots of fun singing with the choir. Mrs.Dummer is such a great teacher for us! She is very kind and helps direct us when we are singing, so we know when to sing low or high. And she makes sure we sound good and loud! And helps us out if we sing a pitch too low or rise too high. I miss her and the choir now since we have a break for Christmas and will be doing the choir again around springtime.

We had a choir party the following week after the choir performance. But I didn't go because I was sick that day. I was really sad I couldn't go to the party. But it's ok. I still had fun at home.

On the performance day, Simeon and I went to the choir at 1:00. Usually, we had to be there around 2:00. But this time, we had to be early because we had to practice a lot and see where the choir is going to sit and all that. And also because we have another choir performance at 3:00 in the evening. So when we got there, we practiced our choir then the senior choir practiced theirs. And by the way, the senior choir is the teenagers singing, and Simeon is in that one. After we practiced ours, we got to go outside, and there was a snack table for all of the choirs to have when their choir was done practicing. There were oranges, pretzels, Christmas cookies, veggie sticks, carrots, tomatoes, etc. It was all delicious to eat!

After we ate some snacks, we had to get back inside and do the 3:00 performance. After we did that, everybody was supposed to go back home and get some rest and eat a bit and then come back for the last performance at night. So Simeon and I went to our sister Noelle's apartment, next to the place where we were going to perform. When we got there, Noelle was asleep on her couch. But woke up when she saw us. She already knew we were coming there. We watched a show and ate snacks there. I curled my hair, and it was time to go to the performance!! I was very excited but sad because this semester seemed to go by so fast! We did great, and after the performance, we went to panda express and ate dinner there with our siblings, that also came for the performance and the panda express! We had such a great time!

Here is the whole concert on youtube:

My friend Annie taught me how to crochet. I love doing it now! It takes time and patience, but I enjoy it. I bought yarn and hooks and got started making a scarf. It turned out pretty bad, but it was my first time, so yeah.

So I made a scarf and crocheted a blob of yarn that I did not know what it was supposed to be. And right now, I am making a baby blanket. 

Here is a picture of my two failed attempts to crochet something, and here is a picture of my baby blanket that I am still trying to crochet. My teacher, Annie, will be holding the items.    

She looks disappointed in the first picture! :)

I made some very good apple pies! Well, I cheated because we bought the crust for it. But I did everything else. It turned out well, but I would have done more to improve it, like putting spices and draining the apples before I put them in the pie and a few other things. But other than that, it turned out well.

We had whipping cream with it too! It made it taste even better! We had people over that day because we were making bread rolls for thanksgiving and needed a lot of hands to help make them. So I baked two apple pies.

I got to do designs at the top, like a leaf pattern or a snowflake pattern. One pie had a leaf pattern, and the other had a snowflake pattern. You are probably thinking about how you got the dow and all to make the patterns on the pie. Well, my dad bought six pie crusts things. And I made three apple pies. One we ate that night, and the other two we had when the people were here to help make the thanksgiving rolls. I used the other three pie crusts, turned them into dow, and made the leaf and snowflake patterns. And also the lattice with it too. If you don't know what lattice is, search it up because It's too hard for me to explain. :)

Here are the pictures of the pie when it's cooked.

Caleb and Risa are now married!

Yesterday we came back from Ripon. We left to go to Ripon on Thursday and stayed until Sunday.

The wedding was great! Our whole family helped set everything up, prepare food, etc.

We stayed at a hotel called " Laquinta. " Our brothers and our sister stayed at an Air n BnB. Everything was right next to each other, so that was awesome!

 So my mom and dad and Sophie and I were the only ones who stayed at a hotel. The hotel was very nice! I have been at the hotel once before we last visited Ripon. I still love the hotel, of course! We got to be on the third floor! And by the way, the third floor is the highest. And I love taking the elevator! So I was very happy about that! The hotel also has breakfast in the mornings! So you can get anything you want! You can have coffee, orange juice, apple juice, hot chocolate, etc. You can even make your waffles! And they have amazing muffins! And they have sausage and eggs! There is just a lot of food you can have there. I wish they also did dinner and lunch food. But that would be too much food! And probably pretty expensive.

The place where the wedding was going to be held was about five minutes from our hotel. And lots of stores were also right next to our hotel. So yeah, everything was right next to us. And even the Air n BnB was right next to our hotel.

Thursday, we hung out at the Air n BnB with everybody else and had pizza and salad, and soda for dinner. We were a little tired because we had just got there and wanted to relax. Oh, and we also took two French friends with us. They had a game to play with everybody. And I think it was called undercover, and then it had another word after that. But it was a great game! You have to get an app on your phone to play it. Only one person does. Then that person passes the phone to everybody, and they have to write their name in and get their secret card on the app. And that secret card will tell you if you are Mr.White, a citizen, or undercover. Well, it does not tell you if you are a citizen or undercover, but after a while, you figure out who you are. If you are Mr.White, It tells you. I will not try to explain it because it is hard to do. Just search up the undercover game. And maybe it would show up, and you can learn how to play it. Anyways we played that game for a while. Until dinner time, and then ate and watched a little show and then went to bed. Of course, my mom, dad, Sophie, and I went back to the hotel and went to bed there.

The next day was the rehearsal party. So we had to get up early and head to the church where the wedding would be held. We helped set up the whole day. And then watched when they had the rehearsal. After the rehearsal, everybody went to a different Air n BnB and had dinner there. Our family was in charge of that. We had a great time there! Our Opa and Oma were also at the rehearsal dinner party. We just had a great time!

The next morning was the wedding day! We had the hotel breakfast and then hung out at the Air n BnB for a while, the one where our brothers and sister were staying and got dressed there for the wedding and then went to the wedding! There was a live stream for it. So if some of you guys could not make it to the wedding and wanted to see it, I can put the link here.

Here is the link for the wedding.

https://fb.watch/gbT-KuFyWN/

After the wedding, everybody helped clean up and had music going on. Then, our friends, brothers, and sister went to IN and OUT. I don't know if that's how you spell it, but you get what I am trying to say.  And after that, we went back to the Air n BnB, had dinner and Ice cream, watched a show, and went to bed.

The next day was Sunday. We went to church and after church went back home. It felt very nice to go back home again. 

And now Risa is our sister-in-law!

Congratulation to Caleb and Risa! Love you guys! :)