What has been happening? ...

Sorry I haven't been posting much! Not much has been going on. We started school again last week. The first rehearsal for the Pirates of Penzance was yesterday; the music is pretty difficult but lots of fun. Dad does not know how to read music, so I am going to have to teach him his parts.
Saturday we went to The Zone (a skating rink) for a "Classical" skate with other homeschoolers. They played classical music, and the experience was so different and amazing that I would love to do it all the time, even though I got nasty blisters.
Only one other thing really comes to mind when I think of what has been happening recently, and that is of something that has not happened recently enough. I have not practiced piano since Thursday. I would be doing it now, but Dad is watching a movie. *sigh* I really ought to have done it when I could have. I was too caught up in my book, Mansfield Park by Jane Austen, and did not want to set it down.
Today I got an MP3 player! The old one did not work quite right. Actually, I am not even sure at this point if the old one was really mine or if Dad had it and just let me use it for years. Anyway, Staples had a 2Gb player for $10!!! !!! !!! It works really well. I have only one problem with it, that I can't figure out how to delete voice recordings on the device. I am sure you can though, because you can delete actual songs from it very easily.

Taylor Swift and the Chipmunks!!! :) :) :) :)

This is a good song by Taylor Swift. It is about Romeo and Juliet and called "Love Story". I really like it :) It's one of the few country music songs I can stand and actually enjoy. The video is really good- all the gowns and costumes (except one) are very beautiful. That one is pretty, but not very modest. Enjoy the song!
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This is the funny part of my post. You need to have watched "Chipmunks" (either the new movie or the old shows) to fully get it.
Chipmunks

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Christmas Pictures

Here are some pictures of Christmas for you to enjoy! I don't have much time to add captions, or whatever it is called. :) So just enjoy the pictures! These are all from Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. I have more to come from when we were at Grandma's house.

Second Batch Christmas Pictures

Thrid Batch Christmas Pictures

Think they liked their present?

Artwork

Ok, I promise I will get Christmas pictures up, but that will have to come later. I just thought that I'd put this up just for fun. Mom needed sample work to send in to Kolbe (the homeschool academy-thing we use) and asked me to take pictures and put them on a powerpoint. Unfortunately, I have not done all that much artwork this quarter, and much of what I did make I've already given to people. This is what I could come up with:

Power Point is fun.

Nick's Birthday

Nicholas turned 8 on Sunday, Dec. 14. Sorry it took me so long to get the pictures. (The pictures uploaded in random order- sorry)

He got one of THE COOLEST Wii games- it has a mat that you jump on and play all sorts of games on.

The cake I made. The white icing Dad got is the new "creamier, lighter" stuff. I had to use that instead of the decorater icing, which is really stiff. It was a little hard to do!

Outdoor Adventure in action- doing the jumprope, which believe it or not is one of the boringest games on it- yes, the game is that good.

Christmas

Looks like we're all doing stuff at Christmas Eve Mass! I am playing one song in the prelude, Ben is singing in the choir, Will is doing one of the readings, and Nick might be bringing up the gifts. Will, Dad, and I will also be doing the soundboard.

Marshmallow Snowmen

How to make these yummy snowmen:
What you will need (for 1)
A skewer
3 or more marshmallows
White almond bark
Chocolate chips
Food coloring

Put the marshmallows on a skewer, melt the almond bark and dip the skewer in it. Lay your snowman down on aluminum foil. While it is cooling, put on the chocolate chip buttons. Either use colored icing or a toothpick dipped in food coloring to draw on the face and scarf. Let it dry completely, then enjoy!

Family Calendar Page

My aunts, uncles, and cousins are making a calendar for my grandparents. Each family gets a month, and we had to design our page. This is the one that I made! I used Microsoft Power Point, which is ridiculously easy to use. I had never used Power Point other than for a slideshow with all the fancy features, but I discovered that each slide can be saved as a jpeg. So, this is what I came up with! The reason it says Rolla Rackers is because there are so many Rackers that saying "The Rackers" would be kinda pointless. We all use nicknames: The Rolla Rackers, The Saint Louis Rackers, etc.