Christmas Tree Hunt 2018!

Near the end of a cold November, Mama’s whole side of the family came with us to Hunter Farms, most of us planning to get a beautiful Christmas tree! Before we went to the bustling farm, Dodie, Unka Cheese, chubby baby Styrkur, Nonnie, Poppie and my whole family got together for woodfired pizza in a restaurant nearby. Clad in boots and coats and full from hot, cheesy pizza, we left to get a tree. The previous year, thanks to his friends, impressionable Tuff

had picked up the notion that Santa would be the one putting presents under our tree on Christmas Eve. We don’t believe in  Santa, and so Mama dutifully told a horror-struck Tuff that Santa Claus was, in reality, a nice man that died many years ago. Any time our confident little Tuff mentioned Santa coming after that, we would gently remind him that old St. Nick had died. Now imagine his surprise when he sees lazy, round Santa Claus in the flesh sitting right in front of him! So our bold little Tuff marched right up to the wooden chair and the fat man in it

and exclaimed, “What! Santa! My Mama said you were dead!”, to which poor Santa muttered, “Oh really now,” and handed him a small striped candy cane. After that, we left the busy barn and rejoined the rest of our big, chattering family to get on the tractor ride. We almost filled up one of the two crowded, wooden wagons where we sang Christmas carols happily until the last stop. A few of us ventured to drink Uncle Kookie's dark chocolate sludge that we thought was hot cocoa but turned out to be drinking chocolate.

Then we went to look for the three best-looking Christmas trees there were; one for Dodie’s family, one for Buggy’s family and one for us. Every year frugal Nonnie and Poppie use a fake tree, but like to come along for the excitement. As we went trudging through the mud with baby Swiggy in his cousin’s stroller and our aunts loaded with diaper bags, everyone searched for the fullest, greenest trees they could find. We ended up finding our short, stubby tree before the rest of the family, and when everyone was done headed to the quaint, little lodge for delicious cocoa and rounds of knit checkers on a stump. By the time our tree was shaken, bound and loaded up behind our big white van, everyone was ready to go. We all packed up and headed home, and that was the end of our 2018 Christmas tree hunt!

Flufferman

One day, when we were driving our car- actually, we were just waiting at a stop light- we saw a baby bunny run by. We were pointing it out, when it ran into the road. We were thinking about how skinny it looked, when it ran under our car. We were running out of the car to get it, when the light turned green. Then we got honked at, cause' we were at the front of the stop light lane we were in. Eben got a PVC pipe and got the bunny out from under the car. It was wedged not in front of, not in back of but under the side of the tire, so that if we moved at all we would kill it. Eben picked it up and we put in in a cardboard box to take home, because we didn't know if it was injured or not. I held it on the way home, and we stopped by the pet store and picked up a water bottle and some bunny food. It was actually more like bunny treats, but it helped fatten her up. We found out she was OK, but probably couldn't survive in the wild. We played with it for a little bit and made it a little cardboard box-house.

After a few days, she kept almost jumping out, so we moved her to the kitchen and put a fireplace gate at the entrance. Some of our friends said it was a girl, and we named her 'Flufferman Butterscotch Charles Baby Bunny Caramel Buttercup', Fluffy for short. After about a month and a half, we moved Fluffy to Mama and Dada's bathroom, because it's really big, under construction and is not in the way. We had originally planned to keep her until she died, but this is about three months later and she's three times the size she was originally! Mama loves her and lets her go outside every day for like eight hours. She loves her so much that she ate her for dinner one night! --> Just kidding.

 She never leaves the property, except for one night when it was dark and we found her frolicking in the middle of the road at the foot of a raccoon tree. She's not the smartest of rabbits. 

Now Flufferman is really big and comes right up to you when you call her. We hope she lives a good, long bunny life (without getting eaten!).

This is baby- Flufferman, to the left and 

now- Flufferman below.

Basket of Presents

Every time Nonnie and Poppie come,
They bring a present that's usually gum.
For Opal, that is, but for Berg something dandy-
A medium bag of sweet cotton candy!
For Kivi and Jasper, some animal crackers -
No wait, those are Tuff's, Jasper and I get some whoppers!
While Eben gets balloons, to fill up with water,
Pella gets a rake, Dada's cute little daughter.
Before we accept these gifts of small size,
We must dance a dance made by Larry LaPrise.
We call it basket of presents,
For the best of grandparents,
Put it all in a giant basket.

Youth Group!

Just a few weeks ago I graduated into middle school! At church, when you graduate, you get to go on stage and get a bible and they (Mr. Heath and Mrs. Nikki) tell you that you can't go back to Promiseland unless you are helping and that now you can either help in Agape Land, the little kid classes, or you can stay and go to big church with your parents. On Wednesday nights you are now allowed to go to youth group, which I have actually been going to since last summer. They let me come because I do sixth grade work and Mama says I am mature enough. At youth group we play games, then go upstairs and worship, and then somebody, usually Mr. Heath, talks. Mr. Heath is the youth group leader. Twice a year there are also camps. There is the summer camp and the winter camp. I haven't been to either, neither has Eben, but most of our friends went and said the camps were great! My excuse for not going has been that I am saving up for a trip to Mexico, which is true, I just have no idea when it's happening. In a few weeks, wait, maybe it's next week when we are at camp... I mean in a few weeks it will be ice cream social night where we welcome all of the new sixth graders to middle school, which will be fun. I think that middle school is great!

Nonnie and Poppie

Nonnie and Poppie are our grandparents. We call them Nonnie and Poppie because we already have a Grandma and Grandpa and everyone on Mama's side of the family is named something different. We have Dodie and Buggy, our Aunts, Unka Cheese and Uncle Cookie, our Uncles and Mimi, our great-grandma. Nonnie and Poppie live in California, but come down to W.A. every two weeks and stay for two weeks. They always drive, and sometimes take Mimi. They own like six rentals down here and more up in C.A. They helped us fix up our new house and work on our old house too. They also help us with our rentals. Poppie is a handy-man and Nonnie paints and watches us kids. They are very fun Nonnie and Poppies and I love them.

The Cast Party!

This year at our cast party for the Spring pageant, almost everyone in the play came! It was at our house instead of at the gym like last time. First we ate hot dogs and chips and cookies, and then we all piled on the bean bags in the basement to watch the play on the projector. It was fun and everybody knew everybody else lines, and so we were doing the whole play in unison! The middle school kids went on a kayaking trip to one of the rivers while we watched because Mama said they could and they had already seen it a bunch of times. They didn't get back for a few hours. After we were done watching, we all went outside and swam in the lake. It was the first time we swam in the lake for the fun of it! Dada got rid of most of the seaweed and there is sand about four feet out from the rocks. We also had a water balloon fight, curtesy of Squishy and his birthday, and I got hit in the head from a foot away by all of the boys. We also jumped on the trampoline and after everybody else left we built forts and had a nerf war with the Well's boys. Chuggy and I got to ride on Mr. Evart's boat while Dada, Mr. Everts, and Mr. Wells wake surfed. It was a fun day!

This Year's Spring Pagent

Every year our church, LC3, all of us kids kindergarten through fifth grade do a musical if we want to. This year it was called "Kidz Under Construction" and was about a lady named Monica Fisher, who was played by me, and she is news reporter who comes to know Christ. This Sunday there will be a cast party and all us actors will watch the play for the first time. There was one scene in the pageant where Woody and Piper (Jasper and a girl from church) were fighting and they had a whole stomp routine with their crews (Opal was on Piper's and Berg was on Woody's). It was fun and I had my own make-up person, Sally, who was played by Bethany, my partner last year and I really like her. I personally think that last year's play was better, but this one had longer songs and I got a bigger part. Mama also moved up from Dance Coordinator to Director, and Marlee moved up from assistant Dance Coordinator to the Dance Coordinator! It was fun, but also scheduled for the late months of Mama being pregnant, through Mama's due date and the play happened when she had a newborn baby! Our good Dada was in charge of Coal, Tuff and Pella. He was rocking Coal in his car seat with his foot while feeding Tuffy snacks and making sure he didn't disrupt the musical while Pella was enjoying the play and trying to wave to us. He did really good, but finally had to leave right before it was over because Coal started crying. Or was it Tuff...? Anyways it was a good play and I think a good one for being my last year. I will go into middle school officially soon, and then I won't be allowed. Oh well. By the way, Nonnie, I am sorry you didn't get to see it. I'll try to get Mama to email it to you once we have it. Bye!