BALLET WEST NUTCRACKER

As you all know, I love Christmas, but of course we've already been through all of this. (BTW, only 26 days until Christmas ) But this afternoon I went to see my cute 11-year-old sister in The Ballet West Nutcracker as a Party Girl. Now, I have special connection with the Ballet West Nutcracker because I have been in it for 4 years, and my family has participated in it for 7.

The first year that I was in the Ballet West Nutcracker I was a Party Girl, like my little sister. I was in an adorable blue dress, because I was the "Military/Sailor Girl". I wore my hair in two cute braids on top of my head, tied with silky blue ribbons. The next year I was a lead soldier, as the Drummer, and the next year I was the Rifleman. The Rifleman and Drummer are the two main parts for soldiers, so I guess I'm just especially stiff. The last year I was in it (last year), I was an oriental servant. I wasn't able to be in it this year, due to my broken seismoid. However, I am totally planning on participating next year!

The nutcracker is great. I totally recommend anyone to attend the Ballet West Nutcracker at Christmas time. I love the choreography, the costumes, and everything about it. It makes it so fun to watch, since I've been in it so many times and know a lot of the parts, but it's also fun because I know a lot of the people in the company, and have been taught and made friends with a lot of them. It's fabulous to watch them each year, and see them do their parts. I also attend other Ballet West performences, but The Nutcracker is definetely one of my favorites. It just has that special Christmas spirit, and it also involves dancing, two things that I love! They change little things in The Nutcracker each year, and it's great to watch and see if I can notice them. They have a little Nutcracker Boutique with all sorts of little ornaments and Nutcrackers and snow globes and stuffed animals. I look forward to getting a new thing from the boutique each year to add to my collection of decorations.

The Nutcracker starts out with Drosslemier and his Nephew walking to a family Christmas party one dark, snowy night. There are carolers and someone selling chestnuts waiting outside the host's door, and then they enter the party. Next the party girls and boys come out to the party, and do a few cute little dances. The girls are presented with dolls, and the boys with trumpets. Then the parents come in the room, and they dance and have a good party. Drosslemier presents Clara, the host and hostess' little girl, with a Nutcracker, and she is very excited. Soon the party is over, and Clara sneaks out to sleep on the couch with her nutcracker. She falls into a deep sleep, and her dream comes to life on the stage. Mice and little soldiers are fighting each other, as well as The Nutcracker (which comes to life) and the Mouse King. The Mouse king dies, and the Nutcracker turns into a prince. He takes Clara to the world of Candy land or something like that, and dozens of performers dance for Clara and the Prince.

I highly recommend the Ballet West Nutcracker for the Christmas season! If you are interested in tickets, just call 1-800-355-2787.

WEDDINGS

Girls are so weird. We sit around and day dream about getting married, dating, and plan our future out, and obsess over everything. Boys, on the other hand, could care less about who they marry, when, why, how, etc. It's pretty funny, because I now have experience on this subject. I was being a "match-maker", and setting up these two people [lol]. I made a chart about everything that had to do with a wedding: Pictures, food, proposal, place, invitations, budget, etc. The girl filled everything out in a jiffy, and then we gave it to the boy. He was so stubborn. Maybe it was just because he thought we were freaks, but he took forever to even look at it, and when he did, he just said,"I agree with everything." So disappointing.

So why is it that girls care about their future and boys don't? I really don't know; it beats me. I think it's so funny to plan everything out, and have everything set up and ready! But boys on the other hand want nothing to do with it. It's hilarious.

When I was in...6th grade I think, my dad told me the terrible news that my uncle was going to be getting married. I was horrified. I just could not believe it. He was my favorite uncle, and I couldn't believe that he was betraying me like this! So after I was horrified, I became so angry! And when I become angry I start planning, mostly revenge. My older sister, who was equally horrified, decided to be my evil accomplice, and we began to plan. It was classic. Two pre-teens planning revenge on a 40-year-old man. When we learned that he and his fiancée were coming to visit, we decided that was the perfect time to launch our evilness...

That spring René and his wife Michel came, and we were ready. Before they arrived I made a special effort to be transported to my Grandmother's house were they were staying so that I could sabotage their room. I stole all the hangers, put random stuff down the covers of their bed, taped the blinds so that I would have a peephole from the outside, and left notes in all of the drawers of all the dressers and night stands.

On the day of their arrival my sister and I had planned out that I was going to dress up as Edna Mode with this afro wig and 100-year-old glasses. I had super tight, short stretch pants, and gave my self a fake mole, and stuffed my butt with pillows. It was pretty scary. My sister wanted me to practice for when my uncle came, so she bribed me to go to all my neighbors houses and say,"I"m an oooooold grannyyyyy." It was totally weird. I can't believe I actually did it. *sigh* Anyways, when my uncle came I totally chickened out on the Edna Mode thing, be we had lots of other plans; he invited us to his wedding that fall - big mistake. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend that historically phenomenal event, but I did send my evil accomplice to carry out my devilish plans of horror. She decorated their car, and tied cans behind it, put whipping cream under the door handles, and other things that I'm not totally aware of. But it was funny. My uncle has never looked at me the same since...haha. He's just better not do that at MY wedding...

School

School is great, sure. You get an education so that you can get a nice dandy job in the future, you'll know what's going on in the world, and you'll be easily obeying the law. Great. Exciting. In fact, in most other countries they arn't this lucky. So I should be grateful, right? Ya...except for one little thing; teachers. Teachers are great people considering that they are working for such a low salary compared to other jobs, and put up with all us stupid kids, but....they just don't understand. Let me explain how I believe the mind of the teacher works:

MIND OF A TEACHER

90% of brain spent thinking about = my class

8% of brain spent thinking about=kid's other classes

2% of brain spent thinking about=maybe I should recongnize that the kids probably have other homework in their other classes besides mine

Yes. Teachers seems to never recognize that we students do have 7 other classes to worry about, not just theirs. They keep thinking that we have nothing to do and hardly any homework because they don't think they gave us that much...in their class anyway. Do I have time to do 2 hours of Algebra 2 homework, 1 hour of Biology homework, another hour of english and what about Computer Technology, Spanish, Geography, etc. I actually have a life besides school. I have to stay in shape. I like to dance. I like my Alissa-time. Homework is good, but only to a certain point. Half the time it's not the actual homework that's hard, it's just fitting in time to do all the time-consuming projects. PLUS I have Mrs. Money for Algebra 2. Now, it's not Mrs. Money I'm complaining about, it's the math. Algebra 2 is just really hard for my to understand. Don't laugh at me- I'm not good at everything. I have to be bad at some things. Seriously. It's my hardest class with the most homework, and it's the toughest to understand. But I try.

I found this really cool website that I like called Vocabulary Builder. It has a "word of the day" and I copy it down in my writing notebook so that I can learn new words. Here's a link:

http://www.superkids.com/aweb/tools/words/wod.shtml

Check it out! It's really cool. There's different levels to click on, and they teach you new words each day. I think it's a good way to improve your vocabulary. There's also other links to click on that all involve building your vocabulary. It's a really good site. Another thing I want to try that has to do with vocabulary is writing in my journal in Spanish to improve my spanish writing. I think it'd be really cool! I think learning another language is really important for our educations. It really helps me out, anyway. And not only do we learn the other language, we also learn about the culture in that country. It's amazing. We learn about what dances they do, how they live, their traditions, etc.

:)

The Christmas Post

There is much debate over this subject, but yes, I become obsessed with Christmas after Halloween. People like my mother, however, complain that you shouldn't even starting thinking about Christmas until after Thanksgiving. Unfortunatly for her, my obsession with Christmas cannot be cured.

Let me just first get this point across: Christmas is indeed the best holiday (in my book), and I love everything about it. The lights, the food, the feelings, the weather, the activities, the presents, the giving, the family, the music, the parties, the decorations...everything. I mean, I just love it! Every year I bring out my box of Christmas decorations and make my room very Christmasy. I have a nutcracker collection, complete with mini nutcrakers, tall ones, fat ones, glass ones, wood ones, etc. I also have sparkly sequin streamers and tons of little ornaments. I have a place for all the presents I get from people before the actual date, and also cards and things from past years. I have a mini Christmas tree that I set up, and tons of stuff from the Ballet West Nutcracker that I participate in (well except this year since I broke my foot).

Now when the time does come, my mother is very picky about Christmas. She has to have a very expensive tree with matching ornaments, and it has to be decorated how she wants it. The wrapping paper of the presents under the tree has to match with the tree decorations, or else it has to be re-wrapped. We have to have cute lights outside our house, and none of the bulbs can be burned out, or else my dad has to climb up there right away and change it. They have to glow to a certain brightness and give off a certain vibe when seen. Yes, crazy, I know. But it's actually quite nice sometimes, to have a beautifully lit Christmas tree with lots of matching presents under it :).

Some Christmas traditions that my family has are: A family Christmas party on the 19th. We all get together at my cousin's mansion in Alpine and have food, play games, give gifts, and hang out with the family. Luckily, my family is not boring, and each year is filled with the funnest games ever, and running around with the cousins and being maniacs, while filling up on tons of junk. My grandmother also gives our parents a big box before we leave, and on Christmas Eve we get to open the packages for us inside. We all already know that they're PJs, but the fun of it is to see what kind of PJs you get...

Christmas morning is the best moment on earth. I love it. I know, I'm still like a little kid, and I have contests with my sisters to see who can wake-up first. But let me tell you, it's fun...mostly because I always win. On Christmas I just always wake-up early (I'm talking 2 A.M.) no matter what! Of course I have to wait until I get the OK from my parents to come out, but whoever makes it to the tree first is the winner (usually ME!). I love getting and giving presents. It's way fun. I love the surprise of getting cool stuff, and the look on people's faces when they see what you got them. I always try to pick out the best suited gift possible for my family members.

Christmas day, always filled with playing with new toys and eating with the family, always promises to be great one. Not to mension winter break from school, and all the snow! I love messing around outside and being mean to my neighbors...hehehe....

One thing that is also very special about Christmas is its simbolism, and what it means to my family. We're LDS, so we always read the Christmas story, and it's great. It's a really nice time to think about what Christmas really means.

The Haunted Box

This Halloween my friends and I had a bit of fun with a "Haunted Box".

Since I couldn't go trick-or-treated because of my foot, (and we're probably too old anyways), my friends and I decided to make a Haunted Box. My friend's mom took her to Lowe's or something, and they were able to pick up a giant dryer box. One of its sides was already cut out, and we also cut a few holes of our own to make things more exciting. Next, we covered it with a big black table clothe, and cut a hole in the top of the box. Then we got a candy bowl, and also cut a hole in the bottom of it. When everything was ready, we filled the bowl with candy and set it on my porch. I still have the box, and its pretty ordinary looking...until you get closer...

When trick-or-treaters started to come, we put the Haunted Box into action. My friends and I climbed inside and let the fun begin. Anyone who came thought it was just a table with a candy bowl on it; they were wrong. We played creepy music and sounds from inside the box, moved the bowl back and forth across the table with strings we tied in, and stuck our hand up into the bowl to grab people's hands. If anyone lifted up the table clothe, we were ready, and sprayed them with silly string. It was pretty hilarious.

One family in my neighborhood (the Jones) have a little boy about 10 years old. The Joneses' son came to our porch and lifted up the table clothe. We sprayed him good, and he ran away crying, no joke. It was great.

We had all colors of silly string. Mine was green, my friends was pink. Hers was especially sticky, so it was hilarious to spray people with hers and watch them try to get it off. One family that was really funny was the Webers. The three girl's costumes were really cute, and they all came over. When the lifted up the table clothe, they wished they haden't. After they came, almost everyone was seriously afraid to come to my house. The children's parents weren't very happy. HAHA.

Next, these fat girls came. They were all wearing these disgusting costumes that were really revealing, and we decided to get them. They didn't lift up the talbe clothe, but we decided to get them anyways. We sprayed like maniacs, and the women's costumes were covered in pink and green silly string. It was so funny. What can I say? We're amazing.

I wish I could've done it all night long, but pretty soon it was late, and little kids were too scared to come. Haha. I hope we can do it again next year, because it was the best!

How To get Shelfari Onto Your Blog!

Ok so, one day I was just randomly messing around on the computer and I mysteriously figured out how to get my Shelfari shelf onto my blog. It was really cool. Then I realized that I didn't know how I did it. Soooo, I went back and discovered the secret that I accidentally discovered. So, if you want to be able to get your shelf onto your blog (like at the bottom of mine) just follow these instructions:

First: Log onto your Shelfari account. When you are at the home page, look for the tabs in the middle of the page that say HOME, PROFILE, FRIENDS, etc. Make sure you arn't looking at the tabs at the top of the page - they are the ones in the middle of the page! :)

The very last tab says MORE, with a little down arrow. Put your mouse over that arrow, and the following list should appear:

The very last option on the MORE list says My Widgets. Click on that.

Next a bunch of Widget options will come up on the page. Near the bottom it will say CREATE A NEW WIDGET. Click on that.

Now your computer will show a big blue box telling you to add your shelf onto your blog...

In the top right corner of that screen it will have a little thing saying enter your blog's URL and GET STARTED. I don't think I entered my blog's URL; I just clicked right on GET STARTED.

Next you choose your widget destination, or the website that you want your shelf to appear on. Obviesly, you choose Blogger, unless you want to put your shelf on some other website.

Once you pick Blogger, a list will come up, asking you to choose which book you want on your shelf. Books you've read, you're reading, Favorites, etc.

Once you pick that, you click on Customize your widget in the top right corner.

Here you can choose what your widget's name, what color of shelf, and all that extra stuff, but the most important things is that you enter your blogs website address.

On the right side of the screen it will display a preview of your widget. Make sure it looks how you want it to, and then click Save and Continue right above the preview.

On the next page it should have a grey button that says INSTALL ON BLOGGER.

Now your shelf should be on your blog. Check and make sure! I hope it works for everyone!