Mrs. Yollis did a post on ice skating which gave us an idea to go ice skating. Mrs Yollis looked like she was having so much fun that I asked my Mom to take me ice skating too. My cousins, my sister, and my mom all went to ice skate. We put on our ski suit to keep us warm and so when we fell it wouldn't hurt. It was an indoor ice rink and it was freezing inside.
Arabesque
After I got my skates on, I tried the ice and it was very slippery and made me feel like I was going to fall. Once I did my first lap around the rink, I started to get used to the ice and even tried to do some tricks. There were two girls in the middle of the rink doing some really cool tricks, like jumps and turns that I tried to copy but I couldn't really do it. I think they take ice skating classes. Then I tried some tricks like spins and split jumps and sometimes I did it, but I fell most of the time. Lucky I had my ski pants on so it didn't hurt to fall. The thing I really wanted to learn was to skate backwards but I was not able to do it. Maybe next time.
My favorite part was skating with my mom holding up my leg. When we were getting ready to go home, I asked my mom if we could come again next week, because I really liked it there.
In September, I auditioned to play violin for the junior orchestra. For the audition, I had to play two songs and three scales that I learned. During the audition, the conductor gave me a piece of music I had never seen before, and asked me to play it to make sure I know how to sight read (read music notes). I was really nervous because there were many older kids waiting in line with us. After I played, the conductor told me that I made it in and I was really excited. We practice every Saturday from 9:00 am until 11:30 am. The conductor is really nice and she decides the songs we will play for our concert. Everyone in the orchestra must practice their part during the week on their own so that when we play together it sounds good.
In November, we had our first concert of the year. We played Themes From Harry Potter, by John Williams, Hansel and Gretel, by Engelbert Humperdinck, Holiday Dances by Mark Williams, and Trepak which is from The Nutcracker by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
The day of the concert was very busy. We had to arrive early in the morning because we had a dress rehearsal. Everyone had to have black skirt or pants, white shirt, and black shoes. We played each song just once on stage because there was an older orchestra group waiting to rehearse. After the dress rehearsal, we had lunch and rested before the concert. When I was finished playing, we stayed and watched the older kids play. They played beautifully. Their pieces were really hard. I hope will someday play in adult orchestra!
Below is a video of part of our performance. At first my mom had a hard time finding me, but by the third song (minute 4:35 in the video) she finally figured out where I was sitting.
It was a week after new year, and I noticed that most of the trees in our neighborhood were bare. The leaves have long turned brown and have fallen to the ground. The only trees with leaves are the evergreen trees that stay green all year long.
Photo by Miriam
As I drove into our driveway, I saw these two beautiful trees standing in our front yard. They were the first colorful trees on our block. They have these little white flowers that cover the whole tree, and when the wind blows, the flowers fall off like snowflakes. Miriam did a post about this tree last year and found out that it is an ornamental pear tree. An ornamental tree is a tree that looks beautiful but doesn't give any fruits that you can eat. It is too bad that it isn't a real pear tree.
Now when you come to our home you better be careful. The tree is full with buzzing bees. I can hear them buzzing from my bedroom window. The bees are more interested in the flowers than people, and they have not stung anyone yet.
Do you have any interesting or beautiful trees growing in your neighborhood?
Every year on Dec 31st, my family and friends come over to Grandma's house to celebrate New Years, and my aunt's Elana's birthday. This year, my cousins, aunt, uncle, great aunt and great uncle, great great grandfather and family friends all came over to celebrate.
My great great grandfather is 92 years old!
My grandma always makes a lot of food such as beef stuffed cabage and different kinds of salads. This year, my dad made a large turkey, just like the one we had for Thanksgiving. My favorite was the turkey. For dessert we had chocolate, ice cream, and cake. I didn't really like the cakes but I really liked ice cream and chocolate. It was my aunts birthday so we put 6 candles because she is 26 years old and we all sang happy birthday.
I brought my violin to the party and I played Happy Birthday to my aunt and a couple other songs that I recently learned. My aunt and the other guests liked how I played.
We were all playing and having fun and then all of a sudden, my grandma calls everyone into the living room and said, its fifteen minutes until New Years! This was the first year that I stayed up until midnight. My grandfather pored Champagne into everyone's glasses and we watched on television as the New Year's Eve ball slowly dropped down. When it was 10 seconds until midnight, all of my family members counted down until 0. Then we all started to scream and hugged and said Happy New Year to each other.
It was a week after new year, and I noticed that most of the trees in our neighborhood were bare. The leaves have long turned brown and have fallen to the ground. The only trees with leaves are the evergreen trees that stay green all year long.
Every year on Dec 31st, my family and friends come over to Grandma's house to celebrate New Years, and my aunt's Elana's birthday. This year, my cousins, aunt, uncle, great aunt and great uncle, great great grandfather and family friends all came over to celebrate. 
