Red & Green

Only 13 days left and only 5 school days until Christmas! Sunny and I are counting the days, hours, even minutes, until that joyous day! I feel like bursting into a Christmas carol right about now... LOL!

On another note, the last day of the Secret Santa gift exchange was yesterday, and I had a ton of fun! Gwen couldn't believe that her Secret Santa was me. And, believe it or not, Elizabeth wasn't my Secret Santa. She had Emily. My Secret Santa was Noelle! She said she made her handwriting look like Elizabeth's to keep me off the scent, and it did work! I hope we can do Secret Santa next year, too.

Anyways, today Sunny had a red and green photo shoot with her sister's doll, Emily. The pictures are posted below:

(The text on this last picture is hard to see but it'll show up better if you enlarge it, I think)

Cali***

Holiday Must-Reads!

Emily and I have collected a grand total of 300 cans so far. Hopefully we'll collect at least 200 more during the next two days. If so, then (if the other groups collected 500, too) we will have met our goal of 2000 cans. I can't wait to see how the people we're donating the cans to will react when we bring them all those delicious food items. Emily and I volunteered to go to the shelter with Mrs. Devon and pass out the cans.

Anyways, the holidays are fast approaching, and winter is nearly here. Emily and I thought it would be fun to give you a list of our top 5 favorite holiday books. Enjoy!

#5: Felicity's Surprise by Valerie Tripp

Felicity is invited to the governor's palace for a Christmas ball. Unfortunately, her mother is too ill to make her a gown. Will Felicity be able to go to the ball and wear a beautiful dress? Find out in Felicity's Surprise!

#4: Little House Christmas Treasury by Laura Ingalls Wilder

A collection of holiday stories from Laura and her family. All stories are actual excerpts from the original Little House on the Prairie book series.

#3: Kirsten's Surprise by Janet Shaw

Kirsten goes with her father to pick up her special trunk. She and her cousins also plan a Swedish surprise!

#2: Molly's Surprise by Valerie Tripp

Molly misses her father a lot. She thinks that this Christmas will be completely different with him away. She's right, but not entirely. A special surprise greets her on Christmas morning that is almost just as good.

#1: On Christmas Eve by Ann M. Martin

Tess really wants to meet Santa, so she decides to stay awake and see him for herself at the time of enchantment, midnight on Christmas Eve.

I hope these summaries gave you a good idea of what these fun, thrilling, and enchanted stories are about. Happy reading! :-)

Cali*** and ^Emily^

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Yep, the holiday season is fast approaching! Stores are filled with Christmas displays and television is loaded with those cheesy holiday commercials. Even though it's super hectic, I can't help but LOVE the November and December months. They're just so much fun!

Anyway, today was the first day of the Fall Food Drive. We collected approximately 350 cans today; not bad for the first day. Hopefully, we'll get more cans tomorrow! Emily has been opening up to me. She was really shy at the beginning, but now we're actually talking and cooperating together. Today we went to the nearby elementary school and collected cans from there. Then we went around the adjacent neighborhoods and asked for donations. Not many people were home, but those that were donated at least 1 can, which was very helpful of them.

With Thanksgiving a little over a week away, school has been pretty relaxed. We didn't have much homework tonight (YAY!) and tomorrow my friend Molly says there might be none! All the teachers seem to be doing in class is fall and Thanksgiving crafts, recipes, and movies. I do like school, but, well...who doesn't like watching movies more than solving a bunch of algebra problems?

I hope all of you are having a great week! Happy Thanksgiving :-)

Cali***

Fall Food Drive

Every year, around Thanksgiving, Frosted Meadows School for Girls holds their annual food drive, where students go door to door around their neighborhoods and ask for cans/nonperishable foods to donate to the Fall Food Drive. Every year we donate the cans we receive to families in need and people who are going through rough times. It's a really fun event and I enjoy helping out!

Today was the first meeting. Mrs. Devon, an 8th grade teacher, is managing the drive. She seemed really nice and funny, too. Mrs. Devon had some great ideas for the food drive. Our slogan this year is "A Can You Can Lend To Be A Friend!" This girl Sandy Silvester came up with it. She seemed kind of annoying at the meeting but her slogan was quite catchy, I must admit. After we thought up a slogan and the week we'll be doing the Fall Food Drive (next week), Mrs. Devon paired all of us. Jane and Noelle aren't on Student Council, so they couldn't participate but Kirsten was. I was dreading having her as a partner. She's nice and all, but, well, she can get a tad bit bossy.

Yet, amazingly, I wasn't paired with Kirsten. My partner was this little red haired girl named Emily Bennett. Emily looked shy, so I was guessing she wouldn't be bossy like Kirsten, which was a major relief in my opinion. We chatted for a while about where we planned to ask for cans and when we should meet up. Emily didn't do much, except nod or say "Mmm-hmm" here and there. Although, I was excited about having her as a partner, I couldn't help but feel like I was doing all the work and making all the decisions.

Tomorrow night I'm going over to Emily's dormitory so we can discuss some more. I'm hoping she'll be a little more talkative and helpful tomorrow, but we'll have to see.

Anyways, the meeting went really great. At the end Mrs. Devon passed out sugar cookies shaped like autumn leaves and everyone had a grand old time. I think we're going to have a great Fall Food Drive this year!

Cali***

PS- Emily's person is Sunny's sister, Marigold.