me in England                 February, ‘07

  Eliza and I in Chicago                     September, ‘07

  At the Indianapolis Zoo              July, ‘07

  Medieval costume that I made               May, ‘07

   Picture that I drew

This is an essay that I wrote for my English class.

Christmas

Christmas is oneof my favorite holidays. For us, getting ready for Christmas starts on the day after Thanksgiving. We take our Christmas tree and ornaments out of the attic to set them up downstairs. It is exciting to see the old, familiar decorations that we haven’t used all year. One of my favorite parts of Christmas is the lights. Have you ever driven by houses in the snow, at night, before Christmas? The white lights almost look like tiny stars, twinkling in the dark. Christmas always seems more special when there is a little snow. We can come inside from the snow, all wet and cold, and drink hot chocolate by the Christmas tree. I like shopping for Christmas gifts. It is fun to wonder what the person will think, and try to look for things they will especially like. We keep our wrapped presents under the Christmas tree until we open them. The sight of the brightly wrapped  packages under the soft glow of the lighted tree makes me impatient and excited. Sometimes Eliza and I look at the names on the gifts, to see which are for us, and remember what we got for each other. We always open one present on St. Nicholas day, December 6th, and one on Christmas Eve. Our friends, the Barnabys come over on Christmas Eve for a traditional Polish dinner. In the evening we fill each other’s stockings and open our one gift. Then we set up beds in the living room and sleep by the Christmas tree. In the morning we clean up our bedding and eat breakfast before opening presents. We have a special breakfast of coffeecake on Christmas morning. After that, we open presents and then just relax for the rest of the day. I had a really fun Christmas this year.