Christmas Letter

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B23-9cq3fncAUXRjLXUwbXJqc3M/edit?hl=en-US&forcehl=1 (click link to open in Google Docs)

December Overview

This has been quite a busy month! Let's see... the last update was FLL... what's happened since then? *gets out calendar* 

Thursday the 13th was rather busy! Gloria and I had a violin lesson in the early afternoon and Mom taught an organ lesson a bit later, but the big event was the SCCCHE Christmas concert. Glorpes Galore (including Cecily and Thor) performed two dances, Knut sang I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas with Joe Phillips, Cecily performed a flute duet with Eleanor S. and her flute teacher Mrs. King, Peterson Family Singers sang Shepherd's Joy, and the SCCCHE pickup orchestra accompanied two audience carols. 

SCCCHE Pickup Orchestra - Photo Credit: Tim Jones

About an hour after we got home from the concert, Knut, Thor, Papa and I went to the O'Fallon movie theater for the midnight premiere of The Hobbit! As to WHY we decided to go at midnight of an already-hectic day... we're crazy. ;) As to HOW my father actually agreed to such a ridiculous plan... let's just say that Knut and Thor have amazing persuasion abilities! It was nearly 4 a.m. before we got home. :) 

Discussing the movie in the car on the way home, we each had quite different opinions. Thor said, simply, "Wow." Knut loved it as well. Papa was disappointed by the movie; he said there were too many orc battles and not enough storyline. I agreed with him about the overabundance of battles, but overall, I thought it was very well-done. Usually I'm something of a book purist, but though the movie deviated from the book in several significant points, material was added, not taken away. These additions brought in some really neat elements to the story, as well as background material for The Lord of the Rings. If it weren't for the excessive orc battles (I closed my eyes at several points) and some unnecessary crude humor, this movie would have been just about perfect. :) 

The next day- Friday the 14th- was much less busy. ;) The only thing on the calendar was a cookie exchange in Mascoutah that I was invited to. It was quite fun indeed! There were some astoundingly brilliant girls there... while playing trampoline Ninja, they shared their ideas for how Ninja can solve the problems of the world... specifically in the realms of war and energy. *solemn nod* 

Sunday was the Mascoutah Community Christmas concert! Peterson Family Singers sang Shepherd's Joy (again), and the senior choir from church (including Knut and me) sang John Rutter's Angel's Carol. (Beautiful piece...)

Cecily and I were invited to the Christmas party for the Bright Lights Belleville group on Monday. It was awesome to catch up with girls we hadn't seen for quite some time. (Thank you so much, Allison, for including us!) 

On Tuesday, Bright Lights and his Lighthouse came together for a caroling party. After singing at a nursing home and an assisted living center, we came back to Shady Oaks where Grandpa and Grandma Davis bravely hosted the group of about 50 people! 

We had family photos taken at Portrait Innovations last Thursday! Miraculously, everyone is actually smiling for this photo! Even li'l Leif is smiling in his sleep. :) 

Grandpa and Grandma Peterson arrived yesterday afternoon! Sadly, they're only staying for a few days, then heading down to Florida to spend New Year's with the Travis Peterson family, and then moving on from there to Texas to visit Noah and Marina. We get them for Christmas, though! :) 

Peterson Family Singers will be singing at Gloria's and my violin concert tonight. The piece will be... you guessed it... Shepherd's Joy. We'll also be singing it at church on Christmas Eve! It's quite a fun piece. :D

A dose of cuteness:

Leif (actually set down! *gasp) 

FLL

The big news:

Robo Raiders have advanced to Worlds!! 

When I saw them in Research Presentation, Core Values, and Technical judging, I was astounded by how much their team has grown this year. They have become a fabulous team! 

They were up against some great teams in the Regionals competition yesterday. They only scored 19th in the Robot game (their robot was malfunctioning), but the judges were extremely impressed by their robot's design. 

The accordions featured prominently the entire day. Cameron and Knut learned the Chicken Dance on their accordions, and played it whenever the team was going to one of the judging rooms. At one point they had several refs dancing along!

Knut collects buttons from other teams at each FLL competition and puts them on the leg of his jeans. I believe his total count is currently 44. 

Knut waiting outside the room for Core Values judging.

Waiting for Technical judging, being silly (as usual).

Scott and Joe at the Robot table, getting ready to compete in Round 1

The Robot Game: six teams competed at once at three different tables. There were three rounds, and the highest score of the three counted toward the team's score. 

The victorious team and coaches with their Champions' Award trophy

Team, coaches, and family members (at least, the ones who came along for the day)

Great job, Robo Raiders, and congratulations! 

NaNoWriMo

Note: If you don't know what NaNoWriMo is, click here: ywp.nanowrimo.org

I know I've been posting a lot in the past few days, and I also know that non-writers probably won't find this interesting... but I have to post anyway to get it out of my system. Otherwise...  otherwise I must might start bouncing around the house, screaming and scaring the poor little baby. And we couldn't have that. ;)

I originally hoped to do a 25,000 word goal, but then I realized that my story didn't have that much in it, so I switched to 20k goal. That's pretty short for a novel... novella or novelette would be more accurate.

The first 2/3 of the month was crazy with other stuff like Drama, choir concerts, Lyceum, etc... I wrote about 1,500 words, then was too busy to do any more. On the twentieth, I realized that I'd been writing in third person when I meant to write in first, and that I had some pretty major plot issues. So I did some tweaking to my outline and restarted. Yeah... I restarted. With ten days to go.

My poor family is AMAZING... they have put up with so much from me the past few days. Touchiness and mood swings after I'd been writing an emotional scene... forgetfulness... being 'zoned out' so I didn't even hear them when they tried to talk to me... incessant talking about characters and their misbehavior... exceedingly random questions... Thor lent me a toy gun so that I could swing around on Mom's old crutches, trying to figure out whether it was possible to do so while holding a gun ready... and absent-mindedness. A few examples of this, posted at the insistence of *cough* a certain friend (whose name may or may not begin with a "J" and end with an "l", with the letters "a" and "e" in between) are as follows:

(I'm in the kitchen fixing dinner; Mom is in the great room.)
Mom: Um... Sylvia? Do you need me to come in there and give you step-by-step instructions?
Me: O_o Um... I opened the package, took out the meat, put it in the skillet...
Mom: Then why did I hear the stove turn on?
Me: *facepalm* I don't know.
Mom: You mean you didn't turn it on?
Me: No. I mean I don't know why I turned it on. I brought up the electric skillet like you said. But then I put the meat in the frying pan. I'm not quite sure why. I think I need to get my mind out of my novel. 

I forgot to turn on the stove when I was heating up the frozen corn. 

I also put the salt in the fridge. 

 My poor mother was shocked to find me still up some time after 1 a.m. three nights ago when she was up with the baby. Last night I warned her in advance that I would be up late, but she was still surprised when she heard me going upstairs at 6 in the morning, though she was relieved when I told her I'd fallen asleep downstairs a couple hours before.

My brain is dead.

BUT I HAVE FINISHED NANOWRIMO. 

And I am SO doing NaNo again next year. :D Maybe I can make it to 30k... or maybe even switch from the young writers' program to the "real" program with a goal of 50k. *gasp* We'll see what the next year brings. ;)

A few more pictures...

Doing school this morning...

Leif's "coming home" party (a day late), with a cake given to us by Mrs. Bridges. Having tasted her cake before, we knew that only a VERY special occasion would merit eating it, so Mom put it in the freezer in anticipation for this day. :D 

THANK YOU, MRS. BRIDGES!!!!!

Is that not the most angelic little face you have ever seen?

Teeny guy, big guy... 

An admiring crowd follows Leif wherever he goes! :D 

:'(

Snuggle time with Mommy. :)

I'll (try to) stop posting now. ;) 

If you don't like baby pictures, this post is not for you!

Leif Barnabas Peterson

Born November 26 at 5:20 p.m. 

7 lbs, 9 oz (Mom's 2nd biggest baby!) 

18 inches long 

Cutest. Baby. Ever!!! 

*Note: Leif is pronounced Layf.

Rosemary holding Leif 

Bjorn holding Leif 

Gloria holding Leif 

Thor holding Leif (he couldn't stop laughing!) 

Cecily holding Leif 

Knut holding Leif 

Sylvia holding Leif 

Grandma holding Leif 

Grandpa holding Leif 

Mommy holding Leif :)

Leif enjoying his "celebrity status"  

Charming adorableness!! 

:D Those baby faces...

Hear ye, hear ye!

Be it known 

to all family members, friends, acquaintances, and random strangers who are reading this blog post for some reason or other, that

Leif Barnabas Peterson 

made his appearance at 5:20 p.m. on this 26th day of November, in the year of our Lord 2012. 

His arrival was met with screams, jumping up and down, and general excited pandemonium from the group waiting at home.

Pictures to come. :) 

Mostly Insanity

My apologies in advance for the inferior writing quality of this post. I am attempting to write 90% of a 25,000 word novel (emphasis on attempting... I'm not sure I'll manage it) in the next six days, and I'm saving all my "best" writing for that. ;) If this post is coherent enough to read, that will be a plus!


Latest news:

1. Knut has an accordion.

He is NOT, however, the only one who enjoys playing it! In fact, he practically has to fight "certain" family members to get a chance to play it at all! 

2. No baby yet! We have been asked about this numerous times in the past week or so... everyone's excited! :) The due date is Monday, but of course, there's no guarantee as to when he'll decide to show up. However, the next blog post will probably be a birth announcement! :)

3. Hmm... there's not much going on! Mom intentionally cleared the calendar for these next couple weeks. ;)

And now for some laughs and plenty of randomness!
(I am now fully aware of the fact that those of you who know me "in real life" will take advantage of this easy means of stalking our family, and that I and my siblings will be teased and our own words used against us many times in the coming weeks.) 

Mom: You may not realize it, but despite the talk of bazookas and the danger of being speared by a wooden sword, we really do live in safety. 

Sylvia: And do not interrupt me again... IF YOU VALUE YOUR LIFE. 

Cecily: Okay! Um... by the way... 

Sylvia: *turns to give her death glare* 

Cecily: *exits hurriedly* 

(Explaining the "disrespectful" way to ask a question in French) 

Mom: It's like, "Are you listening, you little twerp??" 

Mom: I know it seems a little redundant, but it's not.

(Cecily walks in and sees that the mirror isn't in the closet where it normally is) 

Cecily: Boy, the closet just doesn't look right without me in it!  

Papa (talking about "Paliacci"): It's an opera where everybody gets stabbed at the end and lives happily ever after. 

Knut: Yeah, Pop; we gotta keep you on your diet. 

Papa: Who says I'm on a diet!? 

Knut: I do. 

Mom: I usually keep Christmas gifts in the closet at the bottom of the stairs.... but it's full of food now. So I put everything in your closet. 

Papa: MY closet!? MY closet!? You put everything in MY CLOSET!? ...Why not somewhere that has more space... like YOUR closet? 

Mom: My closet is full of diapers! 

(later in the conversation) 

Mom: I need a place I can reach. 

Papa: There's not much you CAN reach, Short Stuff! 

Papa: I'm on a diet for the next three hours! 

Thor: *comes upstairs* 

Sylvia: Yes? 

Thor: Can I borrow... *pauses* 

Sylvia: What? 

Thor: Never mind. *goes back downstairs. 

Bjorn: Oh, my. He's weird. 

Knut: But I already KNOW my body parts!

Mom: Then do that quiz today! 

Knut: ... I know my body parts in English. 

Mom: You need to learn FRENCH body parts. 

Knut: You mean the French have different body parts?!?!

Knut: Est-ce que vous êtes grande? (Are you big?)

Sylvia: NON! Je suis petite. (No! I am small.)

Knut: I'm glad you agree. 

Papa: I got three things crossed off my list already! 

Mom: Wow! 

Sylvia: Were they, 'get up, get dressed, and eat breakfast'? 

Papa: No, they were 'make list, do something on list, cross that something off the list'. 

Knut: NOT possessive. PLURAL. 

Mom: Ohhh!!! That warms my heart, Knut! *happy sigh* He sounds like an intelligent and highly-educated young man. 

Mom: Here, have a dead piece of pie! 

Papa: Mom should be calling any minute! Maybe I should call her... 

(phone rings) 

Knut: Or sit by the fire and freeze. 

Sylvia: You're just digging a deeper hole for yourself! 

Knut: No I'm not! I started digging a trench, but then I quit 'cause I got bored. 

Knut: I'm innocent! Seriously! I was just sitting here... playing with a knife... 

Knut: If BJORN was playing with a knife, it wouldn't make HIM awesome. It might make him dead, but it wouldn't make him awesome. 

Sylvia: Cecily, say something amazing. 

Cecily: Hi. 

Sylvia: That's not amazing. 

C: Pnoy. 

Sylvia: That's not amazing. 

Knut: What did she say? 

Sylvia: I don't know, but it wasn't amazing. 

Mom: Comment allez-vous? (How are you?)

Sylvia: Je vais fatiguée. (I go tired.)

Mom: No; you'd say je SUIS fatiguée. (I AM tired)

Sylvia: Whatever. Je SUIS too FATIGUÉE to do stuff properly.

Mom: Somehow, we need to get you on board. 

Knut: On board? Why can't I water ski behind? 

(In science class at Lyceum)

Mrs. Phillips: Do you think putting the salt in a big pile in one place is the most efficient way to melt it? 

(Boy): No. 

Mrs. Phillips: What would be a more efficient way? 

(Boy): Putting it in the microwave. 

Knut: IT'S A MANIACAL DISEASED MONKEY!!!

Knut: *singing* The glorpes cook you and eat you! And Vern make his face to shine upon you; to shine upon you and be gracious, and be gracious unto you. And Vern lift up the light of ultra toaster among you and give you toast, and give you toast! 

(This one will make sense only to those who were in Lyceum Singers and know "The Lord Bless You and Keep You".) 

Sylvia: Short Stuff... Tall Stuff... Halfling... Hobbit... will my nicknames never end!? 

Knut: *singing* These are the nicknames that never end! They go on and on, my friends! Some people started...

Sylvia: Okay, I'm tuning you out now! 

Knut: ONE DOES NOT SIMPLY TUNE ME OUT! 

(At 10:57 p.m.)

Cecily: Sylvia? Sylvia? 

Sylvia: ...hmm? *pause* WHAT?

Cecily: Sylvia? 

Sylvia: You're sleep talking, aren't you... 

Cecily: Sylvia? 

Sylvia: You're asleep! Shush! 

Cecily: What? 

Sylvia: YOU'RE ASLEEP, SO SHUSH!!!

(trying to convince Rosemary to eat her dinner)

Knut: What would you do if I told you that this was ice cream? 

Rosemary: No! 

Knut: I'm very glad; you're a smart baby. Will you eat it anyway?

Mom: *reading* "A wise son brings joy to his father but a foolish son brings grief to his mother." ...Why is it always the father who rejoices and the mother who grieves? 

Mom: We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. 

Knut: But MOM, what if the drawbridge is up!? 

Jael: It's what, S-I-L-V-I-A? 

Sylvia: Yeah; you should know by now! 

Jael: *stares at Sylvia* S-I-L-V-I-A? 

Sylvia: Oh. My. Word. Wow... apparently I'm tired... 

Jael: You seriously didn't catch that? 

Sylvia: No... wow... oh, my goodness... 

Sylvia: Now who do you think has the BIGGER issue? 

Sophi: You. 

Sylvia: And WHY would you say that!? 

Sophi: I don't know. You just seem like the kind of person who would have the bigger issue. 

(Playing Pinochle)

Mom: Did you deal? 

Knut: Yes. 'Cause I'm awesome. 

Sylvia: Knut, you really don't need to tell us you're awesome every minute of the day. I mean, we know without being told! 

Knut: Yeah... but I just need to... uh... solidify the fact in your minds. 

Bjorn: Hi, Short Stuff! 

Sylvia: Hi, Cutie Pie! 

Rosemary: He's not Cutie Pie; I'M Cutie Pie! 

~a little while later~ 

Bjorn: Hi, Short Stuff! 

Sylvia: Hi, Cutie Pie! 

Bjorn: I'm not Cutie Pie! 

Papa: Hi, Ugly Pie! 

(At the store) 

Mom: The rule is "stay in pairs". 

Sylvia: ...Does my imaginary friend count as one of a pair? 

Mom: Yes.
(I'll get teased about this one for sure... especially by a certain young lady by the name of Sophia...) 


Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving, managed to stay safe over Black Friday, and are living in the joy of the Lord! :)

~Sylvia

Drama and FLL

The Lyceum Drama performance was on the 10th, and it was AMAZING! There were four plays, so the performance was pretty long, but it was worth staying to the end! We're so blessed to have such fantastic directors and actors in our group. Ms. Jo, the head director, puts an enormous amount of work into Drama each year, and the performances just get better and better! She's taught all of us so much.

A few pictures...

Sarah, aka Trouble Maker (The 'Urloined Letter) She received a huge round of applause during her play for saying Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers (etc.)... without the letter "P". 

Noah and Shelby, aka Jean Valjean and Jeanne (Valjean). These two did an AMAZING job! 

Noah made me cry at least 4 times during the play... once onstage. :) Shelby's main role was in a different play, but during the short time she was onstage for Valjean, she managed to bring me (and I would guess a good portion of the audience) to tears. 

Katie, aka Madame Ratigniolle (Valjean), also did a fabulous job. 

Johnathan, aka the Sergeant (Valjean)

Kalei, aka Madame Magloire, having grey put into her hair. As usual, her character was a cross old lady. ;) 

Playing cards before the performance

Sophi missed several rehearsals due to illness, but even so, she did an AMAZING job! She was an innkeeper (and a very mean one at that). ;)

I am currently trying to find someone who was able to get group pictures at the end of the performance. When (and if) I manage to do so, I will be sure to post them!

FLL

The Robo Raiders had their qualifier the same day as the Drama performance, so Knut and Grandpa were the only ones to be able to go. :( Of course they advanced, but they also got the Champions award... meaning they were the best team there!

VX3 competed at a different qualifier, which took place last Sunday. Since they're a first-year team, we didn't expect them to advance... but they did, and also received the Judges' Award! Their team is extremely excited to be heading to Chicago in January for the Regional competition!

Zoe, Zerah, and Cecily passing out candy

Thor making balloon animals and hats for kids on other teams 

Waiting for Core Values judging 

Research Presentation 

Robot Run 

Photo credit: Mrs. Phillips

The Robo Raiders team volunteered to help out at the competition. They reset the mats after each robot run, as well as helping in any other ways they could. (And I don't know what was the deal with the hats. ;))

Knut waiting to reset the mat

Cecily writing down the referee's comments after one of the robot runs

The team, with glorpes!