Presents,Presents, and more Presents

    I've been waiting 364 days for Christmas. Finally when it came, I went down stairs, I saw what I have been waiting for.  I got a Lego lighthouse, Lego house,Army helicopter,Army men, books, stationary, life savers, lemon heads chocolate, earphones, a complete Dsi kit, Dsi game, notebooks, and fruit. From my Mom and Dad I got: a model train, books,and a Find It On the Hunt game. My siblings got me a police car Lego and  some Aggie shirts. After we played with our presents, we went to our grandparents to eat lunch and open  more presents I got stamps, cookie cutters, Lego boat,and an Aggie shirt. I also got money from my great grandma and other grandparents.  Next, I got some soap and a bath sponge from my aunt and uncle. Lastly, I got a book gift card from my cousins. Before we left my aunt had got some gingerbread houses for us to decorate it was real fun. I had a good time decorating them and opening presents.  I hope you had a good Christmas too. Although Christmas is very fun we don't just celebrate it for presents. We celebrate it as Jesus our Lord and our Savior's Birthday. 

  

What my family and I did for Christmas

    For Christmas we went to the NorthPark Mall to see The Trains at Northpark and Arthur Christmas the movie.   Then we went to the Dallas Galleria and saw the big Christmas tree and the ice skaters. I've never ice skated before and wanted to try but we didn't because we were too busy.                      
       The Dallas Galleria is an upscale shopping mall and mixed-use development. It was developed by a long time owner in 1982. The mall is modeled after the Galleria in Houston which opened in 1970. Both Galleria malls have an ice skating rink and a glass vaulted ceiling Today there are over 200 stores and restaurants including a hotel and an ice skating rink in the Dallas Galleria.

 On the way home, we drove past the Neiman Marcus store which is a luxury specialty retail department store. The company is headquartered in the One Marcus Square building in downtown Dallas. The store, established on September 10, 1907 with clothing of a quality that was not commonly found in Texas. In 1914, a fire destroyed the Neiman Marcus store and all of its merchandise. A temporary store was set up and opened in 17 days.  By the end of 1914, Neiman Marcus opened in its new, permanent location.  In 1927 the store expanded.  Every year for Christmas they decorate their windows with unique Christmas decorations.  Here are some of the pictures.
 

The Trains at NorthPark

   Here is some of what my family and I have been doing for Christmas. 

  

  We went to see the trains at North Park mall which were very neat to see because they were very detailed and looked real.  I think I enjoyed them the most out of all of my family, since I have always loved trains and have my mom's old train.  My favorite was the Boy Scout train but I also liked the Circus train too.  The trains are the most elaborate toy train exhibit in all of Texas. Best of all it was all non-profit all the money they raised  went to the. As you can see by all the pictures, I had a great time and loved it.  

Christmas Cookies

      This post is about one thing my family and I have been doing for Christmas. We've been making Christmas cookies to give to neighbors. I also made cranberry and banana nut bread. We made gingerbread men and sugar cookies that were snowmen, bells, trees, and stars. We decorated with raisins, red-hots, chocolate chips, and lots of different types of sprinkles. 


Another tradition we have is to read Christmas books. In the back of a book titled The Twelve Days Of Christmas that is illustrated with gingerbread cookies, it told some history of the gingerbread cookies. I would like to share some of these facts...  

Gingerbread men were especially popular in England.  Mrs. Washington made them for George Washington. In the 1800's Americans hanged gingerbread ornaments on their trees.  Some American bakers made alphabets which kids were allowed to eat when they learned their letters.

 

Marie Curie

 

 In school today we have been leaning about Marie Curie. She was a fascinating lady who became a famous scientist who was the first person to discover Radium. Here is the information I learned

about her.                                

       Marie's  Childhood  

   She was born in Warsaw, Poland as the youngest child in the family out of five. Her favorite pastime was books. When her older sister was struggling reading a book Marie took it from her and began reading it. She taught her self  to read when helping her sister pick up a cardboard alphabet. Her parents said she was to young to read since she was four years old. They said her mind would get tired also, they didn't want a child prodigy. Her parents banded her from reading.  She often asked them " May I please read now?" Finally they sent her to school early, she excelled in her lessons and was the smartest in the class. Conquerors in Poland forced the teachers to teach Russian  history but secretly the the teachers taught Poland history instead. One day a  Russian
Inspector came to make sure they were obeying the rules Marie stood up and told all of the answers the Inspector impressed left.


                         Marie's Adulthood
   Marie helped her sister pay to go to the Sorbonne University. Five later her sister did the same for Marie. While at the Sorbonne she often went without  food or sleep. Later she met Pierre Curie who considered  her as a genius and wanted to work with her. They got married had two kids and began to study in a old shed the radioactive materials. In their study's they found radium which they won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903. Sadly, in 1906 Pierre tragically died due to a wagon accident. Marie was heart broken and was extremely lonely.  She continued her work and won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1911. She passed away in 1934 due to exposure to radium. No one knew how deadly it was back then.


          


                      

Reindeer Cookies

Yesterday evening we made reindeer cookies to start off this Christmas season. Here's how to decorate them: First after you make the dough, you shape it into small triangle shapes on the baking sheet. Next, you get to get to put 2 pretzels in the top corners for the antlers. Next, you put two green M&M's on for the eyes. Then, you put the red  M&M on for Rudolph's red nose. Lastly,you put them in the oven for 10 to15 minutes. You can find the recipe  here Enjoy!     

  Here are four facts that I learned about reindeer.   

1. Both  male and female reindeer grow antlers.
2. Reindeer typically have a lifespan of around 10 years.
3. An adult reindeer can weigh up to 300 pounds.
4.  Reindeer are good and strong swimmers.

Since you can't live on cookies we made Chili too.  My sister and I won third place at the 4-H Chili Bonanza  with this recipe last year. The 4-H Chili Bonanza is fundraiser for 4-H where you can take your chili and display your table. Then you serve a small bowl of your chili to the judge. After that you serve the extra chili to every one there.  This year instead of a chili bonanza they had a waffle supper. The chili recipe is                  here.

State Flag of Texas

Chili is the state food of Texas. 

Tiger Creek Wildlife Refuge

Recently,my family and I went to a TACHE field trip to the Tiger Creek Wildlife Refuge in Tyler, Texas.  I found out about the refuge when I was studying about Tigers and other big cats a few years ago.  In the book their references told about the Tiger Refuge and where it was. So when we moved closer to Tyler, we visited them and I learned lot of facts about big cats. Since we enjoyed our tour so much, my mom organized a group tour.  The refuge had added several new pens and buildings since we last came. When we got there they split us in two groups. The first group which we were in went to the tiger pens. The pens are chain link but their is a metal fence separating the pen and the walk way. After being showed  the Tigers we got some of our questions answered. They feed them different kinds of meats
when hunters clean out their freezers they donate their leftovers to them, they also get road kill. They received some of the tigers from Michael Jackson and some from the Circus. We changed sides and we got to see Bobcats, Mountain lions and more. Next, we saw future expansion and the lion pens.  I learned that programs introducing  tigers back into the wild aren't working. Also tiger breeding programs haven't been working either. Due to habitat  loss they will come extinct if nothing is not none soon. Here is there website : http://www.tigercreek.org/  I had a great time and loved it.