Marney: Blog Of The Week

Costa Rica 

In Costa Rica People decorate their houses with tropical flowers of all different colors.  In Costa Rica near December 3rd people have plays for other people and there is one big one called Pasito or Portal.  Most people call it Pasito. They decorate the stage with fruits and flowers, they also decorate the walls of the stage and paint houses and things like that.  Most of the homes and shops there are decorated with Christmas lights and wreaths that have wild berries on them. 

     Most people call Santa,  the gift giver, Colacho, or Saint Nicholas. On Christmas Eve almost everyone dresses up fancy and goes to the town square where all the lights are.  After Christmas and into January they have parades and and parties and festivals.  After all of that the have a big feast.

Some things at pasito

     Another holiday in North America in December is Kwanzaa.  Kwanzaa is a week long celebration.  It starts on December 26 and ends on the first of January.  You have to have 7 candles.  There are always 3 red candles that stand as blood shed.  The one black one stands for the African race and the three green stand for land of Africa.

 hanukkah candles 

Kwanzaa candles

     Jewish people around the world celebrate Hanukkah at this time of the year.  Hanukkah is also known as the festival of lights.  It is a week and one day celebration.  Using the Hanukkah lights for other things is forbidden.   On the first night of Hanukkah the blessing are said right before the candles are lit.  There are three blessings.  On the first night the first two blessings are said.   

Marney: Show And Tell

For my show and tell I am going to tell you guys about swim team.  I have been going to the Longhorn Aquatics swim team for a while now and on Tuesday I went for a practice.  At my practice I got there just a tiny bit late, then I got in the pool and did one IM.  A IM is where you do one lap of butterfly stroke, one lap of backstroke, one lap of breaststroke and one lap of freestyle stroke.  Then I had to do four laps kicking with my kick board.  Then I had do a lap of backstroke, then I had to do a lap of freestyle kick.  Then I had to do 14 laps without stopping and we had to go really fast when doing that.  My favorite part of swim team is the end where we practice diving off, but we didn't do that on Tuesday.

Gabe: Weekly Blog Post

       I am telling you about Christmas in Italy.  In Italy they have a lot of nativity scenes.  In Naples they have a big one with 600 things in it.  A lot of people have nativity scenes in their house.  On Christmas night they all carol.  They don't eat on Christmas day until midnight mass, which is a big feast.
      Their Christmas lasts for three weeks.  They have a lot of Italian cake at midnight mass.  Befana is their Santa, she is a nice witch on a broom stick and she always comes on the 6th of January.  They eat a lot of stuff at their midnight mass.  They eat a lot of pasta at midnight mass.

      Another holiday celebrated around December is Hajj.  Hajj is a Pilgrimage (a Journey to a sacred place).  Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam.  It is the largest pillar of Islam.  It is from the 8th-12th of the 12th month of the year.  They celebrate this in the Islamic religion around the world.
      Some people travel in groups to the sacred place.  They go to Mecca, Saudi Arabia by boat.  This was started in 2,000 bce.  It was started in Muhammad's era.  They go to Mecca and walk counter clock wise around a big chest thing.

Gabe: Show and Tell

           Yesterday in gym we played Quidditch!!!  In Quidditch you split into two teams and there are three balls, 2 bludgers and 1 quaffle.  You have two goals and you can only score with the quaffle.  You use the bludgers to hit people to distract them.  At the end of the game the snitch is thrown and the team who catches the snitch gets fifteen points.  Then the game is over.  My team scored 11, their team scored 5.  At the end they won because they caught the 15 point snitch.  It was really fun!

Mason: Weekly Blog Post

     Japan celebrate Christmas differently than we do.  How they celebrate Christmas is by spreading happiness.  They do get cards and presents.  They celebrate Christmas Eve more than Christmas day.  How they celebrate Christmas Eve is how we celebrate Valentine's Day.  Couples go out and look at Christmas lights and go to dinner.  They exchange presents.  On Christmas day they have a Christmas cake, which is made out of spongecake with whipped cream and strawberries.

Mason: Show and Tell

On Thanksgiving we had a lot of fun!  We got Pookie, she is two years old. Then me, Gabe, Connor and Dad went to see Red Dawn.  It was a good move, I liked it.  Then we had our Thanksgiving feast, the feast was great.  Thanksgiving was fun and I can not wait for Christmas.

Dogsland by Max

The dogs found a city.  They called it "Dogsland" because it was filled with dogs.  

Avery: Weekly Blog Post

        I am going to tell you about Christmas in Venezuela! Venezuela is a catholic country, so they focus more on the birth of Baby Jesus.  Starting on December 16th everyone is woken up with firecrackers, bells and loud noises.  They are all being called together for worship.
       To decorate they put tons of Christmas lights on and around their homes and Christmas trees up in their houses.  Lots of homes decorate for more of a nativity scene (mountains, hills, plains, valleys, etc.).  Sometimes people will get farm animals, like sheep and cows.
       The main celebration of Christmas is on the 24th of December when they all set off firecrackers and then have a big happy feast together.
Here is a picture of some decorations they put up.

       Bodhi Dayj is a Buddhist holiday celebrating the day that Buddha found enlightenment.  Buddha sat under a Pipul tree and meditated until he found the root of suffering.  Some people say he was harassed by the god Mara (which in Sanskrit means destroyer), the demon of illusion.
       People celebrate Bodhi Dayj very differently.  Some people meditate, study the Dharma, chanting Buddhist texts, or be kind to others around them.  Some people just simply celebrate by a cup a tea, cake, and readings with their families and friends.
Here is a picture of a state of Buddha meditating.

Kiki: Weekly Blog Post

For my blog I chose Greenland.  In Greenland they have their Christmas trees imported from Denmark because no trees grow there.  They also put light up stars in their windows so that they bring light because in winter the sun never comes up.  People also put a giant Christmas tree on the closest hill so everybody can see it.  A food they have on  Christmas is mattak, it is whale skin with blubber.  Another one is kiviak, it is raw flesh of little auks (those are sea birds).  Also this is how they say Merry Christmas- juullimi ukiortaassamilu.  People also there say that Santa lives there in the summer.

Another Holiday that Greenland celebrates is St Lucia's day.

Kiki: Show and Tell

Last weekend we set up our Christmas decorations, it was fun fun fun fun fun fun.  We also put a  Christmas vest on Pookie, it was so cute.  My favorite part of decorating the Christmas tree was that we put a ton of ornaments on it.  It is so, so, so pretty.  Then we also put up our blow up Santa on a motorcycle, it is awesome.  We also got out all the Christmas toys.  My favorite is the Santa rapper, he sings and dances and I love it.  

        

Christmas by Max

If you are divorced on Christmas, you would get two Christmas trees and two sets of presents.  

Avery Jones: Show And Tell

       Today I am going to tell you about my "internet addictions".
        An internet addiction is exactly what it sounds like... it is something (website, video game, email) on the internet that you are addicted to.  For example my internet addictions are: Pinterest, Facebook, my email, and (sometimes) youtube.
       Pinterest is a  little hard to explain, so just a heads up, this might be a little bit confusing.  You know how you can make bookmarks on your computer to keep websites, and articles you see online?  Well that's is kinda what Pinterest is, expect it's a website.  You make these boards on your home page then categorize them by giving each board a name.  So for example I have a board called "Just Gotta Laugh" that means I "pin" things I think are funny to that board.  To pin something from a random website to your board you have to get a pin button off of pinterest and put it on your tools bar, then you press the pin button and then pick the board you want to pin it to.  Then you have added something to your board! Here is a link to my Pinterest page so you can see how the boards work.
       I'm pretty sure that everyone that reads this knows what Facebook is.  But I will try to explain it.  It's kinda like the adult twitter (on Facebook people don't post that much about what they had for lunch).  It's a social media where you can find your friends and then friend them on Facebook so you can chat, poke each other, and embarrass each other by posting "remember when..." posts on their wall.  You can also post photos and posts on your own wall about whatever you'd like.  Some people talk about how life is, others post funny things they found (possibly on Pinterest), some post quotes from people, movies, books, etc.  You can also like pages and they post things on their page.  I use Facebook mostly for talking to friends, and posting random things on my wall.
       My email..... well, there is not much to say.  I'm too impatient to send a handwritten letter in a mail.  I use it only for school, or to make plans with friends (but I use my phone most times for that).  That's about all I have to say about it.
       Youtube is a website where you can post videos of anything, but the whole world will see it (so be careful what you put on it).  There are many categories: Recommend for you, most popular, auto and vehicles, comedy, entertainment, film and animation, gaming,  howto and style, nonprofits and activism, people and blogs, pets and animals, science and technology, and travel and events. When you go to Youtube the first thing that pops up is the home page, which is the most popular category. when they say most popular they mean most viewed.  Just because they are most veiwed doesn't mean the videos have good reviews   I mean, come on, just Bieber's Baby music video didn't go so well.  But Gangnam Style did awesome and is now the most viewed video in the the world right now.
       So yeah, that was my show and tell... hope you enjoyed it!

The Two Rats By Max

The rats skydived into a river.

Gabe: Cactus Garden Update

The cactus garden looks great!

11/26/12- Show and Tell

Tell us something good...and don't forget pictures!

Drinks by Max

The people found some type of drink.  They found out that it was poison.  Then they made someone drink the poison.  Then he died. 

Norway Christmas by Max

Nisse is a Christmas gnome who guards farm animals. He also plays tricks on children if they don't put a bowl of special porridge out for him. The special porridge is call Rice Cream.
 Rice Cream
(serves 4)
3/4 cup whipping cream
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
a few drops almond flavouring
2 cups rice porridge 
Whip cream with sugar, vanilla and almond flavouring. Mix in the porridge. Serve with red fruit sauce on top.

11/26/12 Weekly Blog Post

It's Christmas time!  As you know, we decorated our tree last weekend and got the whole house ready for the holidays.  For this week's blog post, I want you to research how Christmas is celebrated in other cultures.  Search for how they celebrate Christmas on a different continent and then write two paragraphs about it.

As the second part of your blog post, I want you to research what other religions or cultures celebrate during this time of year other than Christmas.  What do you know about Bodhi Dayj, Eid al-Ahathe, the Hajj, or Festivus? Try to find something you don't know anything about, but if you're having trouble finding something- then you can also read up on Kwanzaa or Hanukkah and write about those.  This portion of your post also needs to be two paragraphs long.

Marney: Weekly Blog Post

1.  He wants to rebuild bridges and buildings
2.  He wants to make sure that Iran does not have any nuclear weapons
3.  He is going to try to get more people to get there collage degree
4.  He wants women to have more rights
5.  He wants to end the war over Afghanistan in 2014
Then the building and bridges would be more sturdy and it would be easy to have more bridges then normal amount of bridges.
     It will not destroy so much of our land and we can not fight them back so they need to stop.
     If more people have collage degrees then we would have more people working and things would be easier.
      If women get more rights then there would be more people to be n the millitary.  
      If the war was over at that time or earlier then we would not have so many people getting killed right now and not so much fighting.  

Gabe: Show and Tell

My seedlings for my Discover Green project look great.  They are the perfect size and are living.  We have Swiss chard, spinach, leaf lettuce, bunching onions, radishes, carrots, Parsnips  leeks, peas, cilantro  basil and oregano.   They will do great.