New Year's Weekend

Author's Note: Hanging out with friends is fun and everything, but sometimes you just have to cut back and spend some time with family that you may not be able to see as much as your friends. These family members in the piece I see about three times per year, and they are still just like my friends in so many ways; it's almost like being at home, but still different. This piece expresses just that.

This weekend was New Year's! Every New Year's weekend, everybody on my dad's side of the family goes up to my grandma's house to celebrate Christmas. I got a lot of cool stuff. The weekend was really crazy, and this is a little summary of what we did.

On Thursday (New Year's Eve), I had a soccer game at Brookfield Indoor. We won 6-4. After the game we took the five-hour drive up to my grandma and grandpa's house, they live in a tiny town named Phillips, which is near Tomahawk. Once we got there, all of the moms were playing cards at the dining room table and watching Carrie Underwood's New Year's special on TV, and the dads and all of my boy cousins were out sledding on a big hill in town. I was actually kind of happy that they were gone for a little bit because I am the only girl cousin in the family, except for my two other cousins, Nikki and Dani, but sometimes they don't come up. About five minutes after we had gotten there, all of the men walked in the door with three popped tubes, a snowboard, and a little saucer thing. My two cousins, Mark and Joe, were the ones that popped them, but I don't know how because they are really small.

After everything was all settled in after the commotion of the tubes, it was almost New Year's Day! So we turned on the countdown a little bit early, so we didn't miss it. My brother Adam brought up some confetti things, and we shot them directly at each other, not knowing what was going to happen. Absolutely nothing happened to him, but a ton of little glitter stuff got shot into my eye and it stung really bad and was hard to get out. I was forced to go to bed at like 12:30 and I was mad because it was New Year's and I wasn't tired.

On Friday, I was awakened by my little brother Adam laughing. It turned out that my cousin Andy was tickling him, and my brother laughs like a monkey and also loudly, so I got out of my bed, and went upstairs to find a different one. Then once again, I was woken up, but this time by my mom because it was already noon, and I was still sleeping. So I got up, and ate some peanut butter toast for breakfast, and was then told that my dad and I were going on the snowmobile. I'm not old enough to drive alone yet, but I got to drive with my dad behind me. First my dad drove to show me how it worked, and he was trying to show off by going really fast and then turning a sharp corner without spinning off the trail, but he ended up making the whole snowmobile tip and I landed in the snow face first. Luckily I didn't get hurt, and no damage was done, but it was hard to get the snowmobile back on the track because it was trapped in a snowbank. Letting me drive was a back choice, but my dad said that he trusted me, so I got to drive the snowmobile home. We came across to a huge lake that was frozen solid, and there was a big hole in the middle with two guys with just a t-shirt and shorts standing next to it. Then ten seconds later, the had jumped into the lake. I have no idea why, but they just did. After I drove around the hole, you had to cross a road to get to the other side of the trail. Like six other snowmobilers crossed the road before we did, and didn't say that there was a car coming. So I thought there wasn't any cars coming, and I went full-speed ahead, and almost hit a car. It was a good thing that the car saw me before he nearly crashed into me, because otherwise me, my dad, and my grandpa's snowmobile would have been turned into road kill.

After we had gotten back from snowmobiling, about two hours later, my aunt Lyn, uncle Mike, Nikki, and her boyfriend Jamil arrived. I was a little bit happier now because another girl had come, so I wasn't alone anymore. That night a lot of my relatives that were there went to see The Blind Side in Park Falls. It was a really good movie. My brother and my two cousins, Andy and Joe, went to see Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel instead. It was about ten o'clock when we got back to the house, and my parents and some of my other aunts and uncles went to Meister's Bar and I wasn't allowed to go, so I had to stay home with my grandma, grandpa, brother, younger cousins, other aunts and other uncles.

On Saturday I was once again woken up by my brother, except this time he stepped on my feet, but it was an "accident" according to him. But I had to wake up soon because it was 8:30, and breakfast/opening presents was at 9:00, otherwise you could not participate, and who doesn't want to open presents? I got a lot of cool things. My grandpa made me this really awesome jewelry cabinet, and it was a good thing that he did because I am running out of room in the one that I have right now. My brother got a huge Nerf gun that shoots three bullets in one second, and he is already shooting me with it. After we were finished opening presents, it was about 11:00 and my dad and I went out snowmobiling. This time my cousin Joe was behind us on his own snowmobile, and he wasn't very happy that I wasn't going fast enough for him. If you think that last time was bad, you should have seen me driving this time! I almost hit a deer, some other snowmobilers, and my dad almost tipped us again. But it was still fun.

Saturday night was the only night that I had the chance to go sledding down the big hill. We had one out of seven remaining tubes because the rest of them had holes or leaks in them. My cousins Andy and Joe came with me, and my uncle Bruce drove us there. Joe didn't want to pop another tube, so he let me go down the hill on it first. The first time I made it all the way down the hill, crossed the road, off the jump, and onto the lake. But the second time down, I got down the hill, but once I hit the road, all you heard was a loud BOOM!, so I screamed and hit the ground. I stood up, and looked at the tube to see why I stopped. It turned out that I made a huge rip in the tube that was like three feet long! So I tried the snowboard next, and on my first try I made it all the way down the hill, but stopped at the bottom of the hill so I wouldn't go over the jump. The next time I tried the jump, and when I was in the air I thought I was going to land it, but I ended up landing it -- on my butt. It hurt really bad.

It is now Sunday, and I am sad because I left just this morning. I woke up, and ate some peanut butter toast before I got into the car. We said our goodbyes and walked out the front door. The whole way home I was completely miserable, because I had a horrible headache. Finally I was home! But a half hour later I had to leave again to get to Erin's birthday party. It was at Skateland, and it was really fun and funny. There was so much falling, and a lot of laughing. Right before our time ended, a giant panda came out and did the Hokey-Pokey with us. It was hard because it was really slippery and you had to scream to win a contest half of the time. I didn't win. =( The party was really enjoyable, but I was ready to go home. I always love Christmas break, and I wish it wouldn't end.