Hi! It's Zoe. The holidays have been very busy for me and I've celebrated them in so many ways. First was my birthday party.

At my birthday party, I invited my friends over to my house where we decorated stockings that became their party bags to take home filled with goodies. Then we played basketball and sang Karaoke. I love to sing.  And finally we made cupcakes at "cupcake station" in the kitchen. Mommy made un-iced cupcakes that we were able to decorate ourselves. We had three different designs to pick from; a shoe, a purse, and a fish. They came from a book I have on fun food designs. Everyone enjoyed it, though some might not have turned out exactly like the book, we enjoyed each other's work. I think it was my best birthday party ever. 

Another interesting holiday celebration was my 5th Grade Christmas play! And guess what? After trying out and waiting for a few days for the teachers to make their decisions, I got the part of Santa Clause! or as he was known, White Beard, for A Pirates Christmas.It was really challenging because I needed to memorize so many lines and sing and dance. It was a great experience.  It was so much fun and people thought I did a wonderful job. Yeah! 

I have two clips of the performance. A short outtake of a funny bit where I have to walk real fast behind the sleigh pushing it. My family laughed at this because I'm moving quickly and waving funny. The other clip is almost the entire play. It starts where I come in. Hope you enjoy the videos. 

One last thing for this holiday special blog, I want to share my district choir performance with you. We performed for the Night of Lights celebration. I was a little disappointed by how short our performance was, but we made the most out of the small portion of time we were given. We sang four songs. The one below (video - I'm in the green elf hat) was my favorite. We did a great job in my eyes, and I am glad I was a part of it. 

We also had a choir field trip. We went caroling to different places such as hospitals, district central office, and schools. I have to say that it felt good to cheer people up. We ended the trip at Peter Piper Pizza to have fun after a long day. 

So there you have it, my holiday celebrations this year! I hope you had a happy holiday. This wraps up my first year blogging. I will be writing in the new year. I hope 2014 is a great one!

 Hi! It's Zoe. Last weekend I made a dinner all by myself! Like the cookfest I wrote about in a previous blog, I chopped, stirred, and cooked dinner, but this time I was the cook. I cooked for the family all by myself except with the draining of hot liquids, my mommy did that. I was very excited to see what the outcome would be. 

When I asked my Mommy to make a dinner plan she suggested spaghetti and meatballs. I was a little hesitant because I wanted to do an ethnic meal and I thought spaghetti and meatballs was too easy. I decided to do it because I thought it might be harder to make than I think. I was right. 

The recipe I got from my Mommy was supposed to be an "easy" version. It was harder than I thought. A few times I didn't know what the recipe was saying to do, like sauteing, which is a way of cooking food. I started to get the hang of it. I had to saute onions and bell pepper and garlic together in a pan with olive oil.  I felt like I was the boss of the kitchen.

I had to mix stuff like eggs, breadcrumbs, the sauteed vegetables, and spices together with the ground beef. We made jumbo cheesy meatballs (the sizes of small oranges) that were stuffed with mozzarella cheese inside them and we baked them in the oven until they were done. When I was done making them, I started on the sauce. It was much easier than I thought it would be. We make our sauce from scratch mixing ingredients together and letting it simmer a long time. 

Soon it was time for dinner and I was nervous to see how the family liked my food. To my relief, it was a success and everybody liked it! I was ready to make another meal. I like cooking because I've been helping my Mommy in the kitchen since I was very young. Though your parents might not want you to do that much in the kitchen right now, ask them if you can help out when they are cooking. There might be a stirring, mixing, or washing vegetables job you can do. And always remember two of the most important rules when cooking: keep good hygiene (wash your hands and don't put them near your face), and clean as you go so there's not a big mess at the end! Thanks for reading. Bye!

P.S. Here's the link to the recipe for Jumbo Cheesy Meatballs.