Tehani's Blog

Ten Days ‘Till Christmas
By Tehani deGuzman

There were ten days until Christmas, and I just couldn’t wait! If I had to be patient any longer, I’d explode like my brother Max when he gets mad! On the tenth day until Christmas, we drove to some place where we bought a tree. It was big, green, and covered in frosty white snow! It probably weighed a ton, and the pine needles hurt my finger, but when we put it in our living room, it looked just great!

On the ninth day until Christmas, we got to put up ornaments on our bare Christmas tree! When I stood back to look at it, a saw that it was covered in red ornaments splattered in gold glitter, blue ornaments with silver letters spelling out our names, and ornaments that my brother and I had painted at school that had pictures of snowflakes, candy canes, gingerbread men, and presents! Boy, was it a sight!

On the eighth day until Christmas, my brother Max and I sat down at our mahogany brown table, and drew Christmas pictures. I drew a picture of Santa in his sleigh, dropping presents into chimneys, with me by his side. Rudolph was pulling the sleigh, and his clown-like nose was shining bright. Max drew a gingerbread house in the middle of a pine forest. White frosting decorated the house, peppermint sticks lined the windows, and gumdrops were the shingles. A layer of snow covered the ground and all of the trees, and a cheery face was peering out of one window. Then we hung our pictures on the refrigerator, and stood back to look.

On the seventh day until Christmas, my mom took me to the store to pick out presents, and yummy food to eat. We got gingerbread house kits, hot cocoa, marshmallows, turkey, and lots of other delectable food. I got to pick out a present for everyone in our family! For Max, I got a new Star Wars Light Saber. (It was blue, because blue is his favorite color!) For my mom, (I made her close her eyes) I picked a warm and cozy brown Snuggie to keep her warm on winter nights. For my dad, I chose a new coffee mug that said, “You’re the #1 dad!” because he just loves coffee on chilly December mornings to keep him from being groggy at work! Finally, for my new baby sister Rachel, I decided on a rattle with a pink and white checkered giraffe because she loves playing with toys that make noise! I couldn’t wait to wrap the presents, and put them under the Christmas tree!

On the sixth day until Christmas, my cousins came over! Michael and I played cards for two hours straight, and then switched to cars after he won every time (but I think he cheated). My cars zoomed and crashed and banged and smacked, scratching the wood floor as the whizzed on by. We had a race, and I beat him this time! Then Rachel came over, and snatched our cars away!

On the fifth day until Christmas, my dad put up lights on the roof of our house. When he finally climbed off the 100 foot ladder, he pressed the button to make the lights shimmer and shine. The problem is, they didn’t turn on, and when he tried to fix them, they fell right off the roof. Then he paced back and forth, hand on his chin, and muttered a couple of words I can’t repeat. So my mom came out, and fixed the problem, on light was not screwed in all the way, and when those lights shone, they lit up my dad’s face, and I think that that absolutely made his day!

On the fourth day until Christmas, at the table once again, we opened up the kits to make our very own gingerbread houses. I lined my roof with lots of icing, and peeked over at my brother who had squirted a dollop onto his finger, and quickly licked off, not wanting to get in trouble. Mine turned out the best because Max nibbled and chewed on almost every place you could lay your eyes. He had eaten most of his candy, so his house was mostly bare, and mine was creatively decorated, from the door to the tip of the roof.

On the third day until Christmas, my grandparents came to stay for a million thousand years or more. They boss me around, and wipe crumbs off my face, but the bring truck loads of presents, so I shouldn’t complain. The presents and money are just about the only good things. The want to take pictures every five seconds, and are always telling us that we have grown so much. They make ups watch babyish cartoons, and smother us with big, wet, slobbery kisses. They snore when they sleep, and keep me awake, but I still like having them, as long as they’re not here to stay.

On the second day until Christmas, I made cards for my grandparents, cousins, and the rest of my family. We also made sure we were extra well-behaved, because Christmas Eve was just the next day. I was so very excited, and mailed out the cards. The only bad thing about that day was that Granny Sue was feeling under the weather. We had to take her to the doctor, and she didn’t want to go. That took up an hour of our day, and we had to sit around reading dumb books and playing little kid games.

On Christmas Eve, my head was buzzing. I couldn’t wait until Christmas morning. If I had to wait any longer, my head was going to pop! By dinnertime, I didn’t throw my usual fit, or whine about how Max goes to bed later than I do, or cry because I didn’t like the food. In fact, I couldn’t wait to get to bed. And after tossing and turning for an hour or two, I fell into a nice, sweet, deep sleep. All through my head trains were chugging, fire trucks were wailing, and action figures were fighting. Christmas was almost here!

I woke up at 6:00, Max woke up at 7. My parents woke up an hour later, and STILL it wasn’t time. I gazed at presents underneath the shining tree; I wanted them so badly, but my mom and dad made us all sit down and eat a big huge breakfast. We ate mountains of pancakes with syrup avalanches. Giant jugs of orange juice and crispy slices of bacon, and then finally, FINALLY, presents could be opened. We all sat down and had to wait for Grandma Lou to find her camera. We passed out presents and ripped them open, and look at what was inside. My presents were what I’d dreamed of, Batman, Spiderman, a fire truck, and best of all, the new train set I had wanted, shiny and brand new. So you see, the long wait finally was over, and now I had toys to play with, with 365 days until Christmas.

Also, I’m sorry that you can’t really see where the paragraphs begin and end. Every time I indent it doesn’t show up on the final post!