Joy: I knew that Christmas and new years eve were gonna be hard so my goal for this break was to keep myself busy. There was not a day that I didn’t do anything. A lot of things are off my bucket list now and I can’t wait to share it all with you so here we go!

In the last week of school we had my first 2 snow days. I spent it with so many friends and we had the best time! We walked on the icy roads, tried to make a snowman but ended up having a snowball fight, made gingerbread houses, drank hot chocolate, went sledding and had the best time with everyone. It was really such a great day and I will never forget it!

On the day our Christmas break started, we still had a cheer game and I flew for the first time in front of an audience! (I am on the right). It was so scary but also so amazing.

During the break, we went out for dinner quite a few times and I am kind of addicted to hamburgers now. They are my berenhappen of the United States ;).

We had the family over for the Christmas days. On Christmas day we opened all the presents from under the tree first (what was a lot). I was wayyy too spoiled and got A LOT of amazing presents. My parents even sent presents over from The Netherlands! I Facetimed my family after that so I could be a part of their Christmas too. That made me feel so good and I loved seeing all of them opening their presents.

On the 26st of December, we picked up Blake (Linda’s step son) up from the airports and went to eat at Waffle House! This was on my bucket list too and it was actually really good. I would definitely want to go there again.

On the 27th of December, Dylan, Blake and I went to The Pinnacles. This is a park where you can climb high rocks. We had to go over rocks in the water to get there and it was really an adventure.

The amount of times we almost fell is kind of dangerous (oops, sorry mom). It was so amazing to be on the top, it felt like I was on the top of the world!

We took some cool pictures and then went to see the Mizzou campus where Dylan is going this semester. It was so big and so cool to think that people actually live there.

On the 31st of December, it was New Years Eve! I have to admit that this day was harder than I expected. I was really sad that I couldn’t celebrate with either my family or friends back home. Even though I couldn’t celebrate it with them in real life, I did get to Facetime them. It was sad but also weird to think that the new year had already started in The Netherlands but was still 7 hours away from me.

That evening, Linda, Blake, Kaleigh, Kaleighs mom and I went to Kobe to eat.

This is a restaurant where they cook in front of you. They had sushi too! It was amazing (even though we had to wait 2 hours to be seated).

After dinner, we went to the magic tree. This is a tree that is fully decorated with lights. It was really pretty.

We took some nice pictures and went home to get ready to go to Anna’s house to celebrate 2020 with a big group of friends. It was really fun and I had the best time with everyone.

The rest of the week, I spent a lot of time with friends, ate my first American bar burger with Kaleigh and her family, I played tennis with Dylan quite a few times, went to the gym with Anna (new year's resolutions are going great!)

, learned how to skateboard (I tried) in Jefferson City with Nyesha, Dylan and Cole and enjoyed my last days with a lot of friends before school started again.

2020 is already going great and it will only get better. We still have so many fun stuff planned. It’s going to be a busy but amazing last few months. Have a wonderful year everybody and keep smiling :)

Flora:

My first snow days were so much fun! We had friends coming over everyday and we did a lot of fun stuff. Me and Grant made breakfast together both days. The first day we made pancakes, the second day we made biscuits and gravy.

We built gingerbread houses, tried to build a snowman, went sledding and watched a lot of movies with other friends.

I hung out with friends almost everyday before Christmas to have a lot of distractions. On the days of Christmas Eve, I went to Anna’s dads side of the family, this was pretty weird because I’ve never met them before. When I was there my sister facetimed me with the news that they booked plane tickets so they can be here for Graduation! On Christmas Eve the family came over and we had a big dinner, after that we went you church (my grandma would’ve been proud) and I decided to go to sleep right after that because I had a pretty hard time. On Christmas morning we unwrapped all of our presents in matching PJ’s

and believe me, I got waaaaay too spoiled. After this I facetimed my parents again and got ready to leave for St. Louis.

The rest of the week I hung out with friends everyday which was really fun.

On Saturday December 28, I woke up at 5:50 and left to Kansas at 6:20 in the morning with Grants family to go to his dirt bike race.

It was a really long day, but I had a lot of fun! We left Kansas got home at 2 in the morning and I was exhausted.

One day later I went to the mall in Columbia with some other friends, we shopped a little and ate dinner together, later that night I went to Joy’s house to stay the night there.

On New Years Eve, we went out for dinner with the whole family and after that I went to Grants house to celebrate New Years with him and his family. I had a lot of fun!!

On New Year's day me and Anna made a road trip to her grandparents and we stayed the night there. The day after that we went to St. Louis to go to a charity concert and we stayed the night at Chuck's house.

The rest of the break I hung out with friends and I tried to start a new tradition with Anna by going to the gym!

I had a fun, but also really weird Christmas break, and I’m already ready for the next break.