Mushrooms and letter boxes. Possibly sleeping

Title: Long story. It all has to do with sleep deprivation though. You know how that is. Haha. I went to school, yay, had lots of tests, yay. BUT! St. Nikolas came on Monday! So.... You know what that means! Basically, you put out a shoe and in it, you put a note saying what you are thankful for. Then, St. Nikolas comes and takes the note, decides if you've been good or not, and if you've been good, he leaves a present.............

Look! St. Nikolas came! And he left presents!!!!

My cookie, chocolate cookbook, and chocolate molds from St. Nikolas.

This past weekend, I headed to Weinfelden, where Vera, my host sister who lived with us when I was in 8th grade, lives. It was SO MUCH FUN! I was afraid it would be a little weird, since it had been 2 1/2 years, but it was just like old times! I didn't really take that many pictures, since we were too busy sitting around eating and talking, (haha) but here are the ones I did take:)

I left right after school Friday, and got there at 4:30. We went back to her house, chilled, and talked super fast. It's really funny because in the States, everyone always tells me I talk fast. And when I was talking in their kitchen, with Vera and Gabriela (her mom), Gabriela had to ask for clarification on what I was saying, and she was like "I really have to concentrate when you talk, because it's so fast!" Then when Martin, her dad, got home from work, he said the same thing! Then later that night, we went to a birthday party for one of Vera's friends, and one of them said the same thing. It's great to know that I can still speak English. I think the reason I was talking a million miles a minute though, was because it was English. Only the greatest languge ever. (Probably because its soooooo easy to speak. Haha)

We got home super late, and hit the hay after staying up talking and reminicing!

Random: New best thing ever. Chocolate covered almonds. AH! I love Switerland and it's chocolatey things!

Saturday, we got up after sleeping in, chilled for a bit, then got ready and walked through the Christmas market that was going on in Weinfelden. We got some Swiss hot dogs:) and then went swimming with scouts. Vera's now a scout leader, so we took the munkins out. I think they thought it was a little strange that I couldn't speak Germanm but since they start English in the 3rd grade now, some of them knew how to say somethings, and it was so cute!

After swimming, we went to mass at the church that Vera was baptized in, had her first communion, etc. It was such a BEAUTIFUL church, aw, didn't exactly remind me of KoK. Lol. But it was neat though because some of the songs, I recognized the tunes to, so I was able to sing along in English, since I obviously don't spreckinze die deutsch? Is that right? Haha. I know thats how you say it, just not sure about spelling. Oh well. I guess I can say a few things. Like verboten. And danke. And kuchen. Okay. Moving on.

Weinfelden at night. My camera didn't handle the light well, but it was really pretty in person!
We made some delicious cookies!

It was a little messy, since we used our hands to scoop up the cookies. But Vera went to town, licking Every. Last. Drop.

After cookies, (we finished at midnight) we had planned on watching a movie, The Proposal to be exact, and for those of you who haven't seen it, you must! It is such a great and funny movie! I have only seen it a few short of a thousand times. So we go up to her room, and watch it on her computer while laying in bed. We were both really tired, and I kept dosing in and out of sleep. When the movie was over, (I was asleep) Vera wakes me up, since I had to change positions in the bed, and (according to her) I opened my eyes, pulled the covers back up (since she had pulled then down because I had them all wrapped up around me) and then went back to sleep. I have no recolition of this. Then, she poked me again and it went like this:

Vera: Laura, you fell asleep. You just have to move over a little, then you can go back to sleep.

Me: No I didn't.

Vera: Yeah, you were asleep.

Me: No I wasn't. (change positions)

Vera: (moves the computer and gets into bed)

Me: Did we watch the whole movie?

Vera: Yeah! (laughing) you fell asleep though, remember?

Me: No. I don't.

Haha. Cracks me up. Sounds like I was on something, but promise, I wasn't. Anyway. I just found that amusing.

The next day, we made some (this may be spelled wrong) manderlie? cookies, which are Swiss. I had a little fun with the blender thingys.

This is a really attractive picture, but I felt it necessary to post, since it describes us. Eating. Every last bit.

We had some dough left over, so I decided to create something, and came up with the idea of making a Swiss train. Creative eh? Look! That's me waving "Hi!" to everyone back home! Before baking. ....

The masterpiece, finished. Great right? I know. I think I may return to the ole' US of A and open up a little cookies shop, specializing in train cookies. :)

Yay! The finished product! One word. YUM.

Me. Caught in the act of creeping. From these great little tiny and cute windows under the stairs.

After, we went up to a hill/mountain, where Gabriela and Martin then walked down, but Vera and I were too lazy. We drove. More correctly, she drove. I made sure to buckle up:)

1 degrees.

Don't worry. I lied. Well not really, because it was 1 degrees. But celsius. I didn't freeze too bad.

Of course, we had to take a silly picture.

Sisters forever.

"More than Santa Claus, your sister knows when you've been bad and good."

"Sisters annoy, interfere, criticize. Indulge in monumental sulks, huffs, in snide remarks. Borrow. Break. Monopolize the bathroom. Are always underfoot. But if catastrophe should strike, sisters are there, defending you against all comers."