Pope Family Tradition

Alta, Christmas 2010

Every year before Christmas my family gets together in my grandpa’s big cabin on the 23^rd of December to celebrate Christmas. We play, laugh, smile and just have tons of fun spending our time with each other. I think everyone’s favorite part is when Santa comes and brings all of the kids presents.

We have a wonderful dinner that takes hours of effort from my mom to make every detail flawless. From the perfectly cooked prime rib roast to the golden brown mouthwatering rolls that come fresh out of the oven. The tables are decorated with red and green place mats and shimmering wine glasses with not even a fingerprint on them. I like sitting at the brown circular table in the corner with my favorite cousins, while we eat away and chat about our excitement for Christmas day. Our plates couldn’t be filled more, mountains of smashed potatoes, ruby red pomegranate seeds and delicious steamed French beans.

2014 Christmas 

There is always white snow on the mountains with dark green pine trees peppered across it. The special thing is one of those trees high on the mountain is covered in beautiful Christmas lights, wowing everybody who looks at it. Our log cabin is big and dark brown with a line of multicolored Christmas lights all across the roofs edge. In the backyard there’s small pond that glistens in the moonlight. In side is where all the fun is. There is always a big red fire in the fireplace and above hangs 21 festive stockings, one for each of the grandchildren. I especially love our Christmas tree with its assorted ornaments and its striking lights; it really sets the Christmas mood.

All of the kids always wait to hear grandpa’s voice saying, “ come downstairs Santa Claus is coming.” We quickly rush downstairs excitedly to sit on the big red couch and sing Christmas carols, because Santa Clause wont come unless he hears us sing. We sing all of our favorite carols like “Santa Clause Is Coming To Town”, and “Up On The Rooftop”. Everyone joins in enthusiastically even though some of us have horrible voices. When he finally hears us, he slowly comes in from the front door and all of the little kids scream and laugh. Then every kid gets to sit on Santa’s lap talk to him and get a present. You can just see the excitement in the kids as they sit on Santa’s lap. When it’s my turn to sit on his lap I can really see his big wide smile and his eyes always have a twinkle. He does actually have a real white beard, because one year my cousin Lilli pulled on it to see if it was real.

 I used to believe when I was young that he was the real Santa but know I know he’s just pretending. One time my cousin Hannah’s family’s presents were wrapped in toilet paper, that totally gave it away; that doesn’t seem like Santa but it sure does seem like my uncle Jeff.

When the afternoon starts to become late and the house is trashed with a mountain of dishes in the sink and wrapping paper everywhere possible. The parents say its time to go home and none of the kids want to leave but they know their going to fall asleep anyway. Every year I always look forward to sitting on Santa’s lap and spending time with my amazing family.

Getting "Lost" at the Airport by Adam Holmberg

AAAAAHHHHHHH” flight attendants screamed in fear of losing their jobs. A man in a suit and glasses walked up to me and the Fairbourne family and asked me, “Are you Adam Holmberg?”

It all started with me and my dad just sitting at the gate waiting to board the plane. “Adam Holmberg” they announced. I walked up to the flight attendants and said goodbye to my dad. I was super stoked to go to Africa with the Fairbournes.  The flight attendants escorted me onto the plane and sat me down. They walked back to the front to greet the other people boarding the plane.

My dad had told me that after I get off the plane that I need to find Jason. So that’s what I did. As I was walking off the plane the flight attendants said goodbye to me. Little did I know that the flight attendants were supposed to not only escort me on the plane, but also escort me off.

After I found Jason he asked me, “wasn't I supposed to sign something?”  I said “I don't know.” He was supposed to sign something. That something was the envelope that had my passport, my boarding pass, and other important stuff that the flight attendants had. He was supposed to sign it so “ they knew I wasn't leaving with some random dude. We grabbed a bite to eat and headed over to the gate to wait. We were just eating and chatting while we waited to board. Meanwhile, flight attendants were calling my name on the intercom and frantically searching for me.  Everett was the only one who had heard them calling my name but he hadn't said anything and we were too busy talking to hear it so none of us knew.

Natalie asked me if I had my passport in my backpack and I said did because I thought my dad had put it in there before I got on the plane. She told me to get it out. When I opened my backpack I realized it wasn’t there. I was freaking out inside. Jason took me up to the desk to ask them if they knew where my passport was. She asked me if I was Adam. I replied “yes.” She told us that there were flight attendants searching all over the building trying to find me. Luckily she had the envelope with my passport so she gave it to me. As we continued to wait, the man in a suit and glasses walked up to us. “Are you Adam Holmberg?” he asked. “yeah” I replied. He gave me a lecture but all I heard was, “And thats why.. blah blah blah.” 

After he was gone we all got on the plane and just forgot whatever the man had told us. After that we had all learned a very valuable lesson. DON'T TRUST DELTA WITH YOUR CHILDREN.

Kenya vs America

 

Well  I  love  America because of the food!!! and I'm always  having fun with my cousins.And I have  way too much fun with Nickel City and Lagoon.   But Kenya feels different,  the food is different, the general  environment is different, even the air is different that's what makes it so awesome! And you can't compete with the outstanding view of the the golden sun rise in the morning. For fun I get to go to beach and body board or chill out. I can't say  which one I  favor.  
Sports, sports, sports in America for me consist of basketball, tennis,  and American football. I really miss basketball and American football like the excitement of the shooting thought the net. Also the adrenaline of running and scoring a touchdown. But i'm being sucked into British sports like cricket and football these spots may seem boring and un fun but there surprisingly joy-able and exciting as in my first cricket mach I managed to bowl a wicket in my first game ever! And most of you who don't know what a wicket is look it up its a very complicated game witch will be a challenge for you to figure out how the game works. As for football i'm playing in my first mach i'm waiting for the ball to come to this side of the field for I am a defender once the ball comes to my side I stop the offending team from scoring and then I  watch as the ball i stopped went into the other goal. But to be honest I really do like American sports.
                             Schooling in America is very different from here, here we copy notes instead of learning how to use them, here we get a ten minute break and a 30 min lunch break there I would get a 30 min lunch break but a sorter day for here I have around 7 hour 30 min days. Here we do more projects. There they do more games.
                         I go on different types of trips here We go to the huts on the beach in Takaundu we eat amazing food wake up early in the morning a surf on the glass water with the reflection of the sun rise simmering throughout the water. But on the other hand in Utah we would we would go to lake pawl there we would sleep and early night on the house boat and wake up quiet early and have a delicious breakfast like truly prefect then we would stand into our swimming suits and hit the water.
We surf, body board, water ski, tube, and wake board.We do this until our legs can't hold our wait and then we retire to our beds. I really love both of these trips.
                     Kenya compared to America.
Here there is tons of people on the streets. In America it practically feels like a deserted ghost town.Here the roads are overflowing with tuktuks, Mattatos, and bodaboda's. There you see cars in a strait line!  Here we eat chapatti But if I had to choose one i would choose to experience this awesome experience longer.

                                                                                                                            

School

By Lilli Holmberg

Ever since I have been to this school I have been loving it! I have met so many new people and have done so many new things. Although I have been taking all these different classes I have been loving them all. I love all the teachers and all the teachers love me. I think my favorite teacher is my science teacher also my football teacher (soccer). He is so nice and is such a fun teacher, he also gives me the most house points which is good for Simba house. I have also been loving the sports I have been playing, I have been playing netball, football (soccer) and tennis. I have been playing on the school's soccer and netball team and have been doing tennis lessons with coach Soloman. It has been really fun experiencing these new sports and although I have made some fouls I get better every time I do it. I am so glad that I got a chance to be in this school and experience the British school way.

School Food Equals Poison

By Everett Fairbourne

No more! Just no more school food!
My school food is disgusting, because it has the top ten worst foods.

10: Dry pasta. (that comes in blocks)

9: Chicken and beef that are pink in the middle.

8:  Rice that smells rotten.

7: Sauce that tastes like #!$%.

6: Ice cream that taste like melted bread with milk.

5: Spaghetti that kills taste buds.

4: Sausage that is filled with death (the truck  that delivers it even says "?meat?")

3:  The potatoes;  how can you make a bad potato?

2: Lamb that has horrible spices

and now...

1: THE HOT DOGS!!!!!!!!!!! THEY TASTE RAW AND ROTTEN WITH BAD BREAD!!!!!!!!!

I was gaging during this blog.

But I finally have convinced my mom to let me take pack lunch.

The Question I'm Allways Asked

By Alta Fairbourne
At school, as you all know, my brothers and I are the only member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) in my whole school!  It can be really difficult because that leaves everyone with different beliefs. It's really hard sometimes to ignore all the swearing. Everyone is always asking me what I  believe; sometimes it can be hard to answer them.  Just lately my best friend Tasha was talking about how she is scared of dying because she says she just will be nothing forever. Right when she said that I asked her, " really? you think your spirit will disappear?  I believe that when you die your spirit travels back to the spirit world and once Jesus visits the earth we will all be resurrected and return to our bodies, but our bodies will be perfect again." I could tell she thought I was crazy, and all she would say was, "cool". This other time we were traveling to Nairobi for Hockey and it was in the morning and Tasha offered me some tea for breakfast and I told her sorry I don't drink tea, and she asked why not. I told I wanted to keep the present God gave me clean and healthy and I wanted to keep my body like a Temple. She accepted that and never offered me tea again. This is why I love living somewhere else and experiencing a new culture and meet lots of kids from all over the world who all believe different things and I love being a missionary and telling people about my beliefs.

Lilli H is in da' house!

By Lilli Holmberg  

  When I first heard that I was going to Africa for a term I was so excited I couldn't wait but when the days were getting closer I was getting more and more nervous about missing my family and friends but at the same time I was still excited to see my aunt,  uncle and cousins. When the day actually came I think the excitement took over me more. My uncle Jason slept over the day before we left. We woke up at 5:00am but I was so excited that I was not tired. For my last breakfast in Utah we went to this diner called "Sunshine Café" and it was so good. Finally we set off to the airport. We got on a small plane that was a 3 hour flight to Austin, Texas. Then it was a bigger plane from Austin, TX to Amsterdam that was like a 9 hour flight. Then from Amsterdam to Nairobi that was like a 8 hour flight and then finally a 1 hour flight to Mombasa, Kenya. On one of the flights I fell asleep on the person that was next to me that I didn't know and my took a picture of it but, the thing that was embarrassing was that I didn't know I was sleeping on her because I fell asleep on the armrest and slipped off onto her. When we got there it was like midnight and waiting for my uncle and I was my aunt and my cousin Alta, when we saw each other we just ran straight to one another and gave each other a huge hug. We got to their house everybody was awake and waiting for us, I gave everybody a big hug.
     My first day of school was on Wednesday and I was so excited to meet everybody. I was just followed my cousin Porter the whole time because I didn't know where my classes were or what was happening next. I noticed that the school here is totally different than any school I have been to in Utah. Probably the first thing I noticed is when you walk to your classes you walk outside because the hallways are outside and it is just more like a sidewalk. Second thing I noticed was the lockers, the lockers here are just like small wooden cubbies that are out side and seem totally different than the lockers that I would have thought they would have looked like. Third, I noticed that they call a lot of things different names then we call in America, like for example, instead of grades they call it years like you are in year 6 instead of being call you are in 6th grade and you have to say trousers instead of pants or they will think you are talking about your underpants and a lot more things. Forth thing would probably be that all the years (grades) from year 1 to year 12 are in one school together but the interesting thing is that when you go from America to Kenya you move up a grade because they do not have preschool nor do they have kindergarten but they start 1st grade a year earlier than us so when I was in Utah I was in 6th grade and then when I went to Kenya I was in year (grade) 7. I am still getting used to everything but I don't mind and I really enjoy experiencing a new school and meeting people.
     I can't wait to experience and try new things while I am here. I know I am going to have many adventures and many new stories to tell that.