With Thanksgivings over, I always look forward to Christmas. It

With Thanksgivings over, I always look forward to Christmas. It all starts the day after Thanksgiving when we put the Christmas lights up outside. We even have a cow that lights up! We are always the most lit up house on the street. Once that is done we tackle the inside. Everywhere you look there is a hint of Christmas. One of my favorite traditions is going to pick out our Christmas tree. All four of us pile in the truck and head on down to the tree lot around 7 at night when we are finished with our work. We must go around the whole lot at least 10 times to find the perfect tree. Then a couple days before Christmas we put it up. We start with the lights, which is normally the job of my Dad and I, and then all the ornaments. At the end we have a 9 foot Christmas tree lit up and completely covered with ornaments - I mean completely covered! Of course many of our ornaments are cows. Our Christmas Eve is much like our Thanksgiving filled with work and lots of food. On Christmas day my brother and I get up and head out to the living room and look around. We can't wait to open our presents, but we have to wait for my mom and dad to come home from checking on the cows and doing the morning chores. When they finally get home, we all gather around the tree and open our presents together. My cow Royal is due to have her calf around the 22^nd so maybe she will be giving me a Christmas present too. I love the holidays because they are some of the few times that my family and I are all together in the same room at the same time.

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

Katherine Nissen

District 5 Dairy Princess