Happy New Year! Mom and I made it back from Minnesota last night and it is good to be home. It was also good to see Grandpa at the airport with Dad, which means his back is better or at least good enough to ride in a car for an hour and a half. Minnesota was fun and it wasn't too cold, but there was enough snow to go sledding with my cousins at Uncle Ronnies house. We spent new years eve at Aunt Gloria's house with all of the family including Grandma Sylvia who had a hard time staying up till midnight. Mom says that she usually goes to bed by 8:30 so it was tough for her. My cousin Katie kept tapping Grandma on the knee to keep her awake until finally Aunt Cindy yelled at her to stop. We then drank cider at midnight because it looked like champagne, but the adults were drinking real champagne and seemed really happy to be together, even Mom and Aunt Cindy seemed to get along ok.

I talked for a little while with Aunt Cindy's younger sister Donna who had flown in from San Francisco and who is not married because she is "too busy" studying cultural anthropology at the University near San Francisco (which I forgot the name of) to meet anyone. I asked her what "cultural anthropology" was and understood it as a study of humans and their customs, but decided to look it up anyways. It is "the comparative study of human societies and cultures and their development" and there was no use listed in the book, so you will just have to make one up. She particularly enjoys studying people of early Mexico and what things they liked and believed in. Donna lent me a small book about early people called Mayans that were very religious and performed many ceremonies and sacrificed animals and sometimes people for the gods that they believed in. This was confusing for me because I always thought there was just one God, but Donna said that some religions believe in many gods. I am excited about reading the book she gave me and hopefully can earn credit for reading it at school, which starts next week. Donna was very smart and also funny and I hope that after I read the book that I can talk about Mayans with her sometime since she doesn't live to far away. She said that it is her last year of graduation school and that she has been in school for almost 20 years if you count kindergarten through 12th grade and I asked her if she ever gets sick of it and she said "no" that she really enjoys learning new things about people and history. She said that learning history helps us to avoid making the same mistakes today, especially when it comes to "conflict" between countries or groups of people. I said that I had heard that before, but not sure where, "probably in history class" she said, and I said "probably, but I am not sure". She then said that many people in power forget what history teaches us and that is why we always have war. "I wonder if cousin Mat would agree" I thought. So, I have something to tell my history teacher at school and she will probably tell me to do a project on Mayans for the semester and maybe I can talk Donna into helping me with it. That wouldn't be too bad.