November 1, 2009,I was surfing the web on my laptop and I stumbled upon this new singer named Justin Bieber. Uncle Frank walked by and said” who is that”? I said” it looks like I have some competition”. He looked at the screen and said” looks like he has the same hair style as you…. You know what that means don’t you”? I flipped my hair and hesitated saying” what”? He grabbed the scissors off the counter and started to approach me. I jumped out of my chair and said” there is no way in hell that I am going to let you come near me with those”. He said” oh yea” and chased me into the living room. I said” didn’t your mom ever tell you not to run with scissors”? I tried to jump over the couch but I tripped and my pants fell down. Uncle Frank said” didn’t your father ever tell you to wear a belt”? Before I could get off the floor he started cutting off chunks of my hair. I got up and ran to look at what he had done. When I looked into the mirror I said” you can just cut it now I guess”. I unwillingly sat in the chair and watched as the pile of hair on the floor got bigger and bigger. Finally Uncle Frank said” O.K. it’s done”. I was happy that I liked how he ended up cutting it. He said” don’t under estimate my hair cutting skills”. I said” don’t get ahead of yourself.

November 24, today is Thanksgiving and it is going to feel so weird not having dad here to say grace because he has always been the one to do it. I came downstairs and said” happy Thanksgiving everyone”. Prince and Paris ran up to me and gave me a hug. I said” where’s Blanket at you guys”? Prince said” still upstairs we haven’t seen him since we woke up”. I went upstairs to look for him and found him in his bedroom crying. I sat next to him on the edge of his bed and asked” what is wrong Blanket”? He said” I just wish daddy didn’t have to die”. I hugged him and said” I didn’t want him to either”. He started to cry even harder and I felt so bad for him because he doesn’t understand why dad died. Then I remembered something that dad would always do to get me to stop crying. I started to tickle him and his tears turned to laughter. When I stopped he said” hey daddy used to do that to me”. I saw that he was still wearing his Star Wars pajamas and said” you go ahead and get dressed because we are about to watch the Macys Thanksgiving day parade on TV”. I went downstairs and sat down next to Prince on the couch and he said” Grandpa said after we eat were going to stay at this cool hotel for the night”. It sounded fun, I just don’t know about my Grandfather sometimes. At least the food won’t be ready for a while. The parade started and Blanket sat down in front of me on the floor. I could smell Grandma’s peanut butter pie baking in the oven and yelled to her saying” yum that smells really good Grandma”. Our dog Kenya came running into the living room with something in her mouth. I said” what do you have now you crazy dog”? I pulled it out of her mouth and it was a paper towel. I threw it in the trash can and said” no more hunting for treasure in the garbage Kenya”. The Buzz Light-year balloon came across the TV screen and I said” wow that brings back memories”. Prince stood up and shot me with a dart gun that he was hiding behind his back. I grabbed a dart gun, took my socks off and said” oh it’s on little brother”. I chased him around the house hitting him in the back with the foam darts. Then Blanket jumped on my back and I fell to the floor. Prince, Paris, and Blanket piled on top of me. I was laughing and said” .O.K. I surrender”. Grandma was smiling because she has not seem me have this much fun since dad died. Soon after that the food was ready and we all sat down to eat. Prince volunteered to say grace and said” thank you God for our lives and family, even though Alanna sometimes gets on my nerves…amen”. My dad always used to call me a bottomless pit because I can eat as much as I want and never really gain much. I’ve always been tall and skinny, which I think I get from my dad. Uncle Jermaine said” watch out here comes the bottomless pit” as I pilled a bunch of food onto my plate. I laughed and said” wow that reminds me of my dad”. I looked over at Blanket and he was giving the dogs his vegetables. I gave him the look that dad gave us when we did something that he didn’t approve of and said” come on Blanket eat your vegetables, you know daddy wouldn’t let you get away with that”. I got up and said” I would like to just tell everyone that I will miss them when I go on tour in three weeks”. I sat back down and Prince said” I’m going to miss playing basketball with you A.J. I said” don’t you mean you’re going to miss me kicking your butt at basketball”? He said” can we play one last game before you start touring”. I shook my head yes and took another bite of my mashed potatoes. Grandma said” time for pie”. I said” YES, peanut butter pie”!!! I walked into the kitchen and grabbed a piece of pie”. I grabbed Blanket a piece and went back into the dining room. I gave Blanket his pie and sat down. I was just about to take my first bite when he said” can you cut it for me A.J”? I looked at him with the pie still on fork and said” it’s pie what is there to cut” I took his plate and started cutting it with my fork. He said” thanks” and I put it back in front of him. When we were done eating we all got into the car and Grandpa took us to the hotel. When we walked inside it was HUGE and had two floors just for us. As I look around the room something caught my eye, a full sized basketball court. I yelled” Prince you got to come see this’’. He said” yea I know, you want to play some one on one”? I ran onto the court and grabbed a basketball. He ran up to me and I said” are you ready for me to win”? We played for a good solid 2 hours and kept tying each other. Finally I purposely missed his rebound so he would win. He had a smile on his face for the rest of the night.