It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.....at The Caton Home!!

Well, its beginning to look a lot like Christmas at the Caton household; we got a head start this year! Every year for my mother's Christmas present, her friend Nichole decorates our house. This year was no exception and it looks FABULOUS! Of course, I had to add my own special touches to everything. This year, we used a lot of fresh magnolia greenery. It looks so great! The only thing is I don't look forward to is having to take it down an replacing it before Christmas. Like everything else we do, our Christmas decorations are planned out to a T. Every room has its own theme and its own tree. The kitchen/breakfast room is gingerbread, the den is snowmen, the living room and dining room are full of fresh magnolia, greenery, berries, bows, and balls, my room is Auburn, and Hope's room is just cute and girly. We put up our main Christmas tree in the dining room; it is a "themed" tree where we put all of our presents. In the den, we have a smaller Christmas tree where we put all of our mismatched ornaments we've collected/made over the years. Hope and I each have our own trees in our room; mine is Auburn, and hers is cute and girly. In the breakfast room we have a gingerbread tree. We always pop some popcorn and make garland for this tree. I just love Christmas. I love spending time with family, eating great food, decorating the house, opening presents, and most importantly, celebrating the birth of our Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Word Count: 263

 Mantle in the Living Room- By Nichole Adkinson

 Buffet in the Dining Room- By Christian Davis

 Dining Room Table-By Nichole Adkinson and Stephen Caton

Foyer- By Stephen Caton

Piano-By Stephen Caton

 Tree for the Den-By Stephen Caton

 My Auburn Tree-By Stephen Caton

 Dough Bowl a Colonial Christmas Must- By Stephen Caton

Centerpiece for Breakfast room table- By Stephen Caton

Wreath-By Stephen Caton

Mirror Swag-By Stephen Caton 

Foyer Buffet-By Stephen Caton 

Mantle-By Stephen Caton

Top of Secretary-By Stephen Caton

Le Grande Tour De L'Europe: le Voyage Accueil

Well all good things must come to and end, and my Grand Tour of Europe is no exception. Every time I think about it ending it just makes me want to cry. These were the absolute best 10 days of my life! I learned and experienced so much; I would do it again in a heartbeat. I certainly hope that one day I will get to go back to Europe! We were awaken at 5:45 and left the Hotel Hilary at 6:30. We drove on the bus to the airport; we arrived about 7:30. Once we got to the airport we had a little while to do some shopping and I bought a beautiful cardinal bow-tie. We boarded our plane and flew from Leonardo da Vinci Airport in Rome to Heathrowe Airport in London. Once we got to Heathrowe we thought we had plenty of time to get to our flight deck, but we didn't! We all almost missed the flight; John, Toby, and Aaron almost got left. I was randomly searched when we were about to get on the bus to head to the plan. The flight home felt extremely long. I watched No Strings Attached, Black Swan, and the Kings Speech. They were all very good. Once we to to Atlanta we went through customs and walked what seemed like MILES to re-check our baggage. We finally got to the car! I rode home with Mr. and Mrs. Momenpour and Aaron. I fell asleep almost immediately; we arrived in Andalusia around 12:30 a.m.

Word Count: 255

John David, myself, and Claudia

Le Grande Tour De L'Europe: Roma, le Finale

We woke up the next morning for our last full day of the Grand Tour of Europe! In the morning, we toured the Colosseum and the Forum, and in the afternoon, we traveled to Vatican City for a tour of the St. Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel. The Colosseum was huge and overwhelming and the forum was long and fairly boring. It was rather hot! For some reason, I thought the Forum was only one building, but it was like all the ruins of the ancient city in the Roman Republic and Imperial Rome, (temples, meeting halls, senate chamber, etc.) Upon exiting the Forum, we walked past the church where St. Paul was imprisoned. We ate lunch at this over priced placed right across the street from the Vatican. For Claudia and I to each get once slide of lasagna and a coke it was over $50!! The big, fat Italian men were rude and expense. Just one coke $8.00! We then toured the Vatican, which is much larger and prettier than you would expect. Then, we ended up at the Sistine Chapel. It was the closest thing to hell I'd ever experienced in my life. We had to walk down at least six flights of stairs; once we got there it was dark, hot, and crowded (just like what I would expect hell to be like.) It was well worth it though! Of all the ornately painted ceilings I had seen in Europe, it was by far the prettiest! You felt like you were a part of the painting it was so huge! After we fought our way out of the chapel, we were supposed to have a free time in a square with a lot of artists, but because the tour too so long, we loaded up and headed to the Hotel Hilary! This made Le Fleur FURIOUS!! Well we got back to the hotel and thoroughly enjoyed our last night in Europe!

Word Count: 326

 River Tiber, Roma, Italy

 St. Peter's Square, Vatican City

 The Colosseum, Roma

Forum de Roma

10-0 Baby!!

Football Season 2011-2012

This year's football season has been AMAZING!! We defied even my greatest expectation and have completed the first perfect season since 1977!! I was afraid that we were going to get beat by T.R. Miller, but ended up defeating them. We even shut out Headland 63-0! The Straughn game worried me, but it ended up being a piece of cake! Our hardest game was this past Friday night against Opp. The officials were horrible! They would throw a flag after every first down or after every touchdown! They called back two of our touchdowns! We should have scored at least two more times and Opp should have scored one less. It was almost as bad as the first round of the playoffs two years ago! I'm so excited that our class will get to go down in AHS history as being undefeated and ranked #2 in the state!!

Word Count: 148

2011-2012 Football Schedule

Carroll		W 34-14
Fri	Sep. 2	at Alabama Christian R		W 26-7
Fri	Sep. 9	#9 Saint James R		W 52-14
Fri	Sep. 16	Bullock Co. R		W 44-9
Fri	Sep. 23	at #9 T.R. Miller		W 35-10
Fri	Sep. 30	at Hillcrest Evergreen R		W 40-6
Fri	Oct. 7	#23 Straughn R		W 37-3
Fri	Oct. 14	Ashford R		W 31-22
Fri	Oct. 21	at #23 Headland R		W 63-0
Fri	Oct. 28	at #23 Opp		W 21-13

Word Count:

Opp Bonfire

Thursday, October 27th AHS held its annual bonfire to get students excited and ready to "Bop Opp!" I had a great time! This year's bonfire was so much fun (we didn't have a bonfire last year, but it was definitely better than the one two years ago!) I felt the heat and the excitement burning on my skin. Mrs. Shellhouse was in a very good mood, so we got to play many of our favorite songs. There was one point during the event, that I felt very connected to the past traditions of Andalusia High School. Right after the band played the "Hey Song," the cheerleaders led the student body in my favorite cheer, "Right On!" It was at this second that I felt the energy and traditions of "Old Andalusia!" I finally felt like our class had woven its place into the colorful cloth of the Traditions of The Andalusia High School!

Word Count: 153

Dracula at the Shakespeare Festival

On Wednesday the 19th, my entire English class headed to the Alabama Shakespeare Festival in Montgomery to see Brahm Stoker's Dracula! I was very excited. The last time I had been to the Shakespeare Festival was to see Beauty and the Beast in Middle School! The play was very different from the book, I think they adapted it very well. They had many special pyrographic effects that helped to make the anti-climatic parts very exciting.  The added two new characters Mrs. Sullivan and her lover; they added a lot to the story. Renfield was hilarious! In the book, he was the most stupid annoying character, but he added a lot of comic relief in the play. Afterwards, I had a relaxing lunch at the Panera Bread in East Chase and then we had a few minutes to shop. East Chase Shoppes is such a neat area with many nice stores; I am looking forward to it being very near to Auburn :) We headed towards home and got stuck in traffic in Greenville. It was a very pleasant day and a well needed break from school.

Word Count: 186