National Honor Society

In yet another milestone event that we could not attend because of COVID, Elizabeth was inducted into the National Honor Society on Thursday.  The ceremony was pushed back twice due to inclement weather, but went off without a hitch this time around.  We are so proud of Elizabeth's continued hard work and great grades with such a rigorous course load.

December Odds and Ends

 Some odds and ends from the last month of the longest year ever:

Lots and lots and lots of packages.

Emily had to quarantine for 14 days because of an exposure at school and Elizabeth decided that she would quarantine with her, so they kept their routine - remote schooling in the same room, continuing to share their bedroom, and running together every day.

Once my work went full remote, I started taking Beau with me when I dropped the girls at school in the morning.

More than a foot of snow in mid-December is basically unheard of in Connecticut.  But in 2020, we've learned to expect the unexpected.

Emily made waffles for us on their first snow day of the school year.

Emily did a gift exchange with her eight (!) closest friends.

Emily and her soccer/running friends did a Secret Santa and exchanged gifts on the 23rd after a particularly difficult hill workout.

Elizabeth got yet another piercing in December.  The timing was right (no out of state trips and months until lacrosse begins) for this early Christmas gift.

Grinding

With the statewide "pause" on high school and youth sports, the girls have found themselves, once again, having to train without a true purpose. While we have no doubt that club soccer will start up the moment the state allows it, Elizabeth is stuck in a rut, knowing that there is very little chance that there will be a high school indoor track season and that the high school lacrosse start date is now at least four months away. We are proud of both of them for pushing through, running every day and playing soccer and lacrosse whenever the weather allows for it.

Even in quarantine, Emily got in solid, albeit solitary, track workouts.  She was relieved when her 14 days were up.

Soccer girls are still meeting twice a week to grind out some intense workouts.

When a foot of snow covered the track for two weeks, the girls used our house as a home base and put in some extra mileage and improvised hill work.

Even during her two off weeks from small group training, Emily and a few other girls made sure to get in their touches and reps at the field.

Working on starts.