Family Christmas

The Sunday before Christmas, we gathered together with my family to eat, drink and be merry.  It was wonderful to see everyone and spend time together, talking and sharing stories.  Joe and Karen were amazing hosts, as always, and everyone had a wonderful time.  While we don't have the chance to get together very often, we do our best to make the most of the moments we have.

We also took the opportunity to embarrass my dad and celebrate his 84th birthday. 

NWC Christmas Concert

Northwest Catholic's Christmas concert was just a few days before Christmas and the as usual, the performances blew us away. It's amazing to me that such a small school has such an incredible music program.  Elizabeth performed in both Big Band and Honors Wind and did a wonderful job.

Winters Wrath 2019

Lee competed at Winter's Wrath last weekend in Somersworth, New Hampshire.  It was his first competition in more than a year and he was beyond ready.  With a few exceptions, he had a really good training cycle and his teammates felt confident about how he would do at the meet.  But of course, life always throws a few curveballs.  I've had a hectic schedule at work, Emily got injured playing basketball (which was emotionally draining for everyone) and Elizabeth's academic, athletic, musical and social schedule has been jammed packed, so we had absolutely no breathing room leading up to the day of the meet.  I dropped him a the gym before 7am the morning of, his earliest start ever and he really pulled it all together.  He squatted 620 pounds, a new personal best; benched 380 pounds, his best bench in more than 5 years; and pulled 600 pounds, tying his previous personal best from last December.  His total of 1600 pounds was a new PR and earned him Best Lifter accolades.  We are so proud of his hard work and how he mentally and physically executed his team's plan to perfection.

Lee with the girls and his Best Lifter award. 

So thankful for these guys.

Fast and Furious Christmas

Emily had her soccer besties - her 3v3 team - over for a gingerbread house making extravaganza last Sunday night and it was a huge success!  We rarely have groups of kids over because Willis usually scares people, but the dogs were kenneled because we were away for part of the weekend, so it worked out perfectly.  The girls all came over after their last indoor game of the weekend and within seconds, they were laughing, singing and talking non-stop.  Their gingerbread house making skills leave much to be desired, but their genuine friendship warms my heart.

November Odds and Ends

NWC girls soccer made a run at the state title and all of the playoffs games were within 3 miles of our house so we went to all of them! (Portland, CT) 

Durham, CT 

Middletown, CT 

Basketball season has begun! 

Black Friday 3v3 tournament 

NWC Semi

Elizabeth attended her first semiformal last weekend. At NWC, only upper classmen are invited to the semiformal, so this was her first opportunity to attend.  We had a bit of a struggle over the dress, as she wanted something shorter and I wanted something appropriate, but we were eventually able to compromise and she looked amazing.  After seeing all of the dresses posted on social media, my (biased) opinion is that she was the best looking girl there.  Best of all, she grudging agrees that her dress was the classiest of all.

O Christmas Tree 2019

We got our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving, the earliest I've ever gotten a tree in my entire life.  I'm glad that we went the day that we did because the tree farm we've gone to the last few years was closed by this weekend!  This year, we were able to find a tree pretty quickly - we narrowed it down to two different trees and Lee vetoed the larger tree because it was enormous and because it had a crooked trunk, so he was pretty certain it would fall over.  We brought the tree home, put it in the stand and strung the lights and then decided to let it settle for a day before we hung the ornaments.   At some point during the night, the tree fell over (oh the irony!) - which hasn't happened since we invested in an industrial tree stand from Sweden more than 16 years ago.  Lee. Was. So. Mad.  We got the tree upright and it's ratcheted to the sliders in the sunroom, holding steady for a week now.  It's smaller than usual, but has already caused more than it's fair share of trouble..