Winter break photo dump

The days between Christmas and New Years are always a bit of a blur. One of the things I love about my job is that I get time off for the holidays, and these 10+ days off at Christmas are my favorite. I enjoy the time with the kids, and the time to not really have anything I have to do. Again, since it's so many months since Christmas that I'm actually writing this, I have to base what we did that week off of the photos I found on my phone. Here is a glimpse of what went on during that week.

We usually play Code Names with a group, but we decided to see how it went with just the four of us. It worked, but was a bit different. Apparently it's a fun game for 4 as well as with more. I think the kids might have even beat us once or twice.

This photo (which Ava will probably hate) is a classic "don't bug me" teenager photo. She definitely had her ear buds in and wasn't interested in anything going on around her. 

Some people count down the days until they can put up their Christmas decorations, but I look forward to the day I can take them down. I did it early this year, even though I usually force myself to wait until the new year. I have to go to work on the 2nd, and wanted to get it done and put away. I love the look of a clean living room after it's all packed up for another year. 

Mom and Owen invited us to try out pickleball and we had fun! Dave, Tyler and I all took turns playing the two of them. It's a pretty fun game, and I can see why it's gotten so popular. 

There was also some bowling that happened. This was Dave's best game yet! 

We also pulled out a game we got last year, which turns out to be a lot of fun. It's called Chronology, and you have to put historical events in order by year. Ava kicked some serious butt in the one game we played, getting all 10 of her cards well before any of the rest of us were even close.

When I got back from Italy, I started experimenting with making homemade Limoncello. I finished off a new batch to close out the holiday break. Cheers to a nice holiday season. 

And of course, no winter break would be complete without several beautiful days of flying with my friends! Here is a link to a video of a great shoot catch with Rod. For some reason, I can't get videos to post on here lately. There's actually something going on with the photos on previous posts as well. I'm not sure if any of you have noticed, but there are years worth of photos on previous blogs that are not showing up. If you come across a blog post with a photo with a gray exclamation point in a triangle, you can click the photo to see it but it doesn't show up. I need to figure out how to fix it because it's very frustrating to have all of those photos disappear! 

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning is always a favorite time of year for me. With all the usual festivities that involve large crowds of family, I appreciate the quite time in the morning with just our family. When the kids were little, I couldn't wait to watch them walk down the hallway and get their first glimpse of their presents under the tree and see what Santa brought them. I loved watching them dig into their giant stockings and pull out item by item, reaching their little arms all the way to the bottom of a stocking that was even longer than that arm. All the stress and headache of preparing for the holidays would be forgotten after watching the happiness in the kids' eyes each Christmas morning, at least until next year when it all starts over. 

With the kids being older now, some of those magical moments are in the past but there is still happiness in their eyes. They still love digging into their stocking and scoping out their presents under the tree. They aren't as obvious about their excitement anymore, but I know there's still some of it there. One difference, however, is that we usually have to wake them up to get the festivities started.  

Tyler gave me my favorite gift, and the most random one. Thanks, teenaged son, for the hand turkey Christmas card. Thanks for believing I'm the best mom. I will smile every Christmas when I see this note. 

I'm writing this several months after Christmas, so I don't exactly remember everything that we all got. Tyler doesn't ask for much, so it can be hard to find the right gifts for him. This year, he mentioned wanting a new stereo for his car that would allow him to connect his phone and a back up camera. He also got some practical things like an oil filter for his car, and his favorite, Dr. Pepper. 

Ava didn't have any one big gift on her list, but there was plenty that she wanted. She got this nice necklace from Grandma Jeanas well as some money to spend at Ulta and cash. Happy girl!

She got some Lulu shorts, a pair of sneakers, some clothes and gift cards. She seemed very happy with her Christmas haul!

Tyler got this cool book about Volkswagens from Grandma Jean. 

Dave showing off his "son of a nutcracker" socks. 

These photos are a little out of order as we always start with opening stockings. 

Dave and I tend to shop for ourselves a bit, and then just sign the tag as if it's from the other. I did buy him a print of the blueprint of Chase Field that he can hopefully hang in his office. With this being the year the his D-Backs went to the World Series, it seemed fitting. Dave had some softball bats and shoes that he bought, and I always find plenty for myself. It was a lovely Christmas morning as a family. Here's hoping it was for you all as well. Merry Christmas!

This is a family gift that Tyler gave us. Sure, this puzzle does not look at all difficulty! Ha! Thanks kid....

Christmas Eve

We once again followed our Christmas Eve tradition of hosting my family at our house for a chicken taco night. Mom and Owen showed up in their festive, matching Christmas tree hats. 

Dave usually does most of the work to make the taco meat and frying the tortillas, and this year he had Tyler helping. 

Lucky for us, we had some special guests here this year. Kristina is extremely pregnant with their baby boy, so they weren't able to go to Texas like usual. It's always fun to have little ones in the house for Christmas. It's been awhile since those days for us, so it was great to have little Eleanor there this year. She found some of Ava's old toys, specifically the jars of beads that we used to have so much fun with. I ended up sending them home with her since she enjoyed them so much. And, I doubt Ava will miss them! In addition to Kristina's family, and mom and Owen, we were also joined by Karen, Scottie and Dawson. It was a lovely evening!

Customary family photos in front of the Christmas tree are always part of our tradition on this night. Here is our 2023 tree pic!

I loved having Kristina here! It's been several years since they joined us for our Christmas Eve traditions, so I was very happy to have these special guests. Is she not the cutest pregnant lady you've ever seen? She's all baby! Little boy will be here soon and everyone is very excited.

Three generations! I love these two ladies so much. 

After Kristina's family left, we pulled out our favorite game for when we have a group--Code Names. We taught Karen and her family to play and had a good time. 

There weren't too many gifts to open tonight, other than a few for Eleanor, so it was an early night. This is a very special tradition we've created, and one that means a lot to me. Since I've lived away from my family for my adult life, I really appreciate being able to host a holiday for the family that I do have nearby. I wouldn't be in Arizona if not for Karen, so it means a lot to me that I get to spend Christmas Eve with her each year, and of course, I'm grateful to have my mom here each year as well. I miss my Dad though, this is the second Christmas without him and he is very missed. 

Christmas cookie tradition

It's Christmas cookie time! This is one of the traditions we've kept as long as I can remember, and despite the mess and hassle, it's always worth it. Ava had some help to make the cookies this year, with Lexi getting to be part of the least fun stage of the sugar cookie process. 

The fun part comes later when we all gather around the kitchen island to decorate our tray of cookies. Grandma Jean has joined us for this many years, and was able to be there again this year. We're all getting pretty good at decorating our cookies with paint brushes and just the right consistency to the frosting. 

Here we all are, showing off our masterpieces. 

Tyler was the first one to do the tie-dye looking cookie, but I followed his lead and did a few of my own. I think they're my favorites! This is my tray....

Throwing these pictures in for fun as well--every once in awhile, we get a puzzle passed to us (usually from George and Jan), and with most of us being home more because of the break, it seemed like a good time. Puzzles always sound like a good idea to me at first, but I tend to lose interest pretty quickly. Dave is usually the one who spends the most time on them, but occasionally one of the kids will get lost in puzzle making. Ava got quite a bit of this one done for us this time, and I still did very little. 

Trapeze team gifts

We got the coolest gifts from George and Jan for Christmas this year! They had custom Roso Flyers hoodies made for each of us, and they even have our name embroidered on the chest. We've been saying for awhile that we needed team jackets, and they made it happen! Everyone was really excited. 

We usually exchange gifts on one of the days just before Christmas, but this year there was just a few of us who could stop by. I made my usual chocolate covered caramel corn, and gave everyone a photo magnet from one of our shows this year. I tend to give the same gift each year--it keeps it simple! I also have a calendar made of the photos from the year, and I give that to Jan and George, and also to Ashley. It has photos from each month, and also includes the birthdays of our team, coaches, and friends in the trapeze community. I know they look forward to getting their calendar each year, and I always have fun making it. 

It started out as a cool and rainy day, so we didn't get to fly today, but the sun started coming out shortly after our gift exchange. Not sure you can see it, but you'll notice that the net behind me is very saggy. That's the biggest reason we don't fly after it rains. 

Just including this photo of Jan giving treats to the trapeze dogs--they all love her! Thanks for the awesome gifts! I'm going to wear mine all the time!

Thanks, Santa

This photo cracks me up. Would you let this guy give you an injection? I've been having some shoulder issues in the last couple of years due to the intensity of this sport on my body. Catching giant humans and swinging from a bar for 10+ years seems to have taken a toll on my shoulders. Shocker. Anyway, I have had occasional cortisone shots in my shoulders when they start to get extra inflamed. I've gone to a shoulder doctor who has determined that I have some bursitis (inflammation/over use) in my shoulders which can be treated with cortisone. I got one from that doctor, and have also had George give me one here and there. My shoulder was especially angry recently, and we were expecting to be doing a lot of flying after Christmas with guests in town, so George offered to give me another cortisone boost after practice. This is how he came out of the house and into the shed. It's good to know a doctor, even if he dresses like Santa. Thanks George!

Hanging out with friends

I had the chance to hang out with some good friends over the last few days, so I figured I'd combine them all into this one post. 

First up was my last minute afternoon date with Sadie to see the holiday Cirque du Soleil show downtown Phoenix. She had a big group of family in town and they were all going to the show, but she had an extra ticket and asked if I'd like to join. I don't always love those traveling Cirque shows, but this one was really good! The performers were very talented and in typical Cirque fashion, the costumes and story were unique. It was called 'Twas the Night Before, in case you ever have a chance to go. It's a good one for those times you have family in town for the holidays. 

The next morning started with a coffee date and catch up with my former boss and friend, Kris. She was my boss and mentor in Student Life for about 10 years, and she recently moved to Indiana for a job opportunity. We had so much catching up to do, and our coffee date turned into a couple hours together. I've met some great people through my job over the years, but KB is definitely at the top of my list. MCC really lost a good one when she left, but they didn't deserve her anyway. 

That same evening, I got to meet up with these three besties for our holiday happy hour. Heather, Becky, Kelly and I don't get together often enough anymore, but we really enjoy it when we do. We met up at a fairly central location (that's always the hard part, we live in different corners of the valley) for drinks and appetizers, and to catch up after a long time. Kelly was so sweet, she brought us each a gift bag filled with stocking stuffers for each of us. She said she once read that a mom's stocking is the most underwhelming holiday item because it's usually the mom picking out stocking stuff for everyone else. She said we could either look in the bag, or give it to someone to put in our stocking for Christmas morning. I went with the latter option, and it was fun to see what extra stuff I had in my stocking. I wasn't dressed quite as festively as my friends--I'll have to do better next year. It's always a great night when I get to see these three. 

Last up was a birthday lunch with three of my friends from our Student Life team (Cara, aka my sister, Allison and Beth Ann). It was recently Cara's 30th birthday, and her favorite restaurant is Mi Amigos, a Mexican restaurant that is her birthday tradition. It's the end of the fall semester, so we all went out to celebrate on one of the last days of the semester. I had actually taken the day off but was happy to meet these ladies for CW's birthday lunch. She ate all the chips and salsa! 

I'm very grateful for all the amazing friends in my life!

Dave's Vintage Baseball Team

Anyone who has been around awhile knows that Dave and I take our hobbies very seriously, spending several nights/days a week practicing or playing. Dave has been playing softball at least 3 nights per week, for several years now. He joined a traveling senior softball team when he turned 40 (yes, 40 is considered senior in softball world), which has about one weekend tournament a month on average, either in the valley or in cooler places like Flagstaff, Prescott, etc during the hotter months. In the last year, he picked up a new game--vintage baseball! They play 1860s baseball rules and dress the part as well. 

I won't pretend to understand the rules they play by in this league, but I'll try to hit some of the ones I know. The first and most obvious difference is that they don't use gloves. They catch the ball barehanded, but it is not the same ball that is used today. It's more rubbery and not quite as hard, but don't let that fool you, it still hurts to catch a line drive! Dave will regularly come back from a Vintage game with a bruised hand. The other really major difference is that if a fielder catches the ball after it bounces once, it's an out (or a hand, 3 hands=3 outs). If you catch the ball in the air, it's also an out--and in one of those situations, the runner on base can advance and in the other, they can't (I don't remember which is which). There's not a traditional umpire either. There's an "arbitrator," but the team sort of makes their own calls--being honest about whether or not someone was safe or out, and the arbitrator (or the fans in the crowd) make the decision if it's a close call. There is probably a lot I'm missing, but those are the main rule differences. 

These photos were taken at the end of the season games in Bisbee, AZ, which takes their Vintage baseball pretty seriously! They have pretty big crowds, and all the teams in the state make the trip out there for the event. Bisbee is also just a very vintage-city, which makes this fit well with their community's vibe. 

There are a few other teams in Arizona, but this isn't a super popular sport just yet. There is also an all women team in their league, made up of some of the wives of players on Dave's team. They play the men, and follow all the same rules--but they have the best uniforms! They wear little dresses, just like the uniforms that are in the movie A League of Their Own. If I played ball sports, I can imagine that would be pretty fun. They've tried to recruit me, but I'm better at catching people than I am at catching a ball. 

Ava and I went to watch a game recently when it was at Freestone Park, which was the first time I'd seen them play. It was a lot like watching softball, but was fun to try to learn and understand the different rules. 

See, no gloves! The teams all have different style uniforms, but Dave's team (the Mesa Miners) models theirs after the teams that would head out to the baseball field after their long day of work. 

It was fun to watch Dave and his team play! I'm glad he has a good group of friends that he's made through softball, and that he gets to have these cool experiences with them.