Christmas 2014

Being the traditionalist that I am, this Christmas was pretty much like all the rest.  One major difference, however, was that Grandma and Grandpa Hatch celebrated with us for the first time ever!  We missed Grandma and Grandpa Seely, who celebrated with Great Grandma Burke in California, but we had a great holiday. 

Grandma and Grandpa Seely arrived on Saturday to watch Alyssa compete in a practice meet.  They went to church with us the next day and Grandma even sang in the choir with me.  They flew to California on Monday morning.

Here is our family the Sunday before Christmas:

Grandma and Grandpa Hatch arrived on Tuesday.  On Wednesday, Christmas Eve, it was time to get the festivities started.  Eating crazy amounts of food is always part of celebrating Christmas.  Here is our Christmas Eve spread:

Natalie requested her favorite: boneless buffalo wings.

The kids have fun with our Italian soda tradition.

 Look at these happy Christmas faces:

Natalie couldn't wait to open her Christmas pajamas.

Then it was on to our Nativity program.

 Once the children were nestled all snug in their beds, Santa came.

At 5:00 a.m., Jon startled me awake by saying, "Tara, what is that?!" As I came to, I could indeed hear "O Little Town of Bethlehem" blaring through the house.  After a few seconds I recognized it to be our Nativity music that had spontaneously and inexplicably turned on.  Remember the ghost in our house?  This was our ghost of Christmas morning, I guess.  By the time Jon could get to it to turn it off, it had moved on to "Away in a Manger."

Grandpa later said that when he heard the music, he just assumed that's how we woke the house up for Christmas morning.  Oh no, Grandpa, we're sleepers at our house!  We make no habit of playing music at 5:00 a.m.!  We thankfully all went back to sleep--except for Grandpa--and it was at least 9:00 before the kids stirred.  We had our usual Christmas breakfast and then could hold Natalie back from the presents no longer.

The Childers family gave Grandpa heads for his toothbrush.  He says these replacements should last him until he dies.

Grandma got a neck massager:

Mittens from Great Grandma:

Grandma Hatch made BYU pajama pants for all of her grandkids.

I got two of the exact same puzzle.  Oh I do love puzzles!

Grandpa got new belts from Sarah and then promptly took his old one off, demonstrating that it is split down the middle and he may have actually admitted that he needed a new one--something he doesn't do very often.

Caleb had asked for cash so I made him a money tree.  He loved it!

We all enjoyed reading the reunion book that Lucy made for everyone:

We went to the movies and then finished our day with a traditional Christmas dinner.

Then I declared that I was officially done baking and cooking and went to work on my new Christmas puzzles.

It was a very Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving 2014

The drive to Thanksgiving is nine hours long.  We'd only made it 20 minutes down the road before we had to stop.  

A sizable speeding ticket wasn't the best way to begin our trek, but it was, thankfully, our only hiccup.  The four mountain passes were crossed with ease and we plowed straight through, only stopping once (after the ticket) to fill up. 

The next morning, Thanksgiving Day, started with the Turkey Trot, of course.

Christopher is my annual running buddy.  None of the kids joined us this year.  

Instead, they were doing things like building a snowman or writing up plays for the Turkey Bowl. 

The Turkey Bowl participants also signed a "Turkey Bowl Compact," written by Jonas, committing themselves to good sportsmanship.  

But before any footballs could be hiked, a feast was to be consumed.  Just look at my plateful of beautiful food:

Jonas and Caleb waiting for the prayer:

Due to icy roads, the Lynn family did not make it down from Canada in time for dinner.  Here are the rest of the cousins ready to dig in:

After all bellies were filled, the kids hurried outside.  Three cousins had matching Columbia jackets.  Two of them were practicing their smolder while posing for this picture:

This year's Turkey Bowl was played at Carroll College.  I think the boys had fun.

At least the winners were happy.

Watching my kids adore their cousins is without question my favorite part of our gathering-for-Thanksgiving tradition.  They love each other so much, they can scarcely stand to sit in separate chairs.

See what I mean?  Just look at all of this chair-sharing:

The weather had been unusually warm on Thanksgiving and Black Friday.  But on Saturday, the temperature plummeted and a rather fierce storm blew in buckets of snow.

The girls tried to play in the snow but only lasted ten minutes in the sub-freezing winter wonderland.

We decided weather like that called for a trip to Starbucks.  We were stunned to hear that our cousins had never been.  Guess they don't have them on every street corner like we do at home.

Goodbyes are always hard.  The Johnson's were the first to leave.  Some of the remaining cousins went out on the porch to give them a send-off.

We later tried to go to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the BYU/Cal game but the placed was filled beyond capacity with a much-too-long wait.  We had to just listen to it on the radio instead.  These two super fans celebrated the win.  (Look at the girls in the background.  Sadie's even plugging her ears. :) )

It was a Thanksgiving much like all the others before it.  Simply wonderful.

The Letterman

He's always had fast legs.  In elementary school, everyone in the neighborhood knew him as the kid who sprinted home from school everyday.  And I mean sprinted.  At full speed.  All the way home.

In third grade, he set the record for the mile run.  It still stands today.

The fast legs may have come naturally, but hard work and determination did not.  Caleb never runs in the off season.  When I'd pick him up from practice, it was always obvious that he hadn't done the same workout as many of the other runners that seemed to be pushing themselves.  In races, he didn't seem motivated to pass others.  I tried not to worry too much about the fact that Caleb seemed to perform under his full potential and instead I tried to just celebrate the fact that he was even participating at all.

Then, in the second race of this season, Caleb broke into the top ten of the boys team.  That means that he got to take this t-shirt from the teammate that he had unseated:

That little white t-shirt seemed to spark a bit of a fire inside of Caleb.  He was suddenly working harder and demonstrated more determination than I'd ever seen.  He really didn't want to lose that shirt and he had several teammates that were anxious to take it from him.

Since he was still running JV, he was almost always in the front of the pack at every race.  It was just so much fun to watch him leading the way this year.

I know I'm sappy, but this next picture actually puts a little lump in my throat.  I love that the varsity team is cheering for Caleb as he is out in front of the pack at a large invitational called, "Hole in the Wall."

And you know why I love this picture?  Because it shows Caleb's athletic supporters (Grandma, Grandpa and Alyssa) cheering him on.  My parents should seriously earn a ribbon for being the most supportive grandparents ever!

In the end, Caleb finished 11th out of 233 runners.  That earned him his first ever XC ribbon.

Imagine this dialogue as you view the next series of photos:

Me: "Caleb, don't do a dorky smile."

Caleb: "Mom! What do you mean a dorky smile?"

Caleb: "I'm not smiling dorky."

Me: "Ah well.  That's maybe a little better.  Oh, and nice hand placement."

Caleb held onto that top ten shirt until the second to the last race.  He was passed at the end of the race but since he'd had it for most of the season, the coaches couldn't bear to take it from him, so both he and the other boy got shirts.  Also, it should be noted that throughout the season, it always seemed that some runner or another that was likely to take the shirt from Caleb was sick or injured.  As awesome as it was to earn that shirt, it always seemed to come with a bit of an asterisk.

Then came sub-districts and Caleb's favorite course, one he's run many times and knows well.  He gave it all he had and finished with an all-time PR of 18:29.  Not a single runner on his team was sick or injured that day.  Everyone ran, everyone did well and Caleb legitimately finished in the top ten.  That shirt, now free of any asterisks, was all his!

He was awarded his second ribbon of the season for finishing 11th of 286 JV runners.  The satisfaction he felt from the accomplishment was made obvious with his fist pumping and mile-wide smile.

Last week, we attended the end-of-year banquet for his team.  We were proud to learn that Caleb's efforts this year earned him the school's varsity letter.  He was also awarded Scholar Athlete and Distinguished Scholastic awards.

Way to go, Caleb!  We are so proud of you.

Now, let's see some running in the off season!