Christmas Morning

We weren't traveling anywhere for Christmas, so Christmas morning started a weeklong relaxation fest. The girls slept in until around 9am, just late enough so Sarah had time to prepare the quiches and get them in the oven. We were also able to enjoy a cup of coffee together before we heard Reese's melodious voice asking if they could come downstairs. Once we got our traditional top of the stairs photo it was game on.

It was our first Christmas morning with our new living room furniture which meant we all got a comfortable place to sit. The girls were definitely set up well for a good morning of unwrapping. Since they were little, though, they have loved to unwrap together and take as much joy in what the other one receives as they do in their own gifts. It is very cool to see.

This year Reese was also intent on purchasing gifts for other family members and had a great idea for her mother. Sarah loved the Lexington Sporting beanie that she can use to keep warm on the sidelines when Reese and Callie have their games in February and March.

Callie received a couple of pairs of sneakers for Christmas along with several other items of clothing. She kept saying throughout the morning, "you guys have done too much." We appreciated her gratitude for the gifts and the fact that she doesn't take it all for granted. She is a great kid, and that also played a part in the gift of the day that her sister received.

That's right, Reese Harper Bowes got a phone. It came well ahead of schedule by about a year, but she was very deserving and we know she will be very responsible. The best part of this gift was that Reese was completely shocked and overwhelmed with emotions when she opened the box. She squealed and started crying with joy. Definitely a Christmas morning to remember.

On Christmas afternoon we had dinner with Sharon and Chris at the Leatherman's house, which is always a good time with great food. The very next night we had a dinner and game night at the Sewell's house. The girls were told it was a Christmas pajama themed evening, so Reese and John broke out their Christmas pants and paired them with their new LSC sweatshirts. They looked pretty good, if you ask us. The rest of the week only stands out in that it involved watching a fair amount of Premier League soccer and hanging out. It was just what we all needed to complete 2022. 
 

Tape Ball 2022

On Christmas Eve we went to church earlier than planned because brutally cold weather led our pastors to cancel the second service. Callie and Reese read the story of the birth of Jesus and then we enjoyed a candle light rendition of Silent Night, a highlight of our year. Once we returned home we finalized all of our preparations for dinner and tape ball with the Abrahams. This year marked the return of Linda Kurtz to the event and what made it even better is that this time her husband Daniel got to join in the fun. With 10 people involved, Kelly and Sarah felt the need to up our game and so we had 45 gifts to correspond to 45 numbers encased in a ball of paper and tape. Needless to say, the size of the tape ball is getting out of hand.

But it is tough to argue with an event that brings so much joy and drama to our crew. Reese and Claire are the two most intense players of the kid set, and Daniel showed a lot of competitive spirit in his debut, especially once he realized that the kids aren't the only ones who take this seriously. He really enjoyed that we had no shame in stealing gifts we wanted from the young.

Christmas also marked the return of Ella after she finished her first semester of her sophomore year. We love seeing all of the Abrahams, but we try and get as much Ella time as we can during the holidays in particular. She also does a great job of strategizing during tape ball and we are impressed how she manages to get the gifts she really wants.

We know this picture was taken before tape ball began because Daniel still has his sweater on. It only took a few rotations before the heat of the game made the sweater a problem. We loved having these two become of our tradition and appreciated that they made the effort when they were having to wake up early on Christmas morning to travel to their families. We hope they will do it again with us next year.

Universal Birthday Greetings

Sam, our elf, always greets Reese with a Happy Birthday sign on her big day. This year Sam's writing contained a clue for Reese about where she would get to travel. 

We thought we had her fooled, but apparently had already figured out that we were going to head to Universal Studios and Harry Potter world for her birthday trip. Now that she knew for sure that was our destination she only needed patience to get through the last week of school before winter break. 

We had smooth trip down to Orlando and arrived just in time to have dinner and get oriented to the layout of our hotel. Our trip included three full days and we had passes for two parks each day. If you want to maximize your Harry Potter experience you have to get the two parks in the deal.

On the very first day we made our way right to Diagon Alley so we could have breakfast at the Leaky Cauldron. Harry Potter World is in hidden toward the back of the park, and everything about the set up makes you feel like you have entered the world you know from the books and movies. 

After we ate a tasty breakfast we headed to Gringott's to exchange some money and stood in line for our first Harry Potter ride. The park wasn't insanely crowded at this time, but it was busy enough that we spent a good amount of time waiting in lines. However, the Escape From Gringott's ride was worth it and provided glimpses into the bank and all different aspects of the stories we know so well.

The folks at Universal definitely do their jobs well. To get from Diagon Alley in one park to Hogwarts Castle and Hogsmeade in another park you can walk or you can take the Hogwarts Express. And of course, to get to the Hogwarts Express you have to find the 9 3/4 platform. It's a very neat set up and we ended up riding the train at least three times over the course of three days.

One of Reese's highlights was tasting the various types of Butterbeer served in the parks. You can have it cold, frozen, hot, or as ice cream. And yes, Reese tried every single kind but her favorite was frozen. She won't decline the offer if you send cold or ice cream her way, of course.

All three days we spent the majority of the days in the parks. On the second day, though, the weather was warm enough for John and Reese to go back to the hotel for a couple of hours so they could take advantage of the hotel pool and lazy river. This gave Callie and Sarah a chance to check out all of the roller coasters that Universal had to offer and that John and Reese had no interest in riding. 

The trip went by fast and before we knew it we were packing our bags to prepare for the journey back to Lexington. This also meant that we had only a few days to get ready for Christmas and all the trimmings. The girls and John were out of school but Sarah still had to work. It was going to be interesting.

A Thanksgiving Captured Mainly in our Hearts

As November dawned we knew we wanted to go to Connecticut for Thanksgiving but we weren't sure how we were going to get there. Flights were expensive so we delayed getting tickets. Then Callie's soccer banquet was scheduled for the Tuesday night of Thanksgiving week, which made flying even trickier. Ultimately we made the decision to drive. We left on Tuesday night right after the banquet and made it to Clarksburg, West Virginia before staying at a hotel for about 6 hours. We got back on the road before sunrise the next morning and pulled into Madison on Wednesday evening around 5pm.

Nana Banana and Sport were very excited to see us and the time we got together made the drive so worth it. John ran the turkey trot on Thanksgiving morning and then we spent the day at the Balestracci's house. Michael and Brendan were both in town and it was great to catch up with them. For a number of reasons, including the covid years, we hadn't been in Madison for Thanksgiving since 2016, so that made this time around that much more special. The only thing that felt off still was that the Hannens weren't able to make the trip. 

We were only in town for a short period of time so we wanted to get as much time with everyone as we could. We had to make sure we got a picture of Katie and Chris with their birthday bandits, of course. Unfortunately we were not on the top of our picture game so we didn't do a good job of taking more photos. But we did get to see the whole Skonieczny clan on Saturday night when Sport and Nana Banana invited everyone over for dessert.

We woke up before dawn on Sunday and got on the road with the goal of finishing the drive in one day. It is worth noting that John started working on his control issues and let Sarah drive the first stretch, which took us into Maryland. The girls made productive use of the drive and slept the majority of the time. We made it back to Lexington safely before the sun set and prepared for the next phase of the holiday season.

Life Beyond Soccer

It may be hard to believe, but we are involved in things that don't involve soccer every now and then. Fall in the bluegrass means a lot of things, but UK football is certainly a big deal these days. Callie and her friends are definitely part of Big Blue Nation. Sarah and Callie had the opportunity to go to a home game on a beautiful day in September while John and Reese were on the road. The Cats won the game and the girls had a great time. 

At the end of September Reese was invited by her friend Emerson to go see Hamilton in Cincinnati to celebrate Emerson's birthday. Reese was very excited and didn't want to throw away her shot to be the first member of our family to see it live. 

From what we hear the show exceeded expectations and Reese and Emerson sang along the entire time. It was nice for Reese to be able to spend some extra time with Emerson since they are no longer on the same club soccer team.

We always want to make sure the girls remember that they are not the only athletes in the house. This marked the tenth time that John ran the Bourbon Chase, which is kind of crazy to think about. This time around John ran three legs totaling almost 22 miles and lucked out with some wonderful weather. It's always a great experience, though it is also nice that it only comes around once a year. 

With such an active fall we really had no plans in place for Callie's actual birthday. We had some ideas, but we weren't able to coordinate anything effectively that allowed for her friends to attend. We had decided to go to El Toro with just the family but then sent a last minute invite to see if some folks could join us. Fortunately, several of Callie's friends were able to surprise her by showing up. It certainly made the night a little bit more exciting for our new 15 year old. She even agreed to have the wait staff sing to her, which is a big step for someone who does not like attention.

On a sadder note, the weekend after Callie's birthday John flew to Miami to support his friend Jason whose mother had just passed away. Tyler flew in from Long Beach as well, but Bill took the prize by coming all the way from Madrid. It was very good to be able to be present for Jason during such a difficult time and it was a great reminder of how important friends are in our lives,

Callie's high soccer schedule had an unfortunate conflict. Her team was out of town the weekend of Henry Clay's homecoming dance and therefore she missed it. Fortunately, her friend Una invited her to go with a group of girls to the homecoming dance at Dunbar High School. It is one of the benefits of living in a city with multiple high schools.

A fun twist to the evening for Sarah was that one of the other girls in the group was the daughter of a colleague from work. Although it wasn't at Henry Clay, it was great for Callie to have her first high school dance with a nice group of girls.

And it wasn't like Callie didn't know anyone else there. In fact, she knew going in that Claire Abraham was going to be there with her boyfriend so she kept an eye out for her. We were very happy to receive a text with this picture during the night of the dance. Everything about it was a sign of how time keeps moving on and the girls keep growing up.

Shortly after Callie dressed up for a dance, Reese was dressing up for some candy. We have some great trick or treating options in the area, and her friends picked one close to our house. They also decided to all go as T-rexes.

The inflatable T-rex costume is one of the most fun because of how silly it looks as they are walking or running. We have a great slow motion video of Reese and her friends racing across the yard.

You can see in the picture above that one of the girls did not feel like dressing up like a T-rex and instead dressed up like a matador to corral all of the dinosaurs. 

With Halloween in the rear view mirror and soccer winding down to an extent, we could turn our attention to the holidays that were right around the corner. Among many things that means Libby and Lucy are in town a bit more often visiting their grandparents next door. Photo opportunities are a bit harder to manage now that the girls are older but we had to at least get one shot. We love the fact that they still enjoy spending time together no matter how much time has passed.