Merry Christmas!!

Christmas cards used to be one of my favorite things about the holiday season. I loved everything about them from choosing the perfect cards to send out, to addressing them and sending them out. As my schedule (like so many others) got increasingly busier over the last several years--especially during the holiday season, something had to give and I abandoned this practice. This year I was hoping to bring back that tradition. Once again, however, time has gotten away from me and so another year goes by without addressing one card. I do miss sending out Christmas greetings, so I have decided to use my blog as one big Christmas "card" to everyone.

Merry Christmas from all of us to all of you, and best wishes for Happy New Year!!

I've never been one to include a summary of the year's events in my Christmas cards, but since the original purpose of my blog was to keep everyone up to date with our family's happenings I'll run through a quick recap.

Since my last blog (that included anything to actually report on) was about Austin's track season, I'll pick up from there. He graduated from 8th grade in June. Yes...it was a loooong school year!! Snow days held us over until the first week of June, and needless to say, EVERYONE was ready for it to be over!

8th grade graduation.

The following week we had a party for him on the patio.

The summer was full of "firsts" for Austin (and a couple for me!). He attends football and basketball camps every summer, but most of those are day camps and I just transport him back and forth for the duration of the camp. This year he went to his first "away" overnight basketcamp at ISU. He got to stay in the dorms and everything. He thought that was awesome! His team performed really well during the camp, he learned a lot of new drills, and met a lot of new people. He had tons of fun!

Kiki (who is a junior and the brother of one of Austin's good friends) was Austin's roommate at camp.

While the cat's away, mice will play! While Austin was away at camp, Bryan and I plus a big group of us all went up to Chicago for the weekend where I had one of my firsts. My first Cub game at Wrigley Field. I've seen the Cubs play before at other stadiums, but never at Wrigley, and it was everything it's hyped up to be! AND...to make things even better--THE CUBS WON!! The game went into 13 innings! But, was well worth the wait. :)

Another first for Austin was his first trip out of the country. We went on vacation in July to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic (another first for me--Bryan has been before) for a week. I wasn't sure how Austin would do on a "resort" vacation with a lot of laying around the pool and on the beach since he is used to going on more action-packed vacations with us. But... he LOVED it, and can't wait to go back! We took a couple day trips during the week going into "town" (if that's what you want to call it) to do a little shopping, and we went on a boating/snorkeling excursion where we even got to swim with the sharks (we were told they're not the kind of sharks that eat people--hmm) and stringrays (that had their stingers removed of course). Austin met all kinds of other kids from all over the world--Germany, France, Spain. He had a little 13 year old girl from Germany following him around (or was he following her around? lol!) all week, and spent a lot of time hanging out with a boy from France (until Austin realized people in France are a little more "relaxed" than we are in the States and didn't like some of the things the boy was "inviting" him to do--smart kid!). Although his little friend from Germany could understand Austin, she couldn't communicate in English very well so it was quite a learning experience for Austin. He picked up a few German words and also learned how limited we are by only knowing our own language! He was amazed that everyone he met could not only speak their own language, but could also speak ours (if not fluently at least enough to communicate).

Pool volleyball with his new friends.

Austin with his friends from Germany.

With one of the locals.

The rest of the summer was equally busy for Austin between a very intense football camp and his first job! He got a taste of what it's like to actually earn a dollar working for Bryan at BASF pollenating corn. Can't say he loved it as much as he did his other "firsts", but it was a good experience for him.

He's entered the world of high school now and is absolutely loving it! He was a starter for the freshman football team. They ended up with a 500 season--not too bad considering the kind of weather they had to play in this year! It was a WET football season! Austin probably played his best game ever (in the rain!) the last game of the season with several tackles and an interception. Basketball season has started now, and so far his team is 3 and 1. Austin's been leading the team with 3 pt. shots, and has been playing better than I've ever seen him. He starts driver's ed in the 4th quarter and that's all I hear about. (Actually, that's been all I hear about for a while now! Lord help us all when he actually starts driving!! lol!)

OK...so for the amount of time I've spent updating this blog I could've hand delivered Christmas cards to everyone! lol.

Seriously, I do appreciate all the Christmas cards I receive every year so thank you for keeping me on your Christmas card list even though I've neglected to reciprocate lately.

I truly hope everyone has a great holiday season!