Christmas Crowd

It was as a glorious Christmas. Sara's family came to town to add some extra excitement.

Christmas Build Up

Guest began arriving early, so we had the Fritels and Bueckers here for a couple days. Museums, group dinners, and hanging out with the cousins. 

Tom and Grandpa check out engines at the Udvar-Hazy Space Museum

Doug found the break (with some help from St. Anthony)

Mexican Bingo was a hit - RJ won twice, Matthew won the big pot 

Julia, Luke, Mary get ready to make the house smell like burned plastic

Julia and RJ stuff stockings (Julia sewed them all)

Christmas Eve

The Martins arrived. We were warned not to go to the 4pm mass ... but we ignored that and sat in the lobby despite arriving 20 minutes early. We did get a front row seat when Fr. Guest placed Jesus in the manger.

Mass on Christmas Eve at St Luke. We took care of George.

Stone crabs - a Fritel tradition

Christmas Day

What a day. Started by opening presents. Then we headed to the Hilton for breakfast. After that we returned to our house for stockings and cousin-present opening. Aunt Debbie and Grandad joined us for the afternoon/evening. Excellent weather permitted a top-notch wiffle-ball game. After dinner, the world series of poker (no pictures) and phase 10 (no pictures) kept folks occupied.

Opening presents with Grandma and Grandpa

Sara got to open a perfectly wrapped triangular package

Doug and Julia in the Hilton after an excellent breakfast

Grandma organized color coded shirts for the family (Pink Bueckers, Navy Johnsons, Orange Fritels, Green Martins)

Weather in the 50s. Great whiffle-ball game (minus Jett's walk-off homer) and some golf.

Santa and the gang

No pictures of Christmas dinner, the world series of poker, or Phase 10.

After a big day, kids finally get to play with Gravitrax at 9pm (Nintendo Switch not opened yet)

CYO Basketball

Since RJ didn't have enough sports to play, he joined the St. Agnes CYO basketball team. Starting from zero, he is starting to become a decent player.

It's good to have a rain-or-shine basketball court down the street at his friend Bradley's house.

Prediction: ball falls short

Girls Weekend in NYC

Sara and Julia (and Courtney) took on NYC. The boys stayed home and played sports and cleaned up the yard ... and ate a lot of gluten and dairy.

Train ride with Sampson

First stop: skating at Bryant Park

Day 2: Rockettes at Radio City

Day 3: really, really good seat at the Nutcracker

So after all was said and done, Sara got to live her childhood dream with the help of Julia tagging along.

Wood Chipper Housing

The housing to the Briggs and Stratton 305cc engine fell apart. After the heroic effort associated with the rebuild in September (see https://dougsara.blogspot.com/2023/09/wood-chipper-repair.html), I was not about to give up on the chipper.

Old and new housing lined up side by side

The pull-starter was riveted to the old housing. So, I had to research how to remove rivets without any specific rivet tool. A 3/15" drill and a pair of vice-grips did the trick.

St Luke 5K

Sara and RJ ran in the St. Luke 5K that was postponed from a few months ago. 

Start of the 5K. RJ is just above the starter's elbow. Sara is wearing a Santa hat

RJ finishes ... time could have been better ... he had a pretty bad cough

Sara "not a runner" Johnson comes in at 38:21. The Santa hat probably added a few minutes. 

Thanks - it's over

The flu impacted Thanksgiving.

• Julia was 'not sick' with a 103 degree fever for 24 hours
• RJ had a dry cough and fever for 6 days
• Doug started feeling bad at 4pm Wednesday afternoon and kicked a mild fever at 4am on Monday morning ... just in time for work.

What we planned: Dinner at Yacht Club Golf at Sherwood Hang out at Cousin John's house Hang out with Cousin Brian and the Sherwood gang See Grandad, Cousin Bruce, and Aunt Rita Maybe see the Hanlons What we did: Watched TV Slept Kept our germs to ourselves

Thankful that thanksgiving is over

Hockey Goal

Random video of RJ scoring a goal in hockey ... 

 

Soccer - Bumblebees

Julia's soccer team, the Bumblebee-Swifties, was quite impressive. They were undefeated ... and many games were not very close. Many thanks to Coaches Kim and Pam for organizing a rec-league St. Agnes team. With a team of only 8 players, everybody got a lot of playing time.

Pic after the final game of the season

NYC Trip

We all had Friday off so we took the train to NYC to visit Aunt Donna. 

While on the train we tracked our progress on the phone, watched movies, and waited until 5:30pm to eat dinner. RJ did some homework on both the ride up and back.  

Julia, Doug, and Stuffies on the train

The trip to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island was a success. We arrived in time to catch the boat and enjoyed the museum and audio tours.

Photo from the Statue of Liberty pedestal. Sara posed, while kids listened to the audio tour

NY skyline on ferry ride home

Julia denied entry to America

Julia climbs

RJ scales the pedestal

After visiting the 911 Memorial, we found a festival

Day 2 featured shopping with no money and stops to Central Park, St. Patrick's Cathedral, $1.50 pizza, and dinner with Donna.

Lego store

Nintendo Store. Kids could have stayed there all day.

M&Ms store. Sadly, we did not purchase any M&Ms.

Started the day at Aunt Donna's office

Julia at Rockefeller Center (see Jurassic World picture from Oct 2015)

Sara and Julia are headed back in December.

Barbie Party

In keeping with the best marketing event of the movie season, Sara sponsored a Barbie party. 

Unfortunately "Ken" was in charge of the photo ... so this is the best we got

 

Cross Country - Last Meet

Kids finished the 2023 cross country season. Overall it was a very positive experience. Kids remembered their head-lamps to explore the dungeons at the park.

Girls before the championship race

Shenanigans included dungeon exploration

RJ approaches the finish line in 12:37 (last year he ran 13:04)

Team picture at the celebration event

Halloween 2023

St. Agnes Trunk or Treat

There were lots of great cars and costumes, but Janelle's potato on the spin-for-a-treat wheel was the talk of the school.

Julia and the gang at trunk or treat

The big prize ... a potato ... RJ ate his for dinner!

Pumpkin Carving

We got off to a late start carving pumpkins ... finishing up at 10pm the night before Halloween.

Kids carving pumpkins ... Julia was determined not to receive ANY help

The lit jack-o-lanterns looked great!

Halloween

The best part of Halloween ... no homework. It was a chilly and beautiful night. Both kids hung with Mr. Geoff, Bradley, and Doug in a 3-hour trick-or-treat marathon.

The day got started with Halloween Legos from Aunt Donna

Neighborhood party featured a lot of food and treats

Lots of candy! Here you go, another Charleston Chew

Julia in the News

Somehow Julia managed to get into the St. Agnes newsletter for 3 straight weeks.

Week 1: Julia and Matti-Jane playing game

Week 2: Julia working on board

Week 3: Julia and friends

 

In week 4 Julia won 'Student of the Month' but only her name appeared in the newsletter, so the streak was broken.

Students were recognized during mass