The Accidental Boilermaker

 It wasn’t warm by any means, but it was warm enough to go sledding. We all had lots of fun.

 Jameson is eight! It was a good day. Jameson wanted bacon for breakfast, so after school on Thursday we went to Jamison’s meat market and bought some good bacon.  A few presents were opened early. He’s very excited to make ice cream with his present from the Hilldores.  Soon it was time to head to church for Upward. Jameson’s team looked good as did Evelyn’s.  We came home, relaxed, and then ate some cake.  Jameson wanted a burger for dinner so we went to Bravas. The kids and I have had their burgers from their food truck so we were excited to try their restaurant. We watched some football and had more chocolate cake.  Probably the present he was most excited for was the crocs from the Reimans. They were quite the surprise. 

 Evelyn and Jameson went to school one day this week. It was a long week. Today we made the switch from e-learning/asynchronous learning to remote learning/synchronous. It was miserable. All day spent on zoom. But we survived. We did get out and play before school started. After school ended we had dinner with some other girls from Evelyn’s basketball team and then a smaller number of girls went to watch a Snider high school girls basketball game. The ladies won. We stayed for one quarter of the boys game, but Jameson was tired and wanted to go home. We decided it had been a long day and it probably was a good idea to leave. Tomorrow will be another big day. 

 Basketball for Evelyn and Jameson is off to a good start. Evelyn’s school team is looking great. They’ve played a few exhibition games and Evelyn has scored a couple baskets. Upward has started too and Nate is an assistant coach for Jameson’s 2nd/3rd grade team. Evelyn is on a 3rd-5th grade team.  There’s only 6 girls on her team and only 3 teams total, so every girl gets lots of playing time. During Evelyn’s double header on Saturday, Jameson all of sudden tried to get my attention, very urgently. I told him I was watching his sister play and he goes but Mom my tooth! He had pulled out his bottom tooth. It was all very exciting. 

 We had a great time celebrating second Christmas in Holland. We arrived Friday and got to visit with Aunt Celia. We were all excited for some kitty love too. Saturday we headed downtown to window shop and eat treats. We opened Christmas presents and celebrated Isaac’s birthday. The kids also got to watch a movie before bed.  Sunday was everyone’s favorite activity - rock climbing! Although Jameson might say playing Dominion was his favorite activity. By his third game, he really seemed to be holding his own.  While they didn’t make it till midnight, the cousins still toasted in the new year with some frizzy beverages. Isaac got to stay up and play smash bros with Nate and Ben while the other three just seemed to laugh themselves silly in Joshua’s room till they asleep.  Monday was a relaxed day.  We took a nice walk around the neighborhood before lunch and then the drive back home.