Lady Vols softball

So to prove that you can never have enough softball in your life, we and several other families from Megan's team showed up on Sunday at the Lady Vols softball game. We watched them beat Illinois St. 8-4.





We took a picture of the All Americans roll because Megan's hitting instructor, Sarah Fekete, is listed. She's a real celebrity!








The girls had fun.





Nicholas got cold.










And after a fruitless wait for the players to come out, they resorted to signing each others t-shirts and called it a day!

Knoxville Snow

So a few days after we returned from Wisp Resort at Deer Creek Lake, we had some snow in Knoxville too! OK, it was not quite as much as we had experienced in western Maryland, but the kids went out to play in it just the same. Needless to say, they did not need their snow pants :)

New Year's Eve

So New Year's Eve found us on the road to Maryland. Not a bad place to be considering we were on our way to visit old friends, but a little dissatisfying considering we were going to have to watch the long awaited matchup between Virginia Tech and Tennessee in the Chik-fil-A Bowl in a hotel room. David was incensed that we were not attending the game considering it included both of our alma maters AND was only 4 hours from our house. I pointed out that they were having torrential rains in Atlanta, he pointed out that the Georgia Dome, is, in fact, a dome and thus impervious to the weather. I reminded him of the last time we followed Virginia Tech to a bowl game (1999 Sugar Bowl in New Orleans): we weren't even able to score TICKETS to get into the game and had to watch from an alternate location and still the Hokies managed to lose the National Championship to the Seminoles.

I should explain here that David was pulling for VT in the VT vs. UT matchup for several reasons: he only went to graduate school at UT while I spent 7 long years at Virginia Tech; we lived in the Blacksburg area for several years when we were first married and he became a VT/Frank Beamer fan; VT is usually the underdog in a matchup like this and who doesn't love an underdog?; Lane Kiffen -- need I say more? David was not a fan from the get-go; and of course, there's marital harmony.

Anyway, after I reminded him of the 1999 loss, he stopped talking about going to the game and even vetoed my idea to make a detour to Blacksburg and watch the game in a sports bar there. So we found ourselves in Summersville, WV in a Hampton Inn watching the big game.

Well, some of us watched. Others played Nintendo DS until their eyes bled. I predicted early on that if we let Nicholas play his DS without restriction, he would be easily able to stay up until midnight to ring in the new year. Nicholas is usually an early to bed, early to rise kind of guy, even in a hotel room with lights and television on. He will often voluntarily come to us and ask to go to bed because he's tired.

However, I have seen the power of DS.




Clearly, the great and powerful DS triumphed. Nicholas made it to midnight and watched the ball drop. He even put the DS down long enough to tell us happy new year! Megan made it too, but this isn't her first year to stay up :)









Ultimately, the Hokies prevailed, but the big news of the night for Nicholas was the snow! It was snowing when we got there and snowed overnight even more. He couldn't wait to get out into it, even if it was only in the parking lot of our hotel. Little did he know this was only the beginning of the snow for the weekend!

Christmas Eve

Our family tradition is to attend Mass on Christmas Eve and then to gather at my sister's house for a meal, and this year was no different. It was the first year for St. Albert the Great parish to celebrate in our new space, and the new Fontanini Nativity was displayed for the first time. The Nativity is set up at the beginning of Advent and the animals and shepherds and townsfolk accumulate as the weeks pass. Finally, on Christmas Eve, the Holy Family arrives. The kids really do like going up each week to see what has been added, even if they look a little reluctant in the picture!












My sister, Ann, as usual outdid herself with her beautiful table settings and delicious food (beef tenderloin, broccoli with cheese sauce, and twice baked potatoes, among other things!)





















Megan and Nicholas are always eager to get home to get to bed so as to hasten the arrival of morning. They always get to open one present on Christmas Eve (and it's always pajamas!).









Nicholas decided to make some last minute changes to his list for Santa despite my brother Brad's explanation of the "go/no-go" meeting (where packing lists are finalized) happening several days before Christmas. And despite the fact that, CLEARLY, Santa had already left the North Pole as Megan was tracking him on the internet!












We left out a plate of cookies and some eggnog for Santa, and Nicholas left his list next to the treats. (You never know what Santa might have lurking in the floorboards of his sled. If it's anything like our van, there could TOTALLY be a extra light saber or video game that he would be happy to drop off under Nicholas's tree!)










Not long after, we all settled down for a long winter's nap!

Visit with our NC "family"

We had another fun visit with our friends in NC, Ed, Wendy and Nora. It really is like visiting family when we all get together. Nora is about midway in age between Megan and Nicholas, and all 3 kids get along great together. Our kids disappear with Nora on our arrival, emerging only for meals.
















Nora has a great playhouse built by Ed, and during this visit, the kids were running a bed and breakfast. The King and Queen (of what was not made clear) were in residence and I was privileged to observe the preparation of their breakfast.

Looks pretty good, eh?









On Saturday, we attended the Know Your Farms farm tour. We visited 3 of the nearly 2 dozen farms included on the tour. We had a great time, the weather held off, with only a short rain shower at the last farm, and a great time was had by all. See my next posts for descriptions of the individual farms.

Nicholas goes roller skating...

Nicholas's friend Trey had his birthday party at Skatetown, USA this past weekend. It was his first outing to the skating rink. We have been ice skating before, but the wheels proved to be a bit more of a challenge than the blade.


Here's the birthday boy, Trey:

Nicholas spent most of his time doing the "wall crawl." He can actually get up some pretty good speed doing this until someone gets in his way!

A good time was had by all!

Belated birthday present

Nicholas decided to give Grandma a belated birthday present. On the day after her birthday, he got his hair cut. (She had been hinting, suggesting, cajoling and arranging rides to the barber for several weeks!) On Thursday, after his trip to the barbershop, Nicholas and I wrapped his head in wrapping paper, and went over to visit Grandma. While she complimented him on his new do, the best part of the gift was the belly laugh she enjoyed seeing him with his head wrapped up like a present!












Nicholas is always up for a good joke!

Mom's birthday

Mom's birthday was Wednesday, so we celebrated with a dinner at her house. Nicholas, Megan and Riley enjoyed some outdoor time with Grandma.






























Inside, Ann Marie and I prepared the dinner. Mom did very well staying out of the kitchen and allowing us to prepare a meal for her instead of the other way round. She did get a little twitchy toward meal time, but in the end she maintained control :).


























Dad was there too, although he didn't seem to make it into any of the pictures!!

Happy birthday, Mom!