CHRISTMAS 2009

It's over, almost, and it was a great one. A Wii for the girls, a bike for the Tornado, oak and magnolia trees in the yard for me and the CEO, with some other fun games or nice things along the way. Of course the best part was getting to spend a truly nice day with the family. GMA and GPA, aunts, uncles and OMA all spent the day here, playing games eating and sharing. I even got my sister a few nice laughs between watching The Hangover and a little practical joke by rewrapping the Sarah Palin book for her.

The kids all played nicely together, and of course that's always nice to see and be around. We went to mass at 4 yesterday, and two of my former players from the school basketball team were alter servers. The older one, a boy, is in 10th grade now, and has to be 3-4 inches taller that me. It's always nice to see the kids I've coached around town, at church, participating in life.

But yesterday at mass also made me reflect on Christmas from two years ago. Mass last Christmas was tough, but that was the first one since the Katrina Christmas. I knew that one would be difficult to enjoy fully. I thought this one would go a little more smoothly. As I sat in my chair at mass yesterday, holding a sleeping Tornado, I thought about Katrina. I thought about how hard her life has been the past two years. The feeling of letting her down is still in me, and while it comes to the surface less frequently, it hurts quite a bit.

But it also allows me to think of really how blessed I am to have such a wonderful wife and terrific kids. None of us are perfect, but we try to do the best we can, to do things and make decisions that reflect the love we have for each other. I hope Katrina finds that family someday soon.

Then, as I was thinking about Katrina during mass, my mind floated to Morgan. After 15 Christmas' with him, this is our first without. Cooper has taken Morgan's spot in the family picture, but he hasn't yet filled his shoes. Of course, The CEO says to me all the time he doesn't have to fill Morgan's shoes, Cooper has his own shoes, and those are perfectly fine. She's probably right :)

So as the clock ticks down on Christmas #20 with the CEO, #11 with kids, and #1 with Cooper, I thank God for those who are with me today, those who have been with me in Christmas' past, and the lessons I've learned about life along the way.

MOVE OVER DIANA TAURASI

Well, maybe not just yet. But Big O had an excellent debut for her Lady Falcons! Sure, we lost to St. Michaels 36-8, but that's missing the trees and only seeing the forest.

We've got 15 girls on the team, and half of them have never played any basketball at all. Opening the season against the best team in the league is a tough way to start, but after trailing 22-1, we played them pretty doggone even.

But the real story, at least in this household, was O's career debut. As evidenced by the score, we were having a tough time just getting shots up, so I instructed O to start shooting, to try to loosen everyone up. Boy did she! After putting up about 5 shots on 5 trips down the floor, I had to reign her in a little. But she hit a nice bank shot from about 10 feet, and got fouled twice in the act of shooting, making one of four. She scored 3, and the only other kids on the team that scored were the two best players from last year who tallied 3 and two respectively. As my good buddy put it, not many players lead their team in scoring in their debut.

Despite the loss, she had fun, and after coaching other kids for the past 5 years at SFX, it was quite enjoyable to watch her out there, giving it her best, and having a good time.

We are 0-1 on the season, but that game was nothing but a giant win to me!

A LIGHT BULB MOMENT

Patience. It seems so simple, so easy. Yet, it's the most difficult thing to remember as a parent I think. Pressure from teachers, pediatricians, other parents that your kid should be accomplishing this, or achieving that...it'll drive you nuts. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm not very patient. But I think I've done pretty well as a Dad at being patient. About finding a decent balance between pushing them to reach their potential and letting them be little.

There has been one issue that has been hanging over the house for literally over 4 years. The Bear is so darn particular about her clothes, but her socks and shoes, it's really borderline OCD. While most kids were learning to tie their shoes in pre-k or K, The Bear just refused. She would get to school and take her shoes off if they weren't tied to her liking. I have had a talk with every teacher from pre-k to 2nd grade about her shoes, and crying, getting to school late because she wouldn't get in the car. They all told me it was no big deal, it's not about shoes, it's about control, or about separation anxiety, or anything but the shoes really.

At the beginning of this school year I said to the Bear "when Thanksgiving break is over, you are tying your own shoes". I had gotten tired of the early morning battles that dragged everyone down at the start of the day. Thanksgiving crept closer and closer, and Bear had made no effort to practice tying. Then, a week before the deadline, she asked if I would help. But each day went by and she never got her shoes out.

So the day finally came, and she did it! I picked her up at school and she said they stayed tied all day, as tight as she likes them (which is cut the blood off tight). The next day, the next day, the next day all came and went with no complaints. The Friday of her first week, she looks up, after tying her shoes and says,"I wish I would have known how easy it was to tie my own shoes, it's not a problem at all." After 4 years of battle, the light bulb came on for her.

And I couldn't be happier for all of us, but mostly the Bear. Hopefully she finds a lesson in there somewhere :)

BAHAMAS MON

The family travelled back to Atlantis on Paradise Island, Bahamas for the third time a couple weeks ago. We had been twice before (3 times if you count the day trip from the cruise), but each other time we had other family in tow.

This was really the first time that the five of us have taken an extended vacation without other family.

It was great! Sure we had some tough moments, that's part of being on vacation as a family I'm pretty certain. The Tornado has been sleeping, well, not much. So that made everyone (particularly me) grumpy one day.

Other than that though, we had a lot of fun together and made a lot of nice memories. We rode slides, saw some movies, played some games, drank some Pina Colada's - you know, all the good stuff. :)

We were able to let the kids enjoy a little independence as they could ride the slides and not have us hanging right with them the whole time.

I always (almost) enjoy my time with the whole family, they really are a lot of fun. As the kids get older, the relationships are changing and its hard but fun all at the same time. I look forward to watching them, and our relationships grow.