De La Salle Basketball

The weekend after Christmas my parents host a dinner for the De La Salle basketball team on their way to a basketball tourney. Fun fact- my dad is a De La Salle alma mater and is still a strong supporter. He loves it, he loves to be around the kids and loves to find opportunities to encourage them. This year he invited Sully to come to Mitchell with him to watch a game, Sully had so much fun. He was telling us about his day and said he got to give a bunch of high 5s and was able to go into the locker room with my dad to talk to the players. He said "mom, it was so cool, everyone knew grandpa and wanted to talk to him!" I could just picture it. He talked it up so much, in fact, that we all decided to join my dad for the trip the following afternoon, we all wanted to get in on the fun. We left a couple of hours early in order to grab dinner, it was probably my first time in Mitchell in 10 years. It was a great game, but spending uninterrupted time with my dad and family was the icing on the cake, we look forward to next year, I think it will be the 14th year (I'll fact check that with my dad this week). 

Sully helping grandpa with the QR code program.

High 5s all around!

Three generations, slice of life version. 

Christmas Chaos/Fun

We had a very merry Christmas, being close to home definitely lended its hand to an abundance of gifts for the kids, but no one was complaining about that. 

We spent Christmas Eve with part of Dave's family as we remembered Julie who passed 20 year ago this year. Favorite treats and snacks and memories were shared. We toast to her and to all she brought to us. We finished the evening with games and fun at my brother's house before racing to bed with strict instructions no to wake up before 7am. Much to our surprise, the kids followed the rules. They were all thrilled with their gifts and loved watching Dave and I open their gifts to us. We celebrated with my parents and aunt Patty with high tea and then nachos Navidad as a family that evening. It was low key and a really nice day with plenty of puzzle and tetris time and simply time to laze around, we all needed that! 

Cheers to Christmas Break! 

Christmas with the Connelly family. 

Christmas Eve 

Christmas morning.

Handmade blindbag gift from Piper. 

Another angle. 

Christmas Day tea. 

I needed one of each. :)

Santa gifts...electric scooters! 

Sully's new fancy eye mask. 

Piper with her bunnies. 

Family movie night. 

One of my fave gifts from Sully, new jammies. 

The kids learning to play MASH, 
worth documenting. 

Hit my goal of 200 camps at Burn this year, 
worth documenting ;). 

Post dental apts brunch. 

Sully crushing records on Tetris. 

The kids get the final puzzle piece three way tie.

Wash Pav fun with friends. 

Impromptu holiday flowers,
Piper's note adds the flare we love.

The annual Christmas (or should I say Swiftmas ;)) card and letter.

We had the most fun with our Christmas card and letter this year. What is usually sort of an overwhelming job seemed to come easy, beginning with a family photo in the Tetons and ending with a Taylor Swift themed letter. After a solid year of Taylor everything, it was the clearly the only direction our annual letter could take. :)

Stuffing and licking. 

We had only one report of an empty card. ;)

No coats for the December mail drop.

I'll keep ya posted ;).

The Swiftie Letter

School Concerts and Holiday Celebrations

Nonstop December fun, catching up on photos from Greta's orchestra concert, Sully's 5th grade musical, family fun downtown and Dave's AA Inc. holiday party, the fun never ends! 

Greta, so proud. 

School concert - Sully in jeans! 

DTSF fun. 

Dave and I at the AA inc. party.