Christmas program

at St Ignatius. I went to the 9:30a performance.

3rd and 4th grades don’t have buddy classes, they form the choir for school year.

Buddy classes: 8th and 2nd. Every group sings two songs, one is a traditional carol.

Basketball

Sunday afternoon. While Sophia (and Mom) hosted a Friendsgiving celebration at home and Dad and Avery were in San Jose for a volleyball tournament (which they won), I had the good fortune to take Carson to his basketball game.

Woodworking

Thais and I finally found a day we could both go back to the woodworking class to finish our cutting boards.

Final touch: wood butter.

Thais had a laser image “burned” onto hers.

A better picture of mine.

St Hubert

A rainy morning but .. off I went to St Ignatius to see the 4th grade presentations of the saint each student had researched and crafted. St Hubert: patron saint of hunters, archers, foresters, trappers and the city of Liege.

After school

I picked up the boys from St Ignatius after school. Avery is definitely getting better at popping a wheelie.

Carson and Hudson were doing their homework together via FaceTime (I think). I couldn’t help but hover a bit, out of curiosity, as they worked on a grammar assignment. Hudson’s mom was on the other end advising him. LOL – she and I both got stuck on sentence 7: find the “noncount noun.”

So .. we left it up to the boys to decide. 4th grade grammar has higher learning expectations than I remember.

Monday – last day

Single elimination today, another early start.

Avery’s Omni team came in 9th in their division.

Grab a taxi, head to the airport. Thank you Air Traffic Controllers for coming to work today.

Our flight arrived in Sacramento at about 7p. Super fun trip!

Tournament day 2

Every morning was an early start. The boys had to arrive by 7:10, first game at 8:00.

The team always has to ref a game before they can leave which means someone stand in opposite corners with a red flag to call a ball in or out. Later, while Avery went with his friends to Michael Jordan’s Steakhouse, Thais Carson and I went to the Field Museum.

The exhibit halls were to the left and right of the main hall on two levels.

Why Chicago?

at the McCormick Place – a huge convention center. Saturday was day 1 of the tournament.

Teams from all over the US were there. 14 and under played in the Skyline Ballroom with 14 courts. Two other huge ballrooms also held games. There were a total of 92 courts, 2000+ players ages 12-18.

After dinner at Beatrix, we went for a walk – no slow-walkers in this group!

A five-story, 35,000 sq ft, Starbucks.

A visit to the Nike and Lego stores, then ride-share back to the hotel.