Many Things, Such as:
Good food, a Nicely set table (At least once a year!), and Sparkling Cider
Friends and Family
Boys who will always be boys!
(I think Thanksgiving wrestling is a tradition at whatever house we are at!)
Boys who act like girls?
(I have never seen a bunch of men tear apart ads like these guys did. We were doing the dishes and walked into see this!)
Dodgeball?
An annual event in our town every Thanksgiving week. The Bengay Brigade (so named because the average age of their team is probably 10 years older than most of the other teams) made us proud this year with their best finish ever, 3rd Place! (I'm not sure the kids were grateful for this by the end of the night. Our team kept winning and winning and made the night a very long one. I think the guys also wondered if they were grateful for it when they were still sore a week later.)
The two young guns! (Josh will have to return next year just to play. He singlehandly saved some of the games for the team and was the team MVP!)
The two old guns! (Although not the oldest on the team.)
The fetal position is never a good position to be in when you are playing dodgeball.
7 of 10 guys on the sideline is never a good sign!
Notice the difference here. At the beginning of the night, they stood when they were waiting to come back in. At the end of the night, as seen below, they were sitting down resting as much as possible!
And the wives had to entertain the kids for 4 hours in school bleachers! Kira almost escaped more than once!
And the grand finale! This is how we all felt at the end of the night!
If you notice there is an abundance of ornaments at the bottom of the tree where they can reach. Even with Chad lifting them up.
So we brought out the ladder to even it out a little bit, which of course caused a fight over who got to use the ladder.
So then what did we end up with? Ornaments on the top third and the bottom third, but very few ornaments in the middle of the tree. Oh well!
In my family, we always went out and cut our own Christmas tree from a Christmas tree farm. So, I love live trees and the memories they bring back for me. However, I have yet to find a Christmas tree farm around here, so we just go down to a Christmas tree lot and pick one out. If you go early enough and look hard, they do have some nice looking trees.
And Cole really likes Charlie Brown trees. The scary thing is, this is the best tree he's picked yet!
Yesterday, Addy had her baby blessing at our church. Chad did a great job with it and Addy was very cooperative. She didn't make a peep the whole time she was up there.
And of course, just the girls in white. Emily also had to wear her white dress to church so she could match Addy!
With a little bit of bribery and a little bit of cheating (by letting her take a peek under the beard), we did manage to get her to take a picture with Santa. If you look carefully, you might even recognize the twinkle in Santa's eye.
Chad's work party is lots of fun for the kids. The athletes come and help them do crafts and decorate cookies.
Emily really liked the table where she got to color pictures.
They have a gingerbread house contest. (We didn't win of course, but Cole had a great time doing it. About half way through, the roof started sliding off. I think because Cole figured out that the more candy he put on, the more candy he got to take home! And yes, that's a "Y" that Cole put on his side of the roof!)
And of course, we get to have our yearly picture with Cosmo!
Helping me open my presents.
And making me a yummy cake.
Friends and Family
Boys who will always be boys!
Boys who act like girls?
Dodgeball?
The two young guns! (Josh will have to return next year just to play. He singlehandly saved some of the games for the team and was the team MVP!)
The two old guns! (Although not the oldest on the team.)
The fetal position is never a good position to be in when you are playing dodgeball.
Notice the difference here. At the beginning of the night, they stood when they were waiting to come back in. At the end of the night, as seen below, they were sitting down resting as much as possible!
And the wives had to entertain the kids for 4 hours in school bleachers! Kira almost escaped more than once!
And the grand finale! This is how we all felt at the end of the night!
We have been in hiding since the devastating loss to Utah! That and holidays are slowing us down in our postings. But, the loss did not scare Cole off of being a Cougar. In fact, he can't decide which type of Cougar he wants to be, basketball or football. So, of course, with his simple mind, he decided to be both! If only all of life's choices were that simple.