Merry Christmas - A Little Late

But better late than never! We made it to the Keys late Christmas afternoon. I'll post pictures of both Christmas and the Keys when we have a faster internet connection.

We had a great Christmas Eve and enjoyed dinner out with our neighbors, followed by a campfire with marshmallows. Santa made his visit and Bradley made out like a bandit. He enjoyed all his gifts but is anxious to try out his new cleats and ball glove. Santa brought everyone an Ipod Nano so we have been trying to figure out all the neat things it will do.

The Keys weather has been great but not quite great for fishing. We spent most of yesterday just lounging around, getting the boat ready, going to the bait shop, etc. Up early this morning and headed out but it was quite windy and choppy. We managed to stay out until lunch but no bites. This afternoon we have definitely enjoyed the sunshine. Bradley's having fun attempting to catch fish, looking at the banana tree down the road and trying to figure out how to climb the tree to get a coconut! There are also two resident iguanas in our neighborhood which made their appearance this afternoon. We weren't fast enough to get pictures of them but it was cool to see them as Bradley had never seen one in person. It is a much needed relaxing break for us all.

Getting Ready for Christmas

We've had a very busy but fun-filled week. It didn't start out great for me as I had a dental appt on Monday - and I hate the dentist. However, the week did proceed to get better from there. Tuesday was basketball practice and Wednesday was basketball game. Our boys had already checked out for Christmas though as we lost - seeing as how they really only "played" during the last two minutes of the game. We will, however, see that team again with a different outcome I am sure. Thursday after work was marathon shopping - had to get everything finished. TR & Bradley went shopping also. It was a very productive night for everyone. Friday night we wrapped presents and cleaned up to make sure we were ready for our big weekend.

Saturday we had our annual family work Christmas at Don's. It was great fun and we were there from about 1:30 until 8:30. I think Bradley played basketball about 6 of the 7 hours we were there! It was so much fun - good food, good drinks, good presents and great people. It's always fun to watch everyone open their gifts. I think everyone got everything they asked for and then some. We came home to an impromptu bonfire next door - complete with marshmallows and smores. It was nice to sit around and have a few laughs with the neighbors.

Sunday we woke up to more yard decorations. As you can see, all of our geese suddenly have their own signs - I wonder who could have done that? Now, it's game on - I'm looking for very specific yard decorations to add to my neighbors collection. If I can find them, I will definitely post pictures.

We then headed out to the Braves baseball Christmas party at Fun Spot. This is a mini amusement park in Orlando that has a bunch of go-kart tracks and a few other rides. The boys had a GREAT time. It was a perfect place for the party and everyone enjoyed the Christmas exchange. It was so nice to see the boys having such fun. It was cold here today (by Florida standards) at only 60 degrees. Some of our boys - who definitely are not used to cold weather - forgot how cold it was and proceeded to get on the water bumper boats. Not the smartest move but luckily we had some extra jackets to keep them warm.

We also added another member to our family today - JJ the Jack Russell terrier. Now, don't panic, it's a stuffed animal dressed in Magic clothes and appropriately named after JJ Redick. We also had to pick up a Gator shirt for the original Build A Bear - Freddie the Monkey.

My Rant for the Evening

I apologize in advance to any of my educator friends that this might offend.

With that being said, it really ticks me off when the teacher assigns an UNGODLY amount of science homework for one night due to their absence in the classroom. It's really not our fault, or our children's, that you missed your daily job and your substitute did not cover the materials needed to keep you on track. Better yet, at my job, if I am out a day, no one covers for me and I am expected to make up anything that I need to get done on my own time and not at the expense of others!

Sorry, I am used to re-teaching math every evening as math is not his teacher's strong suit and he has told me from the beginning of the year that she doesn't teach them how to do the math in class. However, tonight's 8 pages of science in addition to math took the cake!

On to more pleasant topics, Bradley's team played in their last tournament of the year this weekend. They played great on Friday night (in the cold - 52 degrees) and won both their pool play games. Bradley pitched and hit great. Sunday, however, was a different story. We played Team Combat, who is a division above us, and a perennial powerhouse. Our boys were kind of psyched out before the game began and a shaky first inning didn't help. We were knocked out of the tournament by the eventual champion. In order to console ourselves, we went to Buffalo Wild Wings for some food & football with the Roe family. While the food was good, the football wasn't as the Cowboys pulled their usual December disappearing act and lost again!

Also, on Sunday morning we woke up our decorations being decorated. Our scroogely neighbors, who still are without decorations, decided our yard decorations needed some spicing up. We had a doctor goose, Hannah Montana goose, and Santa in a bikini.

We did manage to fit in a visit to Santa at Bass Pro so Bradley could tell him what he wanted for Christmas. I guess we'll have to wait and see if he's been good enough for a visit.

Basketball

Bradley played his first basketball game of the season last night and this is the first year since we moved to Florida that I haven't coached. It was definitely different sitting in the stands and watching. Our friend Bev had the best time laughing at me as I officiated the game from the stands - calling travel violations, up & downs and fouls. Bradley's team won 22-6 but really should have won at least 32-6! He scored 4 points (2 baskets) but missed 4 foul shots! Needless to say, he needs to put some time in at the foul line - they're called "free throws" for a reason..... He played pretty good for their first game. Brock (from travel baseball) is our guard on the basketball team and he was all over the court. He had several steals and scored several points.

This weekend we're back to the baseball field for our last tournament of the year. We'll have a very unusual weekend as we play both our pool play games Friday night and then will play elimination bracket on Sunday - no games on Saturday. I'm excited that the boys get to play at night as that is very unusual for them. It's also supposed to be a little cooler here on Friday so that should make for great baseball weather.

FYI - we're living next to the Scrooges who have yet to put up their Christmas decorations. Some of you long-time readers may remember last year's prank with our geese - I'm waiting for my new yard decorations to disappear as TR has started the battle by putting Scrooge signs on their door. Stay tuned ....

Decorating...

It has taken all week to get things decorated around the house as we have had something every day - baseball Monday and Thursday, basketball Tuesday and Wednesday and the annual employee dinner Friday night. TR managed to get the decorations out on Tuesday and even set the tree up for me - but it was Thursday before I finished shaping it and it finally got decorated on Saturday. However, we were supposed to play in a baseball tourney this weekend but it was rained out - which normally I would be very upset about but there was so much that needed to get done it didn't break my heart! We did have a poker tournament scheduled for Saturday night to raise money for the team as we are going to play in the World Series here next summer and we have also been invited to play in Puerto Rico. The Braves are also going to try to travel to a couple of out-of-state events this spring. It will be nice to play teams from other areas. Glad to say our poker tourney was a great success and everyone had a great time - especially since the grand prize was a 37" LCD tv! The Braves are very thankful for Dicey Reilly's Irish Pub and Mike for hosting this event for us and all the support they provided.

The camera cord has disappeared so we'll post pictures of decorating and the poker tourney when it reappears.

Home from the Left (I Mean West) Coast

Okay - we're home from California and our week-long National Convention. I'm not sure that we've recovered from jetlag yet though - especially after takimg the red-eye home Saturday night. We worked some long days but they were very productive and for the most part great fun.

The Pechanga Resort was amazing and the staff was the best we have ever experienced. TR was able to play golf on Wednesday. It was a brand new course that was built into the side of the mountain - totaly unbelievable views. He only lost 18 balls during the round! Guess we know what he needs for Christmas.

It was great to see my old teacher, Don Clatterbough, inducted into the Hall of Fame. He and his wife, Bonnie, are great people and both gave great speeches. Finally, at the end of the night, I received a huge surprise as I (along with two coworkers) was named the EA Ramsey CEO Award Winner for 2009. This was one of the few times I really was speechless.








Bradley managed to survive the week but is glad that we are both home.

Unfortunately, we didn't get to do much sightseeing - no San Diego Zoo or other fun things. However, we did manage a stop in Beverly Hills to Rodeo Drive and the Beverly Wiltshire (where Pretty Woman was filmed) on our way back to the airport as we had time to kill before our flight. It was really neat seeing all the shops and the Christmas decorations.

Still Playing Ball

Okay - so I will freely admit that one of the best things about Florida is the weather. It is great to still be running around in shorts and playing ball in the first weekend of November. Last weekend we played great on Saturday, only to completely fall apart in the 5th inning of our first game on Sunday and lose. Our boys worked hard at practice this week as we knew it would be a tough state tourney this weekend as we were playing up a division.

To kick off the weekend, we had Orlando Magic tickets for Friday night against the Pistons. Bradley loves JJ Redick but normally when we go to the games, JJ sees very little playing time. Not so this time (maybe Miranda was the good luck charm). JJ saw a bunch of playing time and we got some great pictures - even one of Dwight Howard fouling Villaneuva! Better yet, Bradley managed to get not one, but two t-shirts during the game from the Flight Crew, which never happens and they don't usually throw any shirts in our section. (The second one was a total fluke that hit something and fell in his lap!)

Saturday we took to the fields for our state tourney. We had two tough pool play games and were glad to finish 1-1. Bradley pitched 4 innings in one game and then played left field during the second game. Sunday morning pitted us against the EP Cobras who beat us badly both games a few Sundays ago. This morning we sent Bradley to the mound and he pitched an amazing game - going all 5 innings we played and leading his team to a 4-3 win. Bradley had used up all of his 9 innings of pitchinig for the weekend.

We then had a two game break before facing the Hitting Academy Rebels who have won all three tournaments they played in this fall. Our boys put up a good fight and played defense, but the Rebels didn't miss any plays in the field and we only managed three baserunners during the whole game. Bradley entered this game in the fifth inning and played second base for the first time all year. He did a good job, listened to the coaches and held the runners on when necessary. We hung in and took the game all the way to the sixth inning but still lost 7-0. Our boys didn't have any reason to feel bad though but now know how hard they need to work to compete at the top level of baseball in Florida.