Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Leading up to Christmas...

We finally got Owen's pictures back from wrestling (after the season was done).  He looks pretty tough.  Owen was pretty much done with his Southern Boone middle school season when I last posted.  He has been going back to CWC and did his first tournament of the year on Sunday, January 8, which I have some info and pics of further down the post.  He had fun with Southern Boone and now has to focus more on weight maintenance from week to week since they actually have to weigh in at each meet.  This will most likely go on through most of March.

I missed this outing.

Gracie had some pictures on her phone that I stole from her.

At Lloyd's picking out a tree for Christmas

Christmas Eve

We were able to have an evening at home and got to go to church on Christmas Eve for the first time since 2019.  Very thankful to have a low key uneventful evening.

Gracie and Owen on xmas eve

Same

Owen wanted a picture with Ruby.  He loves his dog.

All of us. (Ruby even snuck in.)

Opening presents on Christmas Eve

.5 with Gracie

Stockings were full on Christmas

Beautiful, cold Christmas morning

Owen got a giant box of snickers

Gracie doesn't seem as impressed with her Reese's Trees.

Saving the best for last.

I just love the look on Owen's face when he is surprised and happy.

Gracie's happiness is much more subtle if we get anything at all

Cold weather

We had pretty cold weather for several days, so the boys got to skate on the pond.  They had a lot of fun and it snowed again, too!

Skating on our pond.  Nick and Owen swept it off, but it started snowing again.

Owen, Rush, Rowan, and Knox (and Ruby)

The next day was beautiful but still cold.

They got a hockey game going over at Talleys'

They had a couple days of skating before we had temps in the 60s again and everything melted.  They returned to football and shooting baskets outside.

After Christmas, we had a day at home and then drove back and forth to Rolla for three days.  Gracie had a varsity tournament there, but the team got to stay.  Owen stayed back to play with his friends everyday, which was great.  The team ended up placing 5th I think.  They lost the first game and then won the next two.  Gracie got quite a bit of playing time.

Basketball at Rolla

This was their 2nd game.

#32 has committed to UVA and Gracie got to guard her.

#32 was pretty good.

Basketball pics

Gracie is a baller

New Year's in Muscatine

We were able to make it to southeast Iowa for a couple nights to spend New Years with the family.  We got a night out with the adults and then a full day of fun and pizza with everyone!  Nick was nice enough to make pizzas for the whole family again this year.  Thank you!

It was a quick trip again, as we had to get up early Sunday morning so Gracie could get back to practice.  Basketball had a game on January 2, then back to school on January 4. Owen also resumed wrestling with CWC December 26.

Local establishment in Muscatine.

Gracie claimed her territory in the basement for opening gifts.

Owen collecting his loot.

Nick and Owen

All of us - 28 here.  I didn't get a pic of just the grands.  I think there were 15 in attendance.

Basketball competition against Blair Oaks

Back at it right after break.

I love this... Gracie came out of the game and her coach pulled her over to review things.

Never stop learning.

January 6 @ Moberly IG post

Gracie got some publicity

We had a fun night with both JV/V in Moberly and got to see the boys Varsity compete.

Next... Wrestling!

First CWC tournament of the year was in Sedalia.  Gracie went with us, even though she had been in St. Joe until after 8:30pm the night before with a 3 hour drive home.  Coffee and McDonalds fixes everything.  Owen got down to 128 lbs after a lot of activity and not much to eat on Saturday, only to have weight classes combined, so ended up wrestling 130-140 lb weight class anyway.  Bummer and so frustrating.  He did pretty well and was 2-1 on the day.  His last match was pretty good and he went the full 3 periods against his opponent.  Fun to watch!

Waiting for brackets

Gracie doesn't seem to excited to be here.

Much better when we're about to leave

Pic from the last match.  I think if he would have had 30 more seconds he could have pulled off a win.

Ready to go.

Getting a win.

2nd match of the day

During his first match

Low five from Dad/Coach

2nd place- not bad

Car ride home

That weekend was a doozy for me.  I had a migraine for pretty much the whole weekend and didn't even go to work on Monday, the 9th.  However, I'm glad I went to watch Owen wrestle.  He had another tournament last weekend in Jeff City at Helias; he went 1-1, placing 2nd again in his pool.  I only got to watch one match because they were running so far behind and I had to get Gracie to the bus for another basketball game in Union, MO.  She had three over there last week.

Anyhooo....  More basketball and wrestling this week.  I noticed that I haven't been taking nearly as many pics of Gracie playing, but it's nice to just watch.  All of her games are recorded so she can watch them through an app that her team uses.  They are actually required to watch a lot of game film, so I feel much less obligated to get footage for her!

This is also Mizzou's first week of classes, so I'm about to get really busy again with work!  Owen has a tournament at Hickman next Sunday and Gracie is attending Mizzou's Prospect Camp on Sunday.  There will be no down time this week.

Love the sunrise

This one too.