On December 1 the kids were excited to get started on these Advent calendars from Gram…
December also brought the start of Sarah’s basketball season. This year for the 4th grade the LMBA divided the girls into 4 teams and they play a game every Saturday for an hour. No clinics! But the refs are really experienced and so it’s a pretty good learning experience. Sarah’s team is being coached by some high school girls which is pretty fun, and Sarah is happy their shirt color is black (her current fave color).
Sarah and I had another stop for hot cocoa at Cocoa prior to the annual Larchmont tree lighting. Blaine opted to skip that this year, as well! Oh well, lots of Sarah & Mommy time.
On 12/2 we also got our tree at Tony’s and set it up! It took us a few days to decorate but Sarah got it started with her favorite ornament (DC zoo pandas, of course).
And with all the ornaments:
I was excited to see that our local Flint Park started to prepare the location for new platform tennis courts which should be installed this spring. Which means we can have a paddle team next winter!
Meanwhile, my tennis team has also been doing well and finished second place in our division this fall. My co-captain designed this logo and printed stickers for our water bottles.
December also included some musical performances by both children! The Chatsworth 4th grade band gave a brief and enjoyable morning concert, 15 minutes of Hot Cross Buns, Go Tell Aunt Rhodie, Rain Rain Go Away, Merrily We Roll Along, with Baby Shark for the finale. Sarah is in the back row, second from the right. She did a great job!
Blaine also performed in the middle school 6th grade Chorus concert. The chorus includes all the kids who’ve decided not to move forward with an instrument, or who just like to sing, so it’s a very large group!! Blaine is in the second row on the far left.
And to show the full group:
We planned to spend Christmas in Wynnewood this year, alas our plans were foiled by the flu! We drove down as planned on Saturday and got to hang out with Mom-Mom, Molly, Fran, Tim and Liz and kids. We also got to see the Oregon Mahoneys who joined us for Chinese takeout that night!
Then on Christmas Eve we went to Devon Lanes for the traditional Mahoney Christmas Eve bowling (plus arcade), followed by lunch and the Christmas gift grab which was hosted in Wayne this year. Everyone made it except for Aunt Jane and Daniel, who were very missed!!
Sadly, Nate was already feeling sick that day and by the afternoon he was really sick (turned out to be the flu), so we made a tough call to head back to Larchmont early to try to avoid the germs. The kids were really sad about it, but mom sent us with a whole filet mignon so we at least had something for Christmas dinner the next day. Andrew also managed to find an open market in New Rochelle and was able to get the ingredients for mushroom risotto, creamed spinach, and homemade dinner rolls. And Sarah and I made chocolate chip cookies for dessert.
The kids were particularly bummed that we did not get to hold the 2nd annual Mahoney Cup Mario Kart Tournament, so we have promised them that it will be rescheduled to a later date TBD.
Back in NY, we’ve had a mostly quiet week at home, with one excursion to see the NYBG Holiday Train Show, followed by a trip to Pizza Fenice in Pelham.
I thought this elephant was Lucy (of Margate fame) but turns out it was a different giant elephant that at one point existed in Coney Island!
By Thursday Blaine and I were feeling a bit under the weather with minor flu-like symptoms (likely the flu shots are doing their job!) so we’ve been mostly staying home. Sarah and I finally managed to finish this near-impossible panda puzzle.
And we did another much easier puzzle Sarah got for her birthday, on the new puzzle board we got from Gram.
It’s only December 30 but I’m anticipating a quiet goodbye to 2023 here at home. A disappointing Christmas this year, but at least we got to see everyone briefly on Christmas Eve!