the season is on...

the season, basketball season, is now upon us, that is...

i'm really going to miss our team. watching chris foul guys (and get away with a lot of it), kory going redonculous on the scoring end (and chewing on the refs on the way back down the court), steven's hustle (and mosquito tactic defense), maq's steady work at point (and getting the shaft from the refs on calls), patrick sound jayhawk fundamentals (and yelling at me for not calling out screens, and his nice see through mouth piece so he doesn't damage his perfect orthodontic teeth is a nice touch, too), jon telling me to shoot it when i get it (and watching him put his hands in his shirt and scratching his chest on the way down the court... every time! i don't know about that, it's the weirdest thing i've ever seen...), and me... having a few trips to the bathroom on game day for my "pregame" unloading of unnecessary weight, my $39 reebok, looking at the scoresheets and discussing game plan with kory on fridays at lunch, shooting the ball when i catch it in rhythm (notice i didn't say make it, just shoot it), and just being with the guys. i will miss it, a lot. and for the past 8 years, i've played ball with adam norton, and his soft baby hook is legendary (not to mention his left shoulder he plows into the defender with...!!!).

nothing like singing "oh little town of bethlehem" with a little nativity scene to get you in the christmas mood.
it's been a strange christmas at our home this year... we're here but we're not here. we're getting ready to move, so our house is in looking very unchristmassy... cindy usually has it all decked out, but we've kept everything packed up this year, until now. it's the first christmas in 10 years that we have not gone out and cut down a real tree...

here are some pictures, but they are out of order... oh, well, i can't get them in the right spots.
aubrey and lolo always love to do the tree and there's always some great drama... until this year... i think we made the tree with out the big drama.

you can see coop in the back... just bouncing and watching...

yes, the other season... my job is the lights (there's more info down below, but i can't seem to get this mac book to help me move the pics...)

we got a few of our ornaments out... cindy was helping figure out the "necessary ones".

lolo's class had pj day this week, so i figured i'd better get a class picture since they'll be leaving the awesome pine tree school district at the end of this week.

here's aubrey's class. she loves school so much and has developed some close relationships. leaving is going to be especially hard on her. her two buddies are next to her in the pic

we haven't spent a lot of money this year again... that feels great. what the heck does spending a lot of money on junk have to do with salvation coming down to earth? i don't know either. ok, i do know the "God gave the Gift so we give gifts" answer, but i'm too poor to waste my money on playing that game out. but i really like to celebrate christmas, in a meaningful way. i don't have it perfected, that's for sure, but i'm really enjoying it more the past two years. our family is pooling our gift money again to help someone in need. it's an awesome feeling to know that someone is going to say "someone saved my day", instead of stuffing a bunch of gifts away that we didn't want in the first place. sooooo...

we weren't going to put a tree up, but when we decided this week to move the day after xmas, we borrowed chris and becky's old tree and just put a few of our decorations up.

it's a humble little tree, but we can work with it!