Who's Got Your Back?

Winter is here. The calendar may say we still have two more weeks of autumn, but winter is here. It’s heavy coat weather now and we even had snow flurries on Sunday and yesterday.

UPWARD BASKETBALL. Basketball practice has gotten underway. The kids had their first practice last week. Jenna opted not to play for school this year and returned to the Upward league. She practices on Monday night. Her head coach is a guy Ben has played for before, but the team’s assistant coach is brand new. Vicki is helping to coach Upward ball this year. That’s right, my wife is an assistant coach. It was only a matter of time. Life as a spectator was just too hard for her, so she’s helping out.

The boys have coaches they’ve never played for before. Nate’s coach seems very nice, but the gym was in use for another function when we met him so his first practice was simply an orientation meeting. Nate knows a couple of boys on his team. Ben, on the other hand, doesn’t know anyone on his team. His coach seems like a fellow who wants to push the boys just the right amount to reach their fullest potential out on the court. He even has them running laps after practice. Games start January 8.

CHRISTMAS PARADE. The annual Cross Plains Christmas Parade took place Saturday. It being such a small town it seemed there were more people in the parade than watching it from the side of the road. We were not involved in a float this year, however, we helped set up a hot chocolate/cookie station so we still had to get there early. The parade theme was patriotism and one of our groups from church built an army tank for a float which won third place.

HARRY POTTER. The boys were invited to spend the night with their friends, the Taylor boys, Saturday night so Vicki, Jenna, and I took advantage of the afternoon and went to see the latest installment of the Harry Potter movies. We were really blown away with how good the film was, though it has been so long since Vicki and I have read the book that we’ve forgotten many of the details. Still, we had a great time at the movie and then out to eat afterward.

HOME TOUR. One of Mom’s favorite things to do during the holidays is to go on a tour of homes. I remember going through a lot of of houses during my childhood which turned out to be rather interesting because many times the barns and other buildings on the grounds were open as well. Sunday afternoon I took Mom on the Cross Plains home tour. It was a small tour, but we enjoyed it.

LONG BUS RIDE. My cell phone rang today around 3:15. It was Mom. I could tell she was a little upset. Nate hadn’t gotten off the bus and Ben really wasn’t sure if he even saw Nate get on the bus at school.

I happened to be ending my work day at the boys’ school so I told Mom to let me check his classroom just in case he thought he could ride home with me. I checked. No Nate. I went back up to the office and they radioed Alice, Nate’s bus driver.

It turns out that Nate fell asleep on the bus and slept through his bus stop. He woke up several stops past Aunt Mar’s house. Nate got to ride the rest of Alice’s route and she dropped him off at our house when she was done.

Nate seemed to have a good time seeing Alice’s entire bus route, and more importantly, I’ve had a good time teasing Jenna and Ben for not looking out for their little brother.

Joe