Swim Chronicles

Meet Connor. Freshman in highschool. For years he played baseball and soccer. But when highschool came along, it was clear that the local experience in those two sports would not be enough to get him on the HS team. So we made a deal. If he did swim team, he could buy himself an Xbox and all the first person shooter games he wanted. Little did he or I know thatit would result in him having a shot at earning a varsity letter as a freshman after swimming 16 hours a week since September 6th. Now on the eve of JV champs, Connor is in the shape ofhis life and shaved and ready to go fast in Canton tomorrow. So proud of his efforts and zero complaints. Thanks to Dan McGovern for pushing him in summer swim team to go for it and Matt Davis and staff for getting him through his first season.

Cancer Never Wins

I have a childhood friend, Fritz, whos sister Jane has been battling rectal cancer for years now. She writes an amazing carepages update which is often filled with very powerful, insightful thoughts on living with cancer. I want to post a quote from Jane I read today which I think is important and makes a strong point. Here it is:

"So I battle. Not with cancer - I have a problem with that word, "battle," when it comes to the cancer experience. It is an obvious and useful metaphor - battle, war, warrior, soldier - I get it. But then what happens when one passes? We say they "lost the battle" or "after a long battle with cancer" or words similar. Believe me, anyone who has had cancer doesn't need to be saddled with being named a "loser" in any sense of the word. What does that make cancer? The victor? Yuck. Cancer is never victorious."

I liked to say battle cancer. But I just might change that thinking based on Janes comments. I will still say survivor, because to me that denotes winning. Heidi gets her 1 year scan results back tomorrow and I am happy to say I can attend the appointment with her to support whatever we hear. It is one thing to be along with the cancer survivor to hear the results, it is completely different to be the cancer survivor getting the results. I will try to remember that.

Reserve Grand Champion for Isabelle

You have to love a sport where second place is called "Reserve Grand Champion". It seems only dog shows where you can win "Reserve Winners Bitch" for second place rivals this. So that is what Isabelle did a week ago on Kitty. As you can see from the photo she competed in 5 classes 3 Walk, Trot, Canter over crossrails and then two flat classes. She got two firsts, a second, third and fourth. The sum total of points made her second best on the day. This was done on her new saddle which she is so proud of and now has displayed in her room. So the slippery slope of the equestrian world is luring us in. We are now looking into her riding on an IEA team in the coming months. That is the equivalent of the school riding team.

Quiet Christmas

We are spending this entire Christmas break at home. For one thing, our kids prefer to be at their own home on Christmas morning in front of their own tree etc. I like making them wait on their own stairs the way my parents made me wait. The music gets put on, the Lionel train sounds coming from the family room. Most importantly, the coffee is brewing so mom and dad can make it through the morning. I chose the Nutcracker for this morning, as it is a great background track and does not take away but adds to the scene.

We start by opening the stockings. It has gotten less formal as the kids get older. Now I simply sit on the couch with them as they pull out the small gifts which are no longer wrapped. Lottery tickets, gum (for the white things in your head that bite), usually a dollar tucked in the toe (so they don't start the new year off broke). I guess the lottery tickets have replaced that at least for this year. For generations it was one stocking at a time with all this little banter from Dad describing the gifts. I saw pictures on Facebook this year of a friends adult grown sons sitting on their stairs and I loved it. Oh, I forgot to mention the one gift that gets opened on Christmas Eve, new pajamas which we all wear. Heidi does a great job of getting this all together.

Every one gets gifts in our house. The dogs, the cats, no one gets coal, except me. I got coal in my stocking this year. Chocolate coal. They all think that is pretty funny. It tastes good. So we sit here enjoying our green Christmas with temps in the high 30's and low 40's. Great for running but not for snow sports. Which is OK because Connor is swimming two times a day everyday but Christmas and New Years.

I think I like a quiet Christmas. No travel, no pet sitters, our own beds and quality family time.