Pull Up a Chair: Catching Up Around the Table

Well, well, well, look who is actually posting this week.  It's been busy around here, I have been working a lot, and the posts have just not been as forthcoming as usual. We'll see if I can do better this week. 

 

So, what's been going on around here...bits and pieces in photos from times I, or someone in my family, actually remembered to have camera in hand, or I should say, managed to have camera in hand and actually took photos with it.

 

We winterized the yard and plants, Alex's favorite peppers being the last to go, Matt hauling the big pots from deck to winter storage in garage, not exactly his favorite thing as storing all the big pots, and there are several, makes it harder for him to navigate in the garage from car to door.

  

The swimmers hanging out in Men's Den, always a popular activity.  (Janos, Mike, Daniel, Harrison, Kiernan, etc.)  Playing video games and watching movies ranks high on the list of things to do out of the water. 
The Knights had their yearly campout down in Brown County at the CYO camp.  Photos of some of my favorites upon return. 
Colin, Stephen, Matt, Jack, and Chas.  Matt is President this year of the Indiana Chapter of Knights as well as his own chapter, so he got to be Master of Ceremonies for the new initiates, and plan the retreat, etc.   Photo of my three favorite tall guys, Matt, Stuart, and Spencer.  As you can see, Matt at almost 6'4" is the shortest of the three. 

 

Some of the girls on Twitter had a bit of fun with Secret Baker, organized by three of them, where we each had a randomly selected participating member of the group to bake a little something for and send it to them.  Tracey got my name and I got a very nice package from Tracey that included Spiced Biscotti and Cranberry Bread, enjoyed by all.   I got Kerri's name, a girl I had yet to meet, so that was fun, and I sent her two kinds of cookies and some pumpkin bread.  Next month the Secret Baker group is sending Christmas cookies as the baked goods.   

 

Matt managed to break his hand on a Saturday night and have surgery on the following Tuesday, which was Alex's birthday.  Three and a half weeks from Short Course Senior Nationals and he was out of the water for a week, but back in after that week with a swimming cast, figuring out that one can swim with a broken hand after all.   

 

Alex turned 17 and had the candles to prove it.  His main wish is that he would be 18 instead...ah, the young, so eager to be adults and out on their own.

 

Friday Taylor came over and she and Matt did some seasonal holiday decorating, putting up the tree in the foyer (seen here with the stable underneath waiting for the appearance of the Nativity pieces bit by bit), the living room tree, the little sideboard tree in the dining room, and the greenery on the banister.  

 

We definitely have guy decorations, as Taylor described her family's decorations and her mother's collection of ornaments.  I was thinking Taylor was a good sport to help out with our mishmash of ornaments, lackadaisical manner of decorating, and hearing Matt say, "Oops, I broke one," in his yearly attempts at handling the little ornaments with those great big hands of his.  They had to leave before putting up the family room tree, but hey, they did a huge amount of work between morning swim practice and afternoon swim practice!   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Saturday the CSC fathers hosted the yearly tradition called The Dads' Day Breakfast for the Senior Group boys (high schoolers, Nik and Matt shown here, actually they were last in line Matt having to re-tape his regular splint cast after swimming in his swim splint cast) in their Dads' Day style, i.e. campout fare and fun. 
The guys loved it.  The menu consisted of Pancakes, Waffles, Sausages, Bacon, and I think they throw fruit and juice in there somewhere as I have never actually been to this, so I am only going by what I see in the photos.  Mark was assigned bacon and sausages (pre-cooked at home, so you can guess who did the pre-cooking at home as, although Mark offered to do it, I figured it would just be far easier to do it myself, however, now that I am thinking back, I could have sent him outside to grill those sausages...next year's plan).
Photo: Going clockwise starting with Jesse's back, Nik, Kiernan, Matt, JJ (home for the holidays from OSU where he swims now but happy to practice with his old team), and Charles.  

 

It's sort of a giggle with the boys as the girls' mothers host a similar breakfast for the girls on a separate day, which is quite a bit different:  more like hotel brunch style with linens and dishware, napkins, centerpieces, "girl food," and such.  Matt's comment:  "Oh, the boys' breakfast is much better, we just lined up, filled our plates, and ate without having to worry about a lot of girl things and manners and such."  There you have it.  Raising boys is definitely an education. 

 

Did I remember to take photos at Thanksgiving?  Nope...always busy, always a lot of people, and thoughts of camera and picture taking went by the wayside this year.  So now that there has been a bit of a catch-up around the Table, I hope to get back to posting for my baking/cooking groups this week.  Have a great week...it's going to be December already!