Goodbye 2023, hello 2024

Another crazy year in the books for us. Next year, one of us heads to high school, one of us goes from single-digit age to double digits, and both of us will keep creeping upwards. But for tonight, let's celebrate the great times we've had all year long, and look forward to many more to come. 
 

A trip to the Holy land (of football)

Part of Pop's Christmas present was getting to take a trip with us to Lincoln Financial Field, home of the Eagles (and how Jonathan got his real name, for some weird reason). We actually got a change to walk around the sidelines and see what the players see on gameday. 

We also got to hold our own press conference, although none of us could provide answers for the Eagles' offense's recent slide. 

And in the locker room, we got to see the Super Bowl trophy up close and personal. It's really, really, shiny. The Eagles should get another one to install right beside this one. It would look better. 

Needless to say, Pop had a great time. I'm not sure his form running out of the locker room tunnel was perfect, but he's got the heart of a champion. 

12 days of Christmas

Christmas is never a single day around here. First up, we have presents at home... 

... which turns from neat and tidy to chaos quickly. 

Next up is a visit to Grandmom Claus' house, where there are movies, cookies ...

... and even more presents. 

Then it comes time for a trip to the north pole of Warminster, where there are more family members to hug ... 

... and more presents to unwrap and rewrap. 

The only step left after that is to take care of the leftover cookies. That really is the hardest part of all. 

Christmas party #2

The parties don't end until the new year! The feast of the seven fishes (or was it 17?) was great as always, but even better was hanging out with all the cousins. 

And playing board games, of course! That's even more fun than just hanging out. 

Festive fire trucks

You're never too old to cheer on Santa driving down the street on a fire truck. It's always the best. 
 

Christmas concert

You can't celebrate the holiday without some tunes! Luckily, our school choir had it covered this season. 

Snow, for real!

It has been a long while since we saw any of the white stuff on our lawn, but we woke up this week to an unexpected light dusting of snow. It wasn't enough to cancel school, but it was enough to delay it for two hours and let us have a little fun. 

Plus Dad found enough snow in the back to build a massive snowman. For perspective, Pop is six feet tall. It's amazine how much all that accumulates when you start rolling a snowball! 
 

Here comes Santa Claus

Guess who stopped by the church party! It was Mrs. Claus, and some other guy with him. It was good to give them both another fist bump and remind them that my list was very neatly written...
 

The four hamsters of the Eaglespocalypse

It's hard to tell which one is different from the others, but if you look closely, you can see the one on the end is out of batteries. 
 

It takes a village

Grandmom sent us another Christmas advent calendar to build, so this whole place is gonna be a winter wonderland by the time December is over. Now if we just had a carpenter to help us...
 

Spreading Christmas cheer all over the walls

December means lights inside and outside the house, and since Dad gave us access to the ladder again this year, we had a wonderful awful idea...

Luckily the inside decorations are a little easier. Aunt Olga's Christmas village is always the centerpiece in the living room. 

And you gotta have a great tree if you want Santa to come visit. 

Thanks to some help from Dad, Santa will be able to see the house from way up in the sky. Now comes the worst part -- the waiting for Christmas!

Christmas party #1

Our holiday schedule got a little mixed up this year because of the way weekends fell, so Christmas started right after Thanksgiving this year. Aunt Jeanne's annual party was a blast, and we even got all the kids to smile for a family picture. Well, most of the kids at least...

Holiday hunger

All this talk of holiday treats is making me so hungry I could ... well, he's mostly full of grain and plants, so he's probably healthy. 
 

Fire flower

Sorry, little dandelion. Even if you've got the sun on your side, it's pretty late in the game to be trying to fill this field with flowers. 
 

Scientific thought

So you're saying you don't know for sure what will happen if I mix all the chemicals in the laundry room together. Interesting...
 

Go Navy, beat whoever

The scouts all headed out to the Navy football stadium for our annual college gameday experience. I wanted to take this jet out for a spin ahead of time, but for some reason the school officials don't allow it. 

The game was fun, even if neither team was very good. Still, you can't beat pretzels and screaming for first downs. 
 

Doing a little (very little) yard work

Yeah, it's still pretty cute and funny, but I don't think it really helps Dad all that much with the lawn. 
 

A little bird told me

This guy seems friendly, but he probably needs some wings if he wants to get somewhere. 
 

Epic catches (and attempts)

Sometimes you make the highlight reel ...

... and sometimes you don't. 

Leaf pile stunts

It's not the launch that's the problem, it's the landing. 

See what I mean? 

All good, these things are pretty padded. 

 

Snug as a bug

I'm really not sure if there is a bed here anymore, or if it's just stuffed animals all the way down. 
 

The floor is lava, advanced edition

Is there something else you're supposed to use old mattresses for, other than living room jumping competitions? 

Honestly, I'm not sure why we don't cover the whole floor with these. 
 

Cookie consternation

I know we said we were making these for a school event but there are a lot of them and maybe they don't need quite as many as we thought so if I just put one in my mouth by accident ...
 

Court of honor

Eight merit badges and two rank advancements in the last year? Not bad work for a first-class scout!
 

Halloween hijinks

Maleficent and a skeleton servant. Who wouldn't want to give them a warm welcome at their front door?

There are houses that decorate, and there are houses that might actually be graveyards. Thankfully we all survived the trip to this one. 
 

Last meet of the year

It has been a long season, but a good one. I dropped my two-mile time by more than three minutes over the course of the season, and set a personal best in the last race of the season. 

And Jonathan got one too, posting his best time of the year in his last race with the team. Now where is the couch we can both relax on? 
 

Spooky setup

The fake graveyard is all ready, and I don't think it'll be too scary. 

But the dress and bones hanging from the porch ceiling? That might be overdoing it, Dad. 
 

Phillies fever

The problem with these playoff games is they're too stressful to watch but too important not to watch. 
 

Hawaiian dreams

I'm just saying if we did decide to go on a spurt-of-the-moment island vacation, I'm ready. 
 

Camping cookout

Forget the rain -- we've got to get all these burgers and dogs cooked before the other patrol tried to eat us.