Christmas Morning

It's a quick Christmas morning for us this year. The kids gifts costs more so there aren't a ton of them under the tree. But it's still fun for them. I try to wrap them in boxes to disguise the contents as much as possible.

Here's Ryan saying thanks Gma & Gpa for the NFL video game. I wrapped it in a cat food box and told him to make sure he shared with the cats this year.

Ryan wanted Guitar Hero World Tour. It's got the whole band in one box - guitar, drums, & micro phone for the singer. We did a little family band jam session this morning. We need a better singer though since none of us can carry a tune. And these are rock songs where you need to scream the lyrics so being out of tune is even worse!!
Here's Megan wearing all her gifts. She says thanks Gma & Gpa for the new purse. The coat, pj pants, and boots were all gifts this year.

We hope everyone had a enjoyable Christmas and wish you all the best in the new year!

Christmas Eve Night

We celebrated Christmas Eve in a new way this year. I asked the kids to come up with an idea. They both said to go to the plaza. We rarely get down there and the Christmas lights are really cool. So, off to the plaza for Christmas Eve dinner & a carriage ride.

Bruce met us from work at PF Changs for Chinese food on Christmas Eve.

We braved the cold to enjoy the plaza lights.

We took a carriage ride. It was a long wait for the traditional carriage so we decided on the Cinderella version. The attendant told us you can call it a "Cinderfella" to make it more masculine for the guys. It was fun but cold. Poor Bruce is freezing so he's bundled under a wool blanket. Funny he was the cold one. He's usally so warm!

We went to 9pm church service for the candlelight service. Bruce ushered and Ryan was the acolyte but I didn't get any pictures of them.

Christmas Eve Day

The kids have kept up the tradition of making Christmas Cookies each year on Christmas Eve. Again, they needed very little assistance from me. I mainly watched dishes and took pictures.

The kids in action

Their finished product Ryan got a hand (a floured one) from Megan during the process.
The cookies ended up by the fireplace with a glass of milk & a beer waiting for Santa to come. The beer was missing in the morning so we assume Santa was drinkin' and drivin' this year :)

Ryan's Christmas Tradition

We were at Margret's this weekend for Christmas. I was a bad blogger and did not get pictures of her tree or gift giving. Sorry! But, I did get pictures of Ryan's Lincoln Log creations.

Ryan has played with Bruce's old Lincoln Logs since he was little. It started with him scooping them up with a toy tractor and dumping them into a truck. Then it was building something with Bruce and plowing into it with a bulldozer.

He has begun constructing buildings the last several years and they've become more complex. This time he even put a picnic table in the backyard. No more plowing into them either - they are carefully deconstructed too.

He's now doing 2 story structures with front porches. I thought I'd better get pictures of these before he decides to stop playing with the Lincoln Logs, if that ever happens.


Just to prove how old these lincoln logs are - I took pictures of the containers. Can you believe they've lasted all these years? Nice '70s packaging, huh.

Kudos to Margret for preserving these containers and the Lincoln Logs all these years. Who knows, Ryan's kids may play with these someday too :)

Ryan's birthday

Ryan turned 12 on Tuesday. He's pretty low-key about his birthday. No more theme cakes for Ryan, he wanted Strawberry Shortcake. Okay - kind of hard to put candles in it though. We did sing "Happy Birthday" for him. Bruce did his best impression of the Michael from the Office version complete with faulsetto. This was Ryan's request & my fear is it will be repeated for years!

Ryan says thanks for the sled Grandma & Grandpa Van Gundy. There was even snow on the ground so he gave it a quick run the next day. We need a bigger hill than our front yard to make it really fast. He's looking forward to sledding with his buddies this winter.

We went to get our tree on the 17th. It was still cold & snowy. That's Ryan in my quick cell phone picture. Megan was sick with a bad cold so she missed this annual family outing. It was really hard to pick out a tree without her. She's picked out our tree for years. She just has an eye for tree shapes. Anyway...we made due and our tree is fine.

Quick Pics of Megan

Sorry - I had promised a video of Megan's cheer competition yesterday but forgot to take the video camera. Oops! So here's a picture of Megan at the competition (below). There was a Christmas theme so the coaches got them these fun hats :)

Megan's uniform has zebra stripes on it so they got zebra striped hats. I also included a picture of Megan in cheer uniform Derek took for me. Thanks Derek & Amy!

Oh Christmas Trees......

The kids' Christmas Tree tradition continues...they never seem to tire of their little trees. I refuse to get our big tree until after Ryan's birthday. This seems to be more of a sticking point for me than Ryan - my poor little December (16th) baby!

So, the kids have had these little trees in their rooms since they were tiny. I think Megan was 3 or 4 when she got her tree. They have quite a collection of ornaments on them by now & love to turn the lights on when they go to bed.

Megan got creative with her lights this year & also strung them across her headboard on her bed. I'm learning as the kids get older to turn them loose & they'll usually do a better job than if I helped. I didn't have to help them with anything except getting the decorations & trees out of the basement & to their rooms. There are good things about the kids getting older :)

Megan's 1st Dance Performance

Okay -- I realize this video is small & definitely hard to see but you'll get the general idea. This is Megan's JV Dance Team. They performed 12/9 at the halftime of a home varsity girls' basketball game.

Here's some hints on figuring out which one is Meg. She starts at 2nd row closest to the basketball goal. She moves to the edge of the 1/2 court circle, then to the 3 point circle in the back, & back to the half court line. She's one of the two blonds (thanks again Amy M.) in the middle. The other blond is her friend Jessica.

Quick explanation: It was a "pink out" at the game last night. Our team colors are green & gold. The head basketball coach's wife died of breast cancer so they do a "pink" game each year to raise money for Susan G. Komen. That's why you see so many people in pink.

Mom - I realize you may not be able to play this so I'm going to try to send it so you can play it on your computer or DVD player.

It's so much fun to watch Megan dance. She'll be learning new dances and doing those at more games. It's going to be a busy winter for her after Christmas break with all the dance & cheer performances.

I'll try to video her cheer performance on Sunday.

Ryan Donnelly - Swiss Banker

Ryan did his culture report on Switzerland Thursday night. It's a big project for 6th graders at our school. They work on it for months. Ryan was glad to get Switzerland since they draw countries out of a hat. They have a "fair" in the school cafeteria to show their work.

He had to make a Swiss food so we did a recipe called Christmas Bread. It was like a fruit cake bread. It was okay. He also had to dress as someone from his country. I suggested a traditional Swiss Alps outfit with knee shorts, suspenders, & goofy hat. Ryan said, "Mom, they dress like us." So we went with a Swiss banker.

His name tag says "Ryan Donnelly, Swiss Banker." He makes a handsome banker - just like his daddy :)

Blogger note - I am so far behind on blogging that I am actually working backwards. Sorry if I confuse anyone. Ryan's event was on Dec. 4th.

Basketball season has started

Time to switch sports for Ryan -- from football to basketball. The season started with a tournament before Thanksgiving. The boys didn't play well the first game but improved throughout the weekend. They had only practiced once before the tournament & it showed.

Ry plays with a group of his friends that have been together for years. All except 2 boys are also on his football team. They play basketball like they play football - rough! I'm sure teams hate to see us hit the court cause they know it will be a foul-fest. This incredibly scrappy approach seems to work - they won 46 to 30 yesterday (12/7). Sometimes I wish they were in football pads to play basketball since Ryan spends an unusual amount of time on the floor.
Sorry these pictures are blurry - they were taken with my cell phone & the gym lighting was bad. You can also tell he didn't want his picture taken.

Ryan's friend Luke moved to a competitive level basketball team this year. He has always been our high scorer. The other boys are stepping up though & filling the void. Ryan had 8 points yesterday which is a high score for him. He also had quite a few rebounds. I'm not ready to call him a "vanilla gorilla" yet but he's being more aggressive on the boards already this year.

I promise to blog after his games to give you all his stats (Dad!) & everyone else can skip that part if they want. I will try to get some video for you. Or...you can jump on an airplane & come see him play live - haha!

Best play of the game -- Ryan was following the play down the court (cause he's not fast) and the kid stops dribbling & picks up the ball. He didn't realize Ryan was behind him & pulls the ball back. Ry runs up behind & grabs the ball without fouling him -- jump ball. The other kid didn't even know what happened & Ryan didn't foul him. It was funny. The look on the other kid's face was like "where'd you come from?" See -- there are benefits to being slow :) I thought you'd appreciate this story Brent since you love a good "jump ball" call!

Megan's busy weekend

Megan had her 2nd cheer competition this weekend. The first was before Thanksgiving and was a minor competition. This weekend was a major one at Bartle Hall in downtown KC. It was on Saturday & Sunday. Saturday was prelims & Megan's team was in 1st after Saturday results. They performed even better on Sunday and they won!

Here's Megan with the team trophy. She was so excited & really enjoys cheering competitively. They beat squads from South Dakota & Jeff City, MO. This means they qualify for Worlds in either Orlando or LA. I have no idea if her team will go to Worlds since we are officially a non-traveling team. We'll see....

Here's the whole team on the stage after they were announced as winners. They are called "national champions" but it's not like there is only one competition claiming this. It's confusing but the kids are happy about it. Megan is the blond (thanks to Amy M.) to the left, 2nd row, & behind the girl in plaid pj pants.

I was lucky to meet a team mom who brought her good camera & shared this team picture with me.

It was an exciting & exhausting weekend. I hear it's like a swim meet - you wait all day to see your kid compete for a minute. At least cheer is 2 mins 30 seconds :) I'm learning to take a large bag to competitions with a book & lots of snacks.

Meg has another cheer competition this weekend & I'll try to get some video this time.

Sorry :(

I am a bad, bad blogger. It is officially one month since I updated our blog. Sorry :(

It's not like we haven't had blog-worthy things going on. Here's a quick list & I promise pictures tomorrow:

• Megan has started her competitive cheer season & has had 2 competitions so far
• Ryan has started basketball season - they won today 46 - 30.
• Megan has started her high school dance season. Her squad danced at a school talent show before Thanksgiving. She will now perform at 1/2times of basketball games
• Ryan did his culture report on Switzerland - it's a big 6th grade project at our school

And...Bruce & I drove them to all these outings :) We've been busy & I do have pictures I'll post. I also plan to make good on my promise to post scanned pictures from the past. As soon as I finish my 25 page paper for my KU class, I'll have the scanner humming so stay posted!