Tuesday, December 31, 2013

the.mainly.basketball.part (or 'the end')

told you there was one last blast for our Christmas!

a highly anticipated visit from Mike's brother Doug's family,
traveling through on their whirlwind grandparent visits through North Carolina
(before heading back to their home near D.C.) ~

Samuel & Joseph love playing sports with their older cousins, who are always happy to oblige. at family Thanksgivings, the sport is typically football; but we are now in basketball season, so....

l-r: Ben, Chris, Samuel, Jon, Jeff, Joseph
as i took the photos (which were mainly blurry - surprise), i deduced that the game was a shooting contest & you had three tries to make the basket (one from the 3-point line, then progressively closer if you missed) or you were out.  it also looked like you had to rebound the ball before it hit the court, but i could be wrong about that rule.  i didn't want to break their concentration by asking.

Samuel, Ben, Jeff
Joseph shooting.
guess they were starting from the corner for this shot.
it has been so fun to watch these four nephews of ours grow up.  when Mike and I married, Chris was a toddler and Ben was a newborn.  now Chris is in law school & Ben plays varsity football for his college. and Jeff & Jon have just turned eighteen.  it feels a little bizarre to be the aunt of these men - especially since i really don't usually feel too ancient.

Chris, Ben, Jeff, Jon

Jon, Chris, Jeff
they all know (and tolerate very politely) that i am going to corral them for a posed photo, so here is today's ~ aren't they a good-looking bunch?  (someday, i will compile these cousin photos from the many years.)
back row: Jon (18), Jeff (18), Joseph (13), Samuel (16)down front: Ben (20), Chris (23)
i don't really want to think of us as the 'older generation'...but here are the well-established adults (as opposed to the newly minted ones) ~ i will opt not to include our ages.  private message me if you really need to know in order to feel this blog post was equitable.  (when i uploaded the photo, i realized i look really comfortable....maybe i should dress up more instead of entertaining company in my slippers, even if they are super-cool ones.)
Mike, Meg, Karen, Doug
so, that pretty much rounds out our Christmas fun.  it is New Year's eve and i have much to do, like eat and sit around some more.  better get busy.