snow way

Well, we've got the first sticking snow of the year, so we thought it would be a good time to go ahead and put up our outdoor decorations. Isn't our ornament hanger adorable? (I will spare you the pictures of the many blow molds scattered throughout the yard, particularly the choir singers, which everyone finds very creepy.)

a new season

Did we mention that Liam made the basketball team? He has been very excited about it. Tonight was his first game, and he managed to get fouled and make one of his free throws. The team won, so all around it's a great start to a (thankfully pretty short) season!

basket bingo!

Every year, the volleyball team at my sister's school does a bingo fundraiser. There are 10 rounds, and the prize for each round is a Longaberger basket. Since my mom and sister both collect Longaberger, we go every year, but we've never won anything. But tonight, our long dry spell is over! Our table won not one but TWO coveted baskets. 

I should note that before we even entered the building, I told the boys repeatedly that I would buy extra bingo cards for them to play, but that any baskets won would be mine. They readily agreed, but as you can imagine, after he actually won something (a waste basket), Liam was totally bummed out at the thought of not being able to keep it, even though he has never before expressed a desire for any kind of basket, let alone an outrageously expensive one. It really was his lucky night, though. I was going to give the basket to my mom or sister for their collection, but they turned it down (!!!!) on the grounds that it is not the right shade of brown to match all their other baskets. And since there is nowhere on the ground floor of the house that we could keep it safe from the dog, and it would get wet and ruined in the bathroom upstairs, there was only one option left: Give it to Liam. So now the boy has a very pricey trash receptacle that he will undoubtedly neglect to empty unless prodded repeatedly.

In the very last round, Klaudia also won a basket! Hers was the holiday basket in the shape of a stocking, and was an acceptable shade to be added to Bethany's collection. But the winning didn't end there. The team also got local businesses to donate goods and services, and sold tickets as extras for attendees to enter a raffle for their selected items. Klaudia really cleaned up in this category, winning some gift cards for Subway and a couple of tanning packages. And I didn't do so badly myself: I put all my eggs (tickets) in one basket (bag), so to speak, and won an outdoor photo shoot with a local photographer. This is something I've wanted to do for a while now, so I can't wait to see how it turns out!