Happy New Year, Birthday, Etc.

Please forgive me for not blogging in so long, but I have a very legitimate excuse, the excuse being: HOCKEY 2009/10 (among other things)! We had an unusually short, but great time up the at cottage with family. But before hockey, we spent a few days with my mom's family in Crown Point.

While there, we spent the night at my Uncle Dave and Aunt Michelle's house with my cousins Arriel and Eva. We watched the classic Wizard of Oz, opened some late Christmas presents, and my mom, Benjamin and I went to see the new movie Avatar. It was a very bizarre, weird sort of movie, but it had awesome special effects. If you're the chauvinistic type, I wouldn't recommend you seeing it, because the bad guys are the U.S. Marines. I found it hard to root against human beings and root for strange blue people with tails.

Anyway, after visiting for a few days, we headed up to hockey. On the way there we watched all three Pirates of the Caribbean movies on our new portable DVD players. We got to the cottage at around 8:00, giving us just enough time to unpack and spread out our sleeping bags (every inch of the living room floor was covered with sleeping bags).

As always, the adults got up early to go have breakfast at a local restaurant. And what do the kids get? Cereal and Pop Tarts. Oh well, at least we got to sleep in. I mean, that's what vacation is for, isn't it?

We enjoyed some very fun, exciting games of hockey and general shooting around while watching the adult games. Sometimes, though, my hands admitted defeat to the extreme cold and I went in early so that my fingers wouldn't freeze solid. Luckily, this didn't happen very often thanks to the miracle of hand warmers. I probably owe my hands to hand warmers, and I would like to shake the hand of the genius who invented them.


After morning hockey we enjoyed many games of Clue and Apples to Apples, reading Calvin and Hobbes and The Ultimate Book of Useless Information, and general lounging around by the fire. After several hours of this we would migrate upstairs to play (we broke a light fixture downstairs by jumping and running around so vigorously upstairs), tape "stunts" on Sarah's camera, or just talk.

After our lunch of ham sandwiches (I swear, we didn't have anything but ham for lunch all week) and the afternoon hockey session we headed over to Frieda's for dinner, pool, darts, Sundrop, and college football.


We always walked to and from Freida's across the lake, which is very fun. After Freida's, the cousins would play an intense game of "Horse Racing", which involves a whole lot of gambling, betting, shouting, and all around havoc. After the uncles got home, we would take out the crokinole board.



On New Year's Eve, we celebrated Jacob's 3rd birthday! We had some delicious donuts followed by some fireworks, put on by our amazing neighbors who graciously allow us to play hockey on their pond. After that, we went inside to make our Resolutions and Predictions. My resolution is to keep my good grades up, and my predictions are: 1. My basketball team will repeat as tournament champions. 2. The Komets will make it to the Turner Cup but not win. 3. I will be as tall or taller than my mom by next hockey.

Then, the countdown began. . . I suppose we weren't very official. None of the clocks in the cottage work, so Sam's iPod had to suffice as the official clock. After the clock - I mean, iPod struck 12:00, we all shouted, "HAPPY NEW YEAR" and welcomed a new decade.

Unfortunately, a few days after New Years my Uncle Dan got a puck to the eye in an intense game of hockey. His eye was black and completely swollen shut, and he was forced to go to the hospital. The doctor said he broke a few nose bones, as well. At least he gets to look like Rocky Balboa!



January 3rd was our last day at the cottage, but it was also Luke's 7th Birthday! We celebrated with some Panera bagels for breakfast and a ton of packing. Yippee.

On our way home we watched Horton Hears a Who and listened to the Packers steamrolling the Cardinals 33-7 (more on the NFL later, there is much to discuss)!

We stopped in Crown Point once more to shower and have a quick dinner. Then we hit the road. We were hampered by a flat tire, but fortunately we were back on the road in no time thanks to my dad's amazing tire-changing skills.

Well, I hope you all have a wonderful 2010! (Hockey pictures coming soon. . . hopefully)