Every December we have a scheduling problem--Robert's practice tries to hold their annual Christmas party on the same weekend as I have to drive to Florence with Mark to a tournament. Thankfully, this year we planned ahead and managed to schedule it on a midday Saturday so I could make it to both--Florence tournament and the party.
Mark played doubles with Connor again. They had a great run! And they won the whole tournament, beating David and Walker in the final.
The fun part about this Florence L5 tournament is that they also have mixed doubles. Mark played mixed doubles with a girl from GA that he didn't know. She was half his size, no exaggeration. Yet, somehow she and Mark beat Connor and McKenzie in the finals! So Mark got TWO doubles wins.
Before showing you the final awards pictures, here is the annual picture of Mark and the reindeer. We usually stay at the Hyatt in downtown Florence so we can walk around through all the festive displays, and this is one of them. Mark usually is hesitant to get a picture here thinking it's just too silly, but because we do it every time, it's actually hilarious now.
Okay, so here are the final awards pictures! Dubs specialists today.
And Mark got fourth place in Singles! Romir beat him in the battle for 3rd place.
And back to Christmas.... Mark had the privilege of putting the star up this time again! No stool needed...this kid is still growing. I remember when the kids were little and how festive and cute it was to pick up one of them so they could put the star on the top of the tree. Miss those days for sure...
Oh yes, and my mom was able to be here with us in December! She arrived from Ukraine after a 15 day Transatlantic cruise from Barcelona to Florida. It was fun! Such a cool experience and I am glad she was healthy and energetic enough to do it.
Here are our stockings this year--five of the ones I got back in 2005 or so, when we lived in Minnesota. Plus one generic one for my mom.
And so back to the Christmas party. Robert was in charge of organizing it this year, so we he booked an Italian place in Cary, Lugano. It was just fancy enough, with good food and delicious desserts.
This year I taught Sunday School to Mark and a few other kids of his age. It was awesome! Although many times we missed church and so my partner, Grace, had to teach... I snapped this picture randomly after church one Sunday. Helena, Tess, Ellie, Caroline, Annabelle, Dallan, Mark, Jarnum, and Nate. Come to think of it, a couple of the kids are not from my class, but they are just friends with this group.
In early December, when my mom was already here, we got to go to the magical evening presented by MG for the Ukrainian refugees and American families who have been involved in the cause of helping refugees. We got to enjoy all the beautiful lit up decorations once again, have a very long presentation by MG and all the people involved (I had to give a little speech too, on behalf of Lyena as well), and had a dinner at the very end when we were pretty frozen.
The famous lights tunnel is pretty cool!
Grateful for what MG has done to help Ukrainians. It's an enormous undertaking so I am impressed he's been able to help so many Ukrainian families.
We were leaving for Hawaii on Dec 29, the day after Mark's birthday and the day after the church stake dance. So here is Mark, right before going to the dance, wearing Alex's jacket. We'd promised him we'd make sure we are home for the dance and for his birthday... He loves church dances! And I am glad he likes to go when he is in town and meet new people. In fact that's how he met his girlfriend, Sarah! But more on that later...
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