Derek's First Hockey Game

Playing King Oil during sleep over

Helen and Lulu trying to stay warm at the hockey game

Derek in the #1 jersey


Gavin and Adam got to sit with the players

Adam tries to hit me with a snowball

School was canceled Friday because of the snow. Derek's friend Gavin came over to spend the night. There wasn't much snow, but there were several steep driveways covered in ice and the kids had fun sledding down them.

Instead of watching a movie like we normally do for evening entertainment, I got out one of my old childhood favorite board games, King Oil. I had never played it with the kids and I was glad to see that they loved it. They keep asking me if we can play again.

Movies are fun and we all love to snuggle up and watch them along with some popcorn, Sour Patch Kids, and M & M's, but I really wish that we would play more board games together. It seems like when we were kids we played board games all the time. I think Adam, especially, would benefit with all the counting and other thinking required.

Helen said she was too engrossed in her deep cleaning and it was too cold for her to walk out and get any pictures of the boys sledding. The holiday time off resulted in an "awakening" for Helen. She suddenly became aware of all the household areas that need to be addressed. She has been busy, many times with a toothpick in hand. No corner or crevice has been safe. The bottle of Fantastic that had lasted for years was used up in a 2 week span. I love it. I ask her where she's been all my life. She says, "working". She's back at work now so we'll see how long it is before she goes back into her shell of oblivion.

Derek played his first street hockey game this past Saturday. Derek stayed erect and his team dominated. They did so well that the league might have to do some shuffling of the teams. The coach has 2 sons on the team and they are so good together, passing the puck back and forth, that it's really not fair.

Derek seems to like hockey right now and says he doesn't want to play any other sports. I told him that it's only been one game. He and Adam have both decided to skip baseball in the Spring for hockey.

Over the holidays Derek had a hockey practice scheduled, but when we arrived a little late there was nobody on the rink. We found his coach in his car - bloodied and being tended to by a couple other parents. It seems that the coach was on the rink before practice with his 2 sons and several skateboarders were on the rink. The coach asked the skateboarders to leave, words were exchanged, the coach got in the face of one of the skateboarders and another one hit the coach across the head with a skateboard.

We waited with the other parents for the police and ambulance to arrive. Derek seemed unnerved by it all and stayed in the car most of the time. Adam was right in the middle of it all with me checking out the paramedics and police while they did their work.