The countdown is on to our next cheer competition. I cannot wait for Cheer for the Cure!
He said
Well, after dodging winter for the most part all the way to the first of December, this week that really changed. Not so much the same way in London that it hit Aunt Charlie, Uncle Todd and Marshall in the Muskokas but it definitely got a lot colder and we saw more winter-like temperature this weekend. In fact so much so that that my outdoor rides went inside this week almost to an equal distribution of each version. Friday, on my way to my usual Friday Morning Hockey the snow started as I arrived at the rink and kept going off and on again for the day. Mind you we got no where near the four feet that Charlie, Todd and Marshall were slammed with, so we got off lucky.
This weekend my 2024 Movember campaign wrapped up. This year’s campaign was personal as it was the third year I dedicated my efforts to my brother Greg, but the first one, where he wasn’t with us so I could share how it was going. So, it really meant a lot for me to be able to maybe get close and even beat last year ($1,595) which was my best year of fundraising since starting this in 2009. Well as of last night I am happy to report that not only did I beat last year and my best effort so far, I got to $1,805 raised—a full $210 better! In the 16 years I have participated, I have raised a total of $13,939 for Movember! Thank you to every last one of you that contributed and contributed in a big way this year—it means a lot to me and our family!
With Saturday off, Danielle and I made our way over to visit Mom and help get her suite in the festive spirit. She’s been watching out the windows the last few weeks as the houses in the neighbourhood slowly got their decorations up so we thought it would be great to help raise her festive sprits and start the decorations in her room. They had a Christmas Bazaar at the Village so she had already picked up a few Christmas craft decorations and Danielle & I added some LED strong lights to hang up in her window. We also got the last of her photos hung up on the wall to not only make the suite feel festive but more like home. When we left it was snowing again and the windows twinkled in Christmas glow. And she was happy.
This weekend was super busy for me as we had our annual Black Friday four day shopping event at the store. It’s always our busiest time of the year and kicks off the holiday shopping season. It left me working every day except Saturday this weekend and it busy and fast-paced to say the least. Sure the shifts flew by in the blink of an eye, but it also left me getting home feeling pretty spent and not wanting to do much more than relax. This will be the beginning of the shopping season and while the sale ends tomorrow and we get less than a week of reprieve, the reality is, we will be hopping for the rest of December. Fun, exciting and exhausting all the same.
But, since this weekend brought us into December and we’re mindful of giving my brother Greg’s favourite time of year fullest efforts, we’re getting the start on the Christmas decorations for our house this evening. So while the snowy game in Buffalo is on the TV, we will put on some Christmas music and start the work on getting the house ready for the season too. We’ll start with the Christmas tree and decorations inside. Later this week, hopefully the weather will support me getting the lights up outside!
She said
This week has been bananas! With Emelia being on two cheer teams there are weeks we are at the gym 4 nights in the week. This past week was one of those weeks. Her main team, Sovereignty is about to head into their second competition of the season. This is the first really big competition of the season, it draws all the big gyms and is the first real test for Emelia’s team and to see how competitive they really are. They came off their first competition really proud of how they did placing first but they know this next competition will have a much harder group to compete against. Emelia’s coach has made some changes to clean up their routine, up their entertainment value and added some more difficulty to their stunts. All in all they are looking really good. The elevated routine is fast paced and the girls are very excited.
Like I said Sovereignty is her main team but she is on a second team as well called Valour. Valour is an adult team, since this is a non-tumble team the level of stunting is much harder. Their coaches have been working really hard to make some changes to elevate all the stunts to make sure every single one was an elite level 3 stunt. The last few weeks has been a lot of changes, a lot of running through the new stunts and upgrading the pyramid. They finally have the routine finalized and now they can work on hitting it clean and make sure they are ready for that team’s first competition in January. With both teams having two practices this week meant we were at the gym on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. So it was a busy week.
As John mentioned we were pushed right into Christmas season this past week. Not only did we get a bit of a dusting of snow but with Black Friday it meant that we really had to get our shit together and start planning for the holidays. On Friday I started shopping and got a good chunk of my shopping for Emelia. I still have not really started on anyone else but we really do not have a lot to shop for. This year has been so hard for our family that I just have not felt in the Christmas mood. But getting the tree up tonight, getting some shopping done and some snow in our forecast has made things feel a bit more like the holiday season.