Jared's friend Crystal

Jared was running in Covington along the river when a woman flagged him down. She introduced herself as Chrystal (from Dayton) and explained that she had written a prayer for her kids and put it into a bottle and wanted Jared to help her throw it into the river, so of course they spent a half hour talking, sharing pictures, taking the prayer out of the bottle to read it before sending it to the river. We hear from Crystal regularly and are happy to have her as part of our lives!

 

Misc stories

I finally got my COVID vaccine after waiting forever. The first wasn't bad, but the second gave me and Liam a headache so bad we were face planted in pillows all night. Lucky Torin didn't even have a minor headache!  - KATE

Dani continues to spend time helping with Papa, and his favorite thing to do (and sometimes demand!) is go get ice cream. A Chick-Fil-A milkshake hit the spot earlier this month.

Jared had to run back to the office one evening to get something from the office, and Torin got to come with. This was the first family member to get to see the inside of the office - after over 2.5 years with Great American!

Thanksgiving with the Browns

Dani and Claire went for a wet Thanksgiving morning run - and found a great Christmas-decor filled yard, not far from the Junior High

For Thanksgiving dinner, we had the Browns (plus Trey) over. We started with a big spread of cheese, crackers, and veggies

and had our traditional, delicious Thanksgiving meal. It turned out PERFECT!

After pies, we had various fun activities, like yoga, a movie for the kids and some rousing karaoke for hours!

We are so glad to have friends like the Browns here to celebrate with.

Dos a Cero - USA 2, Mexico 0

The US hosted Mexico in Cincinnati for a World Cup qualifier, and Taylor and Andrew flew out to join Jared going to the game. The pregame atmosphere was super festive with a supporters parade, drums, chants, songs, smoke, and lots and lots of people everywhere.

The stadium outside was lit up for the occasion with stars and stripes moving graphics.

Soccer fans are awesome! The Mexican fans were awesome, and Sam's Army showed up in full force. One of the fans sitting close to us was in his Mandalorian gear.

With our connection with Geoff Stevens, we got tickets to a suite behind the goal. The food in the suite was yummy - it was even decorated with red white and blue macaroons

The weather was cold and misty, but we dressed warm enough and represented the stars and stripes. The seats were incredible - right behind the goal!

In the first half, Mexico was attacking at our end, so we were a little unnerved when some of the action was on our side, including a big save by the US keeper early in the 1st half. As the half progressed, the US seemed to play on the offensive side more and more, and as the 2nd half started, much of the action was right in front of us. In the 69th minute, Christian Pulisic came on, and in the 74th minute he headed home the first goal of the game! The stadium erupted, we high fived anyone around, and celebrated. In the 85th minute, Weston McKennie scored and for the next 5 minutes plus stoppage, the stadium chanted "Dos a Cero" as the US put the game away. It was one of the best sporting events I've ever been to in person - and it was so much fun to watch it with my brothers. We LOVED every minute of it and talked about it for hours afterwards.

We also found ourselves that weekend doing feats of strength - leg wrestling, giving Andrew awkward brother hugs... or something like that. It was fun to have a boys weekend with 2-0 as a highlight!

 

 

"Alexa, how much time?"

Alexa history shows pretty accurately how piano and cello practices often go. Play a song, ask how much time is left. Play part of a song, ask how much time is left. Etc!