Heirs of the Magi News Flash!

***Heirs of the Magi News Flash!*** Winter has, for the most part, been mild so far - or awesome for the month that Cassie and Michael spent in summertime-Australia! They are home now and will be working from home for most of the time until Easter. The hometown work will include getting ready for their next trip, but there will be a lot of fun to get in on and share with their favorite people - including their March Break trip to Florida adventure. All of your favorite Magi Masters will continue to work and play while their future plans unfold; so... ...Visit Witch Falls often to keep up with all of their latest stories; and Happy Reading!

Sunday, November 30, 2014

Cassie's Journal - November 30, 2014



How crazy has it been today?  Crazy enough that I’m skipping out on the bedtime studying and work and opting to go to sleep early instead.

Tai Chi this morning was the only quiet time I had today from the time it ended until right now as I’m cuddling here in bed with Mandy and writing this before crashing into nap mode for the rest of the night.  After that, it was a rush to get ready for church, have a snack breakfast on the fly, and then run out the door to meet up with Michael again to get to the church for our praise team warm-up.  Having that to do meant missing out on most of the work around the house, but while I was busy; Mom and Dad helped out with feeding the troops; getting luggage packed into vehicles; and making sure that everyone was ready for – and at – church on time.

Our service today was a combination Thanksgiving and Christmas theme because it is also Advent Sunday today; and our music, skits, bible readings, and Pastor John’s message covered both.  That also made for an extra-long service; so Michael and Rebecca needed to run right after it ended to get to the Inn and help out with the first buffet.  I didn’t do that because there was work that needed to be done by the teens after the service too; and then I went home to get changed before going on to the Inn with the rest of my family for the first buffet sitting at noon.

That was another mad dash of action, and even having our early dinner felt like a rush because some of us wanted to help Miranda and Jacob with keeping the busy buffet day moving along and not drag out our meal; and all of our guests wanted to hit the road as early as possible to get home or back to college – while hopefully beating at least some of the holiday weekend traffic rush.  I didn’t get to have dinner with any of my cousins, because they were all busy with their own families ahead of the imminent separations; but Ethan, Ehlana, and I did get to spend that hour and a half with Grandma and Grandpa instead.  That worked for me, since I’ve been busy for the rest of the day; and missed out on the afternoon grandkids and grandparents time that gave the parents a break to either nap or work in the office.

You probably don’t need to guess which set of parents were in the office doing the work; though let’s cut Aunt Leanne some slack on that this time – she has a good reason for being tired out right now! ;^)

Doing the goodbye hugs and kisses with my family outside of the Inn didn’t take long – mostly because the warm we’ve had for the past two days came to an abrupt end this morning; and we’re back to the freezing, winter-like cold.  That was a mad dash of action too; and I did not have enough time to spend with Violet, Dillon, Christina, Josiah, or any of the others before they were all on the road and heading out of town.  The good news is that I didn’t have time to miss them because I went back into the Inn after my home town family left for various houses; and jumped right into the work in the kitchen.  Rebecca was happy to have the help by then, and while Michael was working with the guys dealing with the never-ending stacks of dirty dishes; Rebecca and I were mostly on the prep-line doing our usual jobs to help keep the buffet tables loaded with fresh food – for the next half-dozen hours.

Yes, we did have breaks, but Michael, Rebecca, and I all had school work to do too; so that’s what we did when we weren’t on the front line of the holiday weekend buffet battle.  The work continued after the last containers of food went out to the dining room; and the clean-up seemed to take forever tonight as Rebecca and I moved on to help with all of the dishwashing and cleaning the kitchen while some of the teen girls helping with the cooking were moved out to the dining room to help Miranda and the other servers with the major clean-up there too.  It was ten-thirty by the time we walked home, and if I’d gone inside with Michael and his family; he and I would have been doing another sofa sleepover for sure.

We all wanted to have showers, though, so I did the hugs and kisses out at the edge of their front yard; came home from there; and spent about two minutes with Mom and Dad before coming up here to hit the shower and then get ready for bed.  Ethan and Ehlana were sleeping by then; Mom and Dad are in their room now after wrapping up their work for the night; and Mandy is already sleeping.  I’ve mostly just done the email check and dealt with one little family business issue that couldn’t want for tomorrow night; and the main news from the email is that everyone got home or back to school safely – including Jake and Stephanie.  They apparently didn’t do anything at all over the past four days except study for final exams, work on assignments, and go out for a few meals here and there; but Stephanie’s email still sounded very upbeat, so I guess they weren’t too bored.

I’m sure that it’s just a coincidence that her email read a lot like the redacted stories we get from parents, aunts and uncles for their weekends away without kids stories.

Let’s not go there, or I’ll just stay awake wishing that I did go home with Michael and stay for that sofa sleepover.

We’re going to have a very busy first week of December; which sounds funny when we’re also now done with football and cheerleading for the year and will have five fewer activities going on each week.  The Christmas calendar is full too, though; and we are not going to be bored!  Rebecca’s fifteenth birthday is up first for us on Tuesday, but the Mom’s shopping trip is on Tuesday too.  There’s a surprise coming for Rebecca with that, but I’ll save that news for the journal update on Tuesday.  The band is playing in the Pinehurst Christmas parade on Friday night; Dawn’s thirteenth birthday is on Saturday; and we’ll see her again too because she’ll be meeting up with us in Crystal Springs for the annual ‘kids’ Christmas shopping trip.  Add in our annual trip to the Christmas tree farm on Sunday; and the week is looking very full – and I’m not even including Aunt Grace’s imminent baby arrival.  That could be happening any minute now; and definitely will be sometime this week – though Ethan, Ehlana, and I don’t have the info for the exact timing.

It’s going to be December very soon, but I don’t plan on being awake to see either the end of November or the start of the new month; so that’s it for tonight, and, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Cassie's Journey - November 29, 2014



Happy 14th Birthday, Rowen – and Happy 1st Anniversary as a couple, Rowen and Tim!

You don’t need two guesses to know which one of those milestones is most important to Rowen today; though the other one does get her more gifts! ;^)

We’ve had an amazing day, with nice weather with temperatures reaching well into the sixties this afternoon.  Michael and I started out day with Tai Chi in the pool room followed by a quick swim before going back up to our rooms to get ready for a play day and pack up for check-out.  Breakfast was at the same hotel restaurant we were at last year; with the big exception being that some of us were celebrating Rowen’s birthday today when it was literally yesterday’s news last year.  Everyone else in our collective groups were celebrating the Championship win – just like we were doing last year; so that was awesome too.  There was only one parent ‘with’ us for breakfast, and while he and Tracey had a gift to give Rowen at the dinner at the Inn tonight too; he had a little game souvenir for Rowen too – an autographed mini-helmet that he’d gotten Michael and Tim to autograph sometime for her.  It was more of a gag gift; but she loved the thoughtfulness and quiet humor.

Tim, Michael, and I had gifts for her too; and so did Rebecca and Lucas, and Sally and Joshua.  The cheerleaders had a group gift for her, but they did that later, at lunchtime, and since I was quietly asked for a donation to the cause by Dani; I know that was shopped for while we were at the Mall for the rest of the morning.  The parents and chaperones had done some organizing overnight, and while a few people headed for home after breakfast, everyone else – including all of the teens and most of the kids – went to the Mall with us for the morning; and stayed for a semi-organized lunch and play time celebration at the sports entertainment center here.

We have our Christmas shopping trip coming up soon anyway, so Rowen and I didn’t need to do any major shopping today; but we did have fun wandering around with the boys – and with Sally and Joshua too.  Rebecca and Lucas went off with Jenny and Lance to do their own thing; but they mostly didn’t hang out with us because we didn’t want to be wandering the mall in one huge group.  We bumped into other friends now and then, and had little cameo moments; and pretty much just played around for a couple of hours until we needed to meet up for lunch at the food court.  That was entertaining too, and Dani and the other girls even tracked down a cupcake and candle so that Rowen could get a bonus birthday wish while getting about half of the people around and in the food court to sing the birthday song to Rowen.  That had Rowen blushing and looking embarrassed; but she sort-of loved it too.

We were off to the sports entertainment center right after that, and while it hasn’t changed at all since last year; we had just as much fun this time as we were there for Rowen’s birthday on the Friday night.  More fun, really; because we had a lot more of our friends along for the ride.  That gave Rowen and me a bigger home town audience to wow with our daring trampoline skills; we won our little race against the boys for rock wall climbing; and Tim won this round of Laser Tag – just as he did last year.  Throw in as many other games and activities as we could fit into the two and a half hours we had available to play there; and then it was time to hit the road for home.

That felt very strange after spending the rest of the day together, because the boys needed to head home on the bus with the team while Rowen and I were sent home with Tim’s father this time – mostly because he offered so that Ana-Marie and Erica could do something else before heading back without needing to worry about having us home in time for Rowen’s birthday dinner at the Inn.  The trip was a bit quieter, but we enjoyed having a couple of hours of alone time with Martin too – something we don’t get to do really at all.  I think that I’ve done fairly amazing when it comes to the family of my boyfriend, but Rowen’s aced out too; and Tim’s parents are seriously awesome – even though they’re the quiet couple in their family compared to Lee and Sarah.

When we got home, Rowen and I had extra time to get ready for dinner while Michael and Tim helped out at the school and her parents – and Tim’s – finished up for the day at the store and dealership.  The Saturday shopping wasn’t quite as crazy as Black Friday; but there were still a lot of visitors in town today; and it was a gorgeous day to be outdoors and wandering around town – or playing at the park or on the river.  Michael and I have missed everything that’s been going on with our families yesterday and today, and for my family; that included a trail ride this afternoon for some of the parents and teens – though most of the guys were more interested in the college football games.  We missed out on dinners with our families tonight too; though Michael’s grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousins were at the Inn for dinner – just not with us; and they were nearly finished eating by the time we got there with Rowen’s parents, Patrick, and Scott.

While they’d had a very busy couple of days, Miranda and Jacob still insisted that Michael and Rebecca take the night off so that they could both be there for Rowen’s dinner party; and Lucas stayed in town for that too.  Jenny didn’t come to dinner; and was with Lance in Maple Valley tonight instead – apparently the compromise they’d made with his parents that allowed him to go to the game and stay there overnight on the holiday weekend.  The rest of the teen guest list was fairly small because the rest of our friends all had family commitments too; but all of Rowen’s family was there – both the home town gang and the weekend visitors that were staying at her house; but being hosted by her grandparents while Patricia and Owen were busy at the store.

The food seemed extra-special after the mediocre culinary experiences we had on our trip; but I won’t say it was a best-of-the-weekend; because Jacob’s Thanksgiving dinner was a tough act to follow; and the buffets tomorrow will be as amazing as always.  What was awesome tonight was the friends and family time; Rowen’s mini-roast; and seeing my best friend so happy.  Whatever her birthday wishes were today; I don’t see how having them granted could make her life any better than it is right now – though with Rowen; it’s quite possible that her wishes are for someone else – or for her future.  I wish that she gets to be this happy all of her life too!

Let’s not get into the details of the gifts.  She loved everything, and had a handful of them to open – including the one that I brought along from Mom, Dad, Ethan, and Ehlana; but Rowen could have gotten nothing at all and she would have been just as happy.

Okay, mostly happy – we are still teens, after all; and getting gifts is fun – even if we love giving them even more.

Michael and I were the only other teens at the table with Rowen and Tim, but Rebecca, Lucas, and the others were at neighboring tables so that they could still talk with Rowen too.  Though we were celebrating her birthday, it wasn’t a surprise that the championship football game was the top news story here at home today; and everyone wanted to congratulate the guys – and hear all about the game.  That helped out with the entertainment, and Rowen didn’t mind sharing the spotlight; but I think that she was also ready to go home by the time we’d finished having dessert too – though that wasn’t going to be a transition to some alone time with Tim.

Rowen wasn’t the only teen in the room that needed to get home to family after leaving the Inn.  I walked home with Michael after we spent ten minutes talking with his parents in the kitchen; stopped in for another cameo visit with his weekend guests; and then moved on to my house to spend a couple of hours with my own family before bedtime – or at least the Rice family contingent of it.  The Proctors were with Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace; Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne were spending the evening with his family guests; and Grandma and Grandpa were there this evening after spending most of the day at our house.  Violet and Dillon were still there; but only for the first hour before they needed to get back to his house for their last night in Witch Falls before heading back to school tomorrow afternoon.

That was a whirlwind of inaction; and that’s exactly what I mean.  I mostly sat on a sofa with Mom and Dad; sipped on a hot chocolate, and had a blur of little cameo chats with everyone – including giving everyone a condensed version of the football game report from a cheerleader and girlfriend perspective while skipping over some of the details that Dad, Ethan, and the other guys had already passed on to everyone else.  With an early-morning wake-up call a necessity for all of us to get ready for church and a busy day; a comparatively early bedtime was an option for some of us too – though that didn’t include Chris, Martin, Dawn, or me.

After seeing the parents and grandparents off to bed, Dawn and I took care of getting Ethan and Ehlana tucked in for the night while Chris and Martin moved on to the lounge for some gaming action.  They’re also watching the last college ball game of the day; but the other guys are, at the very least, bending man-laws to skip the rest of it in favor of the extra nap time.

Have you ever noticed that there always seems to be a way around man-laws when it’s convenient for the guys; but that rarely happens when a man-law can get them out of doing something they don’t want to do?

Let’s not go there tonight.  Dawn and I had a little visit with Chris and Martin in the lounge after we’d finished tucking the twins in for the night, but then we closed the doors between the lounge and my room so that we could get ready for bed and then just surf the net of my computer and have some girl chat time until Dawn fell asleep about a half-hour ago.  I’ve been doing some nightly computing since then, and had one little family business email issue to deal with; but I’m about ready to get started on my nap time too.

Tomorrow really is going to be crazy-busy – especially since Michael and I need to be at church early to warm up with the teen praise team.  I’ll be back at the Inn for the noon buffet with my family; and then I’m booked to help out for the rest of the day there.  Our guests will likely be leaving from the Inn as long as they get everything packed and loaded up in the morning; so I won’t miss anything at home except for Mom and Dad working in the office.  I wish that there’d been more time to spend with Grandma and Grandpa this weekend; but I guess that’ll have to wait for when they’re home for Christmas.

That’s pretty much it for this update, and I am tired enough to sleep now; so, until next time...

...May the Magi Force be with you!

Saturday, November 29, 2014

Cassie's Journal - November 28, 2014



Michael, Tim, and the rest of their team won their Championship game today!



I’ll get to that soon, but let’s try to do this update in order.



My wake-up call came way too early, but I was still fired up and ready to go right away too.  It’s not as though I hadn’t known it already, but it definitely sucked to start out my Black Friday with a bowl of microwaved oatmeal cereal and a bagel instead of getting to enjoy the breakfast buffet at the Inn.  Unfortunately, we – the cheerleaders – were on the road for the State College stadium by the time the Inn opened for business.



Rowen and I were in a minivan with Anna-Marie Palmer and Erica Bassett this time because Jenny was with Tammy and her family today; since Tammy’s brother, Jeff, had a big group of family members at the stadium today to watch his last high school game.  That worked for us, and we had a blast hanging out with Michael’s cousin and Josiah’s sister.  It’s funny that I’ve been a cheerleader with them for three months now, and still think of them that way instead of as friends, but other than cheerleading and after-game parties; we don’t exactly hang out together.  Two years is still a big deal when the younger teens are in Grade Nine.



The two and a half hours we spent on the road were uneventful; though we did keep ourselves entertained.  I even got to do a little future plans ‘work’; though that isn’t exactly the right word for it – I mostly just nudged the conversation in directions I wanted it to go a few times and encouraged some education and career ideas for Anna-Marie and Erica.  I won’t be the only person doing that over the next year or so; though I don’t think we need to actually do much with that – other than make sure that all of the teens around town are aware of all opportunities available to them.



Michael, Tim, and the rest of the guys had left more than an hour and a half before we did, and by the time we were in the stadium; they’d already done their walk-through; and were having their turn at on-field warm-ups.  Grand Summit got to have the better time slot for that because they had the better record.  We were led on a tour of the stadium too; but used other rooms in the building for our own warm-ups.  We had to share change rooms with other squads for all of the games; including the Grand Summit squad; but it was just our two groups there up until about an hour before game time when the next pair of squads arrived to start getting ready for the game after ours – and probably catch some or all of the first match too.  Getting to meet the other girls was fun, and there was some good-natured rivalry banter; but we were all also really busy and didn’t have too much time for that.



The last half-hour or so before game time was just a blast of activity as we got set up on the side-lines – at the same time the volunteers were doing the same for our team while Coach Robinson was busy in the locker-room with his players.  All of that was a lot different than last year, when Rowen and I were spectators; and it was really amazing when we were surprised with our own, personal fan club.  Okay, not all of us were surprised, since I knew when Dad and Ethan were no longer in Witch Falls and on their way here; but it was still awesome – and they brought some of the other guys from our families with them in two vehicles.  I’ll guess that the parents got together and bought a block of seats again this year, because they were all in one area, and while buying tickets wouldn’t have been a problem even right up to the start of the game; it was nice having a lot of the cheering for our guys coming from one place.



In addition to Dad and Ethan, we had Uncle Rick, Uncle Blaine, Chris, Martin, Jonathan, Patrick, Jayden, and Aiden at the game.  They were all there to support Michael and Tim too, but our boys actually had fewer of their own relatives at the game.  Tim’s Dad was there, but his Mom stayed to help out with the big shopping day at the dealership.  Michael’s cousin, Ryan, got a ride with a group of Bassetts and Palmers, including Josiah, who were there for him and Caleb; but none of his Stone family cousins wanted to spend another five hours in the car today on top of the rest of their travel time this weekend.  I get that, but still wish that even one of his cousins had cared enough to make the extra effort anyway – especially since this really was a big day for Michael.



That brings us to game time.  Watching my boyfriend getting introduced with the rest of his team on a big stage was really thrilling.  The pre-game festivities don’t take all that long for a high school Championship, but that was a fun little blast of action; and then, almost too-suddenly, the game was on!



We lost the coin-toss, and Grand Summit deferred so that they could receive the second-half kick-off; so our team started out on offense – and probably had Grand Summit wishing they’d made a different choice.  On our third offensive play of the game, Michael caught a pass from Jeff Morris and then ran it down the field for a sixty-one yard touchdown.  That first drive took less than a minute of clock time; and set a trend for our team – and for the game.



Though Michael’s quick touchdown had shocked the Grand Summit players and coaches, they recovered quickly enough; and their offense marched down the field and scored on their first drive too – and on every other one all game except for three out of the last four drives of the game.  Defense might normally win games; but it didn’t today.  I’m not saying that defense didn’t play a role at all, because it did; but just not in any way that showed up on the scoreboard.  For Grand Summit, there defense practically shut down our running game.  Unfortunately, they didn’t have an answer for Jeff Morris and his two, comparatively diminutive, freshman receivers.  Considering the fact that they did win their game against us in the regular season, you’d have thought that they’d be ready for that; but I guess that Michael and Tim did have an especially amazing game today compared to that one.



On our side of the defensive game, we did a fairly decent job keeping the Grand Summit receivers from earring any big-yardage plays on the outside, thanks mostly to Michael, Tim, and our safeties; but we got killed on the ground and up the middle of the field for most of the game – at least until the wheels started falling off for Grand Summit in the fourth quarter.  Without Kyle on our team, we weren’t surprised that Grand Summit went after us there; but the one big factor that was a game-changer with the differences in our offensive successes was that Grand Summit used up a lot more clock time than we did – mostly because our plays either ended out-of-bounds or with incompletions.  They chewed up clock time with every play that didn’t end in a first down or touchdown.



Getting back to the game in progress part of the report, we basically exchanged touchdowns with Grand Summit; and Michael and Tim took turns earning all of ours while Caleb and Lucas were pretty much stymied on the ground game.  They did eventually run up nearly one hundred yards between them; but it was mostly nickel-and-dime yards that they had to fight hard for – and usually run a lot farther side-to-side to get even a couple of positive yards gained.  For our side, Tim scored our second and third touchdowns, Michael had our fourth, and then Tim added a fifth to give us a seven point lead going into half time.



Rowen and I had a blast cheering for our boys on the sidelines, and while we couldn’t exactly run into the end zone to give our heroes hugs and kisses after each touchdown; they knew that we were very proud of them – we were literally jumping, dancing, and flipping for joy!  That brings us to our half-time routine, and while I’m sure that mash-ups are big with cheerleaders everywhere right now, Dani picked the music from the Pitch Perfect competition finale for our routine; though our actual routine didn’t resemble that stage scene in the movie – except for the looking to the left and right thing.  We had a bigger audience, and they seemed to enjoy the routine; but I don’t think it was quite as popular as our ‘Do You Want to Build a Snowman’ routine was when we did it at home.  We had fun, though, and earned some cheers and whistles; so I’m a happy camper – and Dani was thrilled to have pulled it off as our senior captain.  Grand Summit has a bigger cheerleading squad, and I liked what they did too; but I’ll give the half-time win to our squad – even if I am biased.



Grand Summit tied the game on their next drive – the first of the second half – and then we were right back to exchanging touchdowns.  Since Tim had earned three of our first-half touchdowns, Grand Summit tried to clamp down on him in the second half; which just allowed Michael to score our next two touchdowns in a row – both of them on long, fifty-plus yard catch-and-run plays.  We were tied at forty-nine when Tim earned his first touchdown of the second half to give us a seven-point lead again, thanks to another defensive shift that tried to stop Michael with a double-team on him; and it was shortly after that when the wheels fell off of the game plan bus for Grand Summit.



We were just into the fourth quarter by the, and Grand Summit had returned up the field again fairly quickly after Tim’s touchdown, but had a couple of dropped passes deep in our red zone and found themselves facing their first fourth down of the game.  Instead of kicking a chip-shot field goal and cut our lead to four; they went for it – and failed.  We took over on downs; Jeff Morris hit Tim with a fifteen-yard pass on our first play that Tim then ran all the way to the end zone at the other end of the field for his fifth touchdown of the game; and we were suddenly up by fourteen instead.  Grand Summit came roaring back to score another touchdown; and then Michael returned the favor while keeping up with Tim and earning his fifth touchdown of the game to – on another drive that took less than two minutes.



At that point, we were up seventy to fifty-six; time was running out; and Grand Summit was getting desperate.  They blasted down the field; got stopped on another fourth-down incompletion; and then Jeff hit Tim for another long pass and run that Tim slowed up and ran out of bounds for – as per orders from Coach Robinson.  Jeff took a knee for three downs to run the clock down as much as we could; and then Jason kicked his one and only field goal of the game to give us the seventy-three-fifty-six lead that we’d end the game with.  Grand Summit still had a little time left after that, but we all knew the game was over by then despite the fact that they ran the ball down the field again until losing yet one more fourth down attempt in our red zone with just seconds left on the clock.  There was one more offensive play for our team, with Jeff simply taking a knee to run out the clock; and then the celebration was on.



The game stats were so crazy that it was almost scary.  We had over seven hundred yards of offense to go along with our ten touchdowns and one field goal; with more than six hundred of those yards through the passing game.  Grand Summit had more than half again more of the clock time on offense, and five hundred plus yards of offense; their stats would have looked great too if it wasn’t compared to our results today.  I know that their players, coaches, and fans were really disappointed; but they did play a great game where the major difference between winning and losing really game down to a couple of pivotal plays in the fourth quarter.



In a Championship tournament like this one, big celebrations after the game aren’t an option because the field needs to be cleared for the next game fairly quickly.  Rowen and I got to have a little bit of time with Michael and Tim after the game; but then we were all off and running again to hit the showers and get our gear packed up and into the bus or vehicles before we went back into the stadium; met up with our families and friends; and started watching the next game already in progress.  Most of our fans didn’t stay for all of that game because they wanted to be home in time for dinner; but Michael and I did get to spend some time with Dad, Ethan, Aiden, and my uncles and cousins before they left for home.



We stayed and watched that second game, and then went over to our hotel.  The check-ins for the team and cheerleaders was already taken care of by then, so Rowen and I got our keycards and went straight to our room to get changed and ready for the evening events that were hosted by the high school football league – though our school pays its share of those costs the same as every school does – or however that’s actually done through the combination of school taxes and sports fees.  We met up with Michael and Tim in the lobby, because they were ready first – as were most of the guys; and then we were off and running again.



It was very different from last year to be part of the football festivities instead of being on our own for dinner and the evening; but we had a great night; and I especially loved getting to spend that time with my friends.  Michael and I got to sit with Rowen, Tim, Rebecca, Lucas, Jenny, and Lance at one table; and our group had a block of tables, so we had other friends we could talk with too; though not with everyone because we were one of the tables on the outside edge of the room.  I’m definitely getting spoiled having so many meals cooked by Michael’s father; but I doubt that anyone in the room would actually argue with me about how mediocre the meal was tonight.  It wasn’t bad; just not at all memorable.



Fortunately, the dinner conversation was fun; and I really loved getting to celebrate a championship with Michael, Tim, and Lucas.  Jenny was happy too because Lance had come along to spend the day – and night – with her; but he felt a bit out of place being the only non-footballer guy there with us.  Rebecca was officially at the game and evening events in her capacity as reporter for the school newsletter and yearbook, so while she had fun with us too; she also needed to take pictures and videos for her ‘job’ too.  She also recorded the entire game plays; but that was entirely so that Jacob and Miranda could watch the game later to see just how great their son played today.  She’s also sharing a room with Emma Norton tonight; so she’s earning some bonus points there with her boyfriend’s sister too.



For the guys, the obvious highlight of the night was getting their Championship trophy, though Coach Robinson received that at the podium on his own while the guys were only asked to stand and accept the congratulations.  Jeff Morris earned the Most Valuable Player honors for our game; thanks to his ten touchdown passes and having more than six hundred passing yards.  I think that he deserves the award, but Michael and Tim deserved more attention than they got too – especially since more than five hundred of those ‘passing’ yards came after the catch – and Michael and Tim split that fairly evenly between them.  A running back with five touchdowns and two hundred and fifty yards on the ground would have made a much bigger impression.  Michael and Tim don’t have to get those yards by running through the defensive line first; but they have their own challenges too.



Moving along, some people in our own group seemed surprised at Jeff’s award, but they shouldn’t have been – he’s quiet; but goes out and gets the job done.  One guy actually seemed to be put-out by Jeff’s selection; and there’s a good chance that Jason Johnson actually believes that he was an equal star today with thirteen points on eleven kicks to go along with the rest of his stellar season.  I haven’t really paid attention to the in-school awards for any sports, let alone for football, and I’m sure he’ll win some this year; but I don’t see how he can argue with the league judges’ pick for the MVP of our game today.  I don’t, and think there’s a case to be made for Michael and Tim sharing the title with Jeff – a fact that he pointed out modestly in his acceptance comments.  Maybe that’s why Jason looked upset – for not being singled out by Jeff too instead of being lumped in with the rest of the ‘team effort’ part of Jeff’s remarks.



There was a social time after the awards were presented, but no dance or major party action.  Going out after that was an option for the older teens, but the rest of us came back to the hotel to either hang out in our rooms or go for a swim in the pool.  Michael and I were with all of our friends for that, and we also had other teens that hadn’t been able to go to the dinner with us too – including Emma and Benjamin Norton, and Sally, and Joshua.  We swam for nearly an hour; and then headed for bed – mostly.



Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I might have gotten mixed up with our room destinations for a little while before getting that straightened out again; but we weren’t the only couples doing that – and there were more than a few senior teen couples who didn’t get into the correct rooms before dawn.  For us, it was enough to have an hour or so of quality, clothing-optional make-out time.  Michael helped me out of my wet swimsuit, and while his dried above the tub in the bathroom, we played on the bed and then he eventually helped me to get dressed again – this time in a night dress that he really wanted to get me out of again about five seconds after I was in it.  We didn’t do that, but we did play right up until it was time for Rowen to get back to our room.  We’d opted for that so that Michael didn’t have to worry about walking into his room and seeing anything he shouldn’t, but Rowen waited an extra five minutes; and I’ll guess that was for the same reason – especially since Tim walked her back to our room.



Did I mention that I was in a night dress by then? A short, fairly sexy one? ;^)



Tim’s open-mouthed reaction had Michael both laughing and pretending to try and hide me from Tim, but while I’m not into public displays of nudity or anything; I just thought it was funny because I had less on when we were swimming in the pool.  Rowen had less on right then – under the wrap she had on over her swimsuit – which had also apparently had time to dry while she was away.  It was obvious from their smiles that they’d had fun too; but I won’t include any details here about that.



I will note that we already knew by then that Jenny did not stay in her room with Tammy Morris tonight.  Lance was on his own for room reservations, so he didn’t have a roommate for them to worry about; and Jenny wasn’t worried about getting caught – despite having several of her mother’s teacher friends in the hotel and semi-supervising.  As I already mentioned, they weren’t the only couple doing that either – just the youngest.  That’s the extent of my comments about that, though; since I’m sure that Michael and I will be members of that group on future trips – even if we’re not ready to go there quite yet despite the fact that we love getting to cuddle together all night.  Our experience with that is, admittedly, limited; but we’ll be happy to work on that as we go along!



Michael and Tim stayed for a chat and drink before Rowen and I took care of the goodnight hugs and kisses with our respective boyfriends; and then Rowen got changed, and we took turns using the bathroom to finish getting ready for bed.  It was time for a nice long girl chat by then; and it’s taken us more than an hour to do that while I’ve been busy with my nightly bedtime computing and Rowen’s been surfing and watching YouTube videos.  I didn’t have a lot of actual family business work to do, but there were a lot of email; and news from home to talk about.



While we’ve been in football mode, we missed the buffet breakfast; an amazing Black Friday shopping adventure that included all of the other girls in my family getting to explore the new second-hand store on top of the other usual stops; and all of the rest of the fun that’s been going on at home.  I haven’t mentioned it yet, but the weather was awesome today too – into the fifties by game time and sunny pretty much all day.  That made for a great play day at home too.  In addition to the shopping, there were big family lunch and dinner meals; play time at the park; and even a small canoe ride adventure.  With quite a few of the guys away for the football game; there wasn’t even much of that going on until after dinner; so the women actually got to relax in the afternoon and watch chick flicks – or just have naps.



Uncle Adam and Uncle Mark didn’t come for the football outing because Aunt Leanne is having the ongoing issues with morning sickness and Aunt Grace is due any day now; so they also helped out with kid control after the shopping.  Uncle Nick stayed home too, but nobody had expected him to go – man-laws are superseded when it comes to things like having newborns in the house – and he’s smart enough not to risk earning the wrath of his wife, their mothers, or any of the other girls in his family.  Give it a year or two, Uncle Nick, and then you and Uncle Adam and Uncle Mark will be wishing that man-laws didn’t rule when you’re taking your toddler sons on trips like this one – and spending five hours in the car with them just to watch football for a few hours.



Finally, on the email front, there were a handful of congratulations email that were more for passing on to Michael and Tim than for Rowen and me; but that was fun too.



It’s time to wrap this up, and not only because Rowen and I need to get some sleep – I want to give her a bedtime birthday gift too – though Michael and I will do our main gift with her in the morning at breakfast.



Or I’ll wrap this up right now because Rowen just saw that last comment as I wrote it and is now very excited about us putting our computers away so we can get to that.



I love you Rowen!



It’s been fun, but I have to go now; so, until next time...



...May the Magi Force be with you!