Basketball, birthdays, and business

What has kept us busy and away from blog posts this month?  Aside from the normal keeping-up-with-five-children routine and the various activities the holidays bring, we've had a lot to do!

Kyle and Grant finished out another great season of basketball.  They were on the same team and really enjoyed playing this year.  As always, they were quite entertaining to watch, and I'm always amazed at the improvement in their abilities from year to year.

Kyle improved significantly with his ball-handling skills and his confidence with the ball.  Grant showed some great competitiveness during the games.  I think he enjoyed challenging his opponents more than he liked scoring points.  He would dribble the ball down the court, stop, and wait for his opponent to defend him before dodging strategically around him and heading to the hoop.  He scored quite a bit and even threw in a dribble under his leg a time or two.  If you know Grant, you know it's all about the show.

Later in the month, Jason surprised me for my birthday by taking me out on the town.  We headed to downtown Portland and to The Old Church where my favorite local pianist (Michael Allen Harrison) was performing his Christmas concert.  It was AWESOME!  And what a husband to even notice I like this pianist, especially when piano music isn't his forte.

We stayed at the Vintage Plaza Hotel that night, which was very nice.  It had a bathtub the size of a small pond, of which I promptly took advantage.  It was a lovely time together before the holiday bustle settled in for good.

As if we didn't have enough to do this month, Jason and I also spent a day together at a business conference in Portland.  It was such exciting material I had to start tallying how many times the presenter said a certain phrase in his presentation that was driving me crazy.  From the time I started counting to the end of the day he had repeated it 17 times.  Unfortunately, I didn't tally the first hour and a half of the seminar when he said it the most, which was what prompted me to start keeping track in the first place.

I also began to wax poetic a couple of hours into the conference.  It was purely a protective instinct to preserve my sanity, I'm certain.  Here is a sampling of my collection:

Faces glazed over
Ears filled with rambling words
Seminar.

Words spilling out
Information overload
Verbose.

Financial market analysts
Brain cells squandered
Faithless.

Continuous blathering
Silence is relief
Help.

It has certainly been an event-filled month for us, with much more excitement to come with the holidays approaching.  Happy December!