The kids get home a little later each week, it seems. Yesterday it was nearly ten after 4 when they walked in the door from the bus and walking up the hill.

But I was ready for them, and Sage and I made a batch of cookies and finally found the cookie cutters. The recipe was a very tasty dough, but as is usually the case, I am not real excited about the cooked cookies. I really wish cookies could just stay doughy! They are the most beautiful color, though, because our eggs are so orangey yellow! We set the dough to chill, and ate dinner, then headed off to Aidan's first basketball practice.

Aidan did well, not fooling around too much, and really putting his best into it. The coach said something like "The best 5 players will be who are on the court the last 3 minutes of every game, and you want to be in that group." Now, I would never say something like that. Especially on a team of about 9 kids. But then he said, "It takes hard work and lots of practice to be in the best 5. You can't fool around at practice and be in that group."

So Aidan worked really hard (don't worry, I brought the inhaler for pneumonia-lungs-boy). And he blocked the kid he was guarding, always staying in front. He played excellent defense! And he even got a few shots off. During drills, he did them with precision and skill, and a lot of hard work. I was really impressed.

Sage is excited to start basketball. We couldn't get her on the 2nd grade team because they only meet on Saturdays. But she will be a "manager" for the 3rd and 4th grade girls, practice and scrimmage with them, and maybe get a few minutes here and there to play in a real game, but probably not many. She said she was ok with that, she just wanted to practice and be ready for next year.

Basketball went well, and we got home, and cut out cookies, decorated them, and baked them. Everyone got a cookie before bed, and some to take for snack today. Today Nadia and I will cut out the rest, then bake and cool them, so after school we can frost them. We also have comic book club today.

I start tutoring a 7 year old this Thursday night, and it looks like I will have 2 kids here to care for in January if all works out.

We miss you all, and hope everyone is well... the snow fell all morning, and yet it is supposed to start raining this afternoon. Yuck... but I guess the snow will be back by the weekend.