Christmas Letter: Take 2

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Christmas Card by Becca

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Some birthdays provide gifts for everyone

The kids are growing up so fast and this week I had to just step back again and admire how God has used trials to grow us all.  It was Carmen's birthday, but we all enjoyed the evening together more like a reunion than a dinner or a birthday.

I picked Carmen up from her dorm on my way home from work and we all enjoyed a great birthday dinner even though Adam was at work and not able to join us until later.

Carmen is a private person and not much into her birthday, but she allowed her mother and her sister to shower her with gifts, stories and pictures.  It was a fun night just to sit back and watch them interact.

I was also impressed with Becca's desire to make this a special evening for everyone else.  For many years, it has been a tradition for me to get the camera out and take pictures of the kids as they grow up.  At each birthday, I think the kids have grown up enough that they don't want a rigid picture by a cake, but we do it anyway.

This year was different, Becca already had the camera out and was excited about getting pictures of her sister's birthday.  She took a lot of great pictures and avoided the rigid picture by the cake.

Carmen got a lot of books and devotionals and a coat and some other stuff to keep her warm going to class, but we were all blessed with her presence.

Laxville Wins First Tournament

Adam tried out for a new Lacrosse team in Louisville that was attempting to collect players from many different schools. The team is called Laxville because of its mission to grow Lacrosse in Louisville.

Evan Wright and Matthew Parker heard about the team and Adam decided he wanted to play too. I was concerned about the time it would take to practice in Louisville, but after all three players made the team, sharing the driving duty has made that not as much of an issue for the parents. It's still a pretty big part of ten days of summer for the boys.

I knew at the tryouts that this would be a special team. The coaches all worked together very well to run excellent drills that kept the boys moving for two hours with virtually no down time. Adam was one of several boys that was leaning on his stick in the heat.

The Lax-n-nati tournament was the first time that I got to see the team play together and it was a beautiful thing to watch. Crisp passes and rapid ball movement change the game completely from what I am accustom to watching.

It was a great tournament. Six games in two days at Clear Creek Park on the East side of Cincinnati. The weather was gorgeous and the competition was great.

They played teams from Georgia, Ohio and Indiana on Saturday and went undefeated. They lost to a great team from Cincinnati on Sunday morning and had to beat a tough well matched team from Franklin, TN in a very close game to earn a rematch for the championship.

I really enjoyed getting to talk with parents from all the the other states and meeting all the parents from Lax-ville. It wasn't until dinner on Saturday that I knew the origin of the team was so recent.

For as much fun and as much development as the team has made in so short of a time, it was no surprise that people were talking about looking for additional tournaments.

Carmen graduates from Tates Creek High School

The ceremony at Rupp Arena was very professionally done and well executed. It seemed so short, much like High School. To watch Carmen parade through one of the lines that received a diploma and a handshake from superintendent Stu Silberman looked more like a synchronized choreography than the graduations that I have witnessed in the past. Did I mention it was short?

In the past few months and years and really my whole career, I have been obsessively focused on objectives that I have set for myself and I have always considered myself very blessed to have a family that is not dependent on my daily direction or re-direction. As this graduation ceremony was executed in a few fleeting moments, I couldn't help comparing it to the four years of high school that went by so quickly.

It seems like just yesterday that Carmen started her freshman year of volleyball and then wrestled with a decision to pursue an aggressive objective of an International Baccalaureate Diploma.

The arena was also roomy. We sat with a group of 11 family members. You can see us at the top of the photograph on the right. Second row: Shirley, Vickie, Buddy, Bud, Becca, Keith. First row: Adam, Peter, Stephanie, Jackie and I.

Matt and Kim were there as well, but we didn't even know it until we saw them afterward. For the 360 or so Tates Creek Graduates and those there to witness it, there was plenty of room and plenty of comfort in an arena built to place 22,000 fans around a game of basketball.

On the right, Carmen's family looks down as her principal approaches the stage and podium. At the bottom, the NCAA Championship banners hang over her, waiting to witness the next four years of her life. I hope those banners know how much they have to look forward to with Carmen. I know that Tates Creek has prepared her well for the next set of four very short years.

Spring Break in Clearwater

We are not usually a family that likes to go back to the same vacation spot twice, but we did this year.

The first few days were cold and windy, but we shopped for sweatshirts and did things inside instead of laying on the beach and burning.

It was a very relaxing weekend because we had seen most of the things on Jackie's lists and we didn't have to be certain places at certain times.

The only scheduled event was para-sailing on a calm and sunny Wednesday afternoon. In the photo to the left, Carmen and Adam are riding in the Superman chute at 600 feet.

The Hilton did a great job of hosting our vacation again and we love the variety of restaurants that are available in Clearwater within walking distance from the hotel.

Dave Pletcher recommended the Thirsty Marlin in Palm Harbor. Jackie and I drove to Tarpon Springs on Monday, but didn't see the restaurant. We were glad we took the icy (ask Becca) drive to Palm Harbor on Wednesday night with the whole family.

We also enjoyed a Thursday evening walk to Jimmy's Fish House for a sunset dinner.

However, being a morning person, I love breakfast and thoroughly enjoyed every one of them in Clearwater.

Whether it was the Hilton continental breakfast with fresh fish, cheese, meats, muffins and fruit or the cafe across the street for a hearty midwestern two egg breakfast, the morning meal is always my favorite to share with family.

Favorite Movies we all watched in 2009

In order to make this list, all five Eby's must have seen this movie during the year it is nominated. There are a few movies that have been nominated by individual Eby's that were disqualified because they were not viewed by all of us.


Here is the list for 2009:

1. Blindside ( Four out of Five Eby's chose this as #1 )
2. Transformers II
   
3. Eagle Eye

As this list gets shorter each year, it is becoming apparent that our tastes are diverging. The kids have seen all the "cool" teen movies and don't want to nominate them to the Eby Favorites.

Examples of divergent tastes:

• Adam and I both saw Star Trek on DVD and we know that it was a great movie with a great story line, but the girls didn't even want to watch it. Braveheart, Gran Torino, Amazing Grace and Sherlock Holmes all fall in this category as well, just not as highly rated as Star Trek
• Carmen liked Hangover, the rest of us have not seen it yet. Carmen has seen many other movies with her friends that she did not nominate
• Jackie and I thought Julie/Julia was in the top 3 but none of the kids were interested in watching it. I let Jackie twist my arm into seeing Have You Heard about the Morgans and I enjoyed listening to her laugh through it.

Coming up with a favorite movie used to be a lot easier when we all went to the movies together. Life was simpler way back then.

New Year, New Colors for Becca

Becca selected three colors from her "Pillowcase of many colors" for the four walls. Jackie and I thought they were a little intense. Adam offered advice on which color to put on which wall and Carmen cleaned Becca's room while the paint was drying.

Later that night, Becca went through all of her stuff and purged whatever was not necessary. When I say purge, I mean the same thing as what Carmen does on a regular basis. When stuff is not actively used, it moves to Mom's bedroom so Mom can deal with it.

My job is simply to paint and tell. It is an enjoyable job. The first color was Celestial Blue and it covered two adjacent walls. The second color was Pink Frenzy which would drive me crazy.

The third color was "Can't Miss Lime" and I would prefer to call it "Three Coat Lime" since it goes on in streaks and spots as if the pigments they used repelled each other.

I also took pictures of the harsh working environment and tight spaces where I had to manuever behind furniture and pre-purged stuff to reach no less than thirty corners of walls, windows and doors.

I decided not to post those since people would accuse me of whining.