December 2025

BT XC Awards ceremony

Nicholas was awarded the Academic Award which mean she has the highest GPA of the entire varsity boys XC team.  Coach Johnson also had a very nice speech, noting not only does Nicholas have excellent grades, but he does it with a very difficult course load (AP chemistry, AP English Lang, AP US History, Honors Latin 3, Religion, and AP Pre-Calculus).  He also made note of what a great XC season Nicholas had, earning some big PR's.  And finally,  he noted what a great teammate he is,  as well as an active volunteer in his parish. It was a great honor - well deserved by Nicholas!  As his parents, we couldn't be more proud of him!

The deer are now eating from my bird feeder!

In mid December Grace swam in her biggest swim meet of her life so far - she made the cut for Winter Junior Nationals, held in Indianapolis this year.  The top swimmers under age 19 come from the eastern half of the US to compete (western half goes to CA).  Grace swam in 4 individual events (200, 500, 1000 and 1650 freestyle) and 2 relay events.  She had PR's in 2 of her events (500 and 1650) with the mile being the highlight of the week - she cut 32 seconds off her best time to place 19th in the nation!!! she stayed real close to her PR in the other 2 events.  The meet as a whole was a great first experience on the big stage - with blue mats, college coaches, Olympic style awards ceremonies, etc.  She kept her cool and swam great.  Most importantly she had a lot of fun!

Henry also had a very big race, The USATF National XC Meet, the same weekend in December, and also near Indianapolis!  Unfortunately, the weather was incredibly brutal and not at all ideal for a cross country race.  The temperature was in the mid 20's, with windchill in the teens, with about 3 inches of fresh snow on the ground when they started running, with snow actively falling heavily while they were running.  It was not a race to get your best time, but Henry still did very well.  With 400 13-14 boys all staring at once, he got kicked and spiked several times at the start, so it put him behind from the beginning, and it was just too hard to pass hundreds of running with the slick snow.  So even though he ran really fast, he didn't have quite the race he was hoping for.  But more important that that, he proved he can be tough and go for it, even when conditions are very difficult.  We are so very proud of him for his determination and strong effort in a great race!  It was definitely a race to go down in the memory books!!

"Warming up"

The start line

Burgers at the end....

While Grace, Henry, Shawn and I were away in Indiana, Nicholas and Sam stayed home together for the weekend.  This is what they built for us in the living room when we got back!!!

 

They helped share the Peace Light with our parish again this year.

Samuel and his "lunch table friends" organized a Secret Santa amongst themselves this year.  They got together at Chase's house to reveal and share their gifts.  They had a great time together!

Grace had a lot of fun swimming in the Regional High School Meet for BT.  She swam against her friend from NCL, Charolotte, who goes to Cambridge HS - they went 1-2 in the 200 free!

BT came home winners!!!!

Grace set a new school record at that meet too!

And also set a region record in the 200 free

After the regional meet at Westminster, we enjoyed a family sushi dinner at Oriental Express - celebrating a great swim, cross country and baseball season in addition to a good fall school semester.

Henry was craving steak and asked if he could make dinner for us!  He made some amazing ribeyes for us on the stove!!!

Christmas break is no break for swimmers, these girls swim twice a day, almost every day over the school break and don't even take a break on Sundays!