After a couple of days at home to decompress, we headed back out to celebrate New Year's in Northern Virginia. We started out Monday in Bethesda for lunch with cousin Shara and her family (no pictures taken, though!) and then made it to Herndon late Monday afternoon, where we were excited to give Julia a belated birthday present (she turned 21 on December 11th):
Benji was invited to play at 7 basketball games with the UVA pep band in December/January. He was able to make 4 of them, 3 of which we attended (I'm posting the December ones here so they can make it in the 2024 blog book and will add the January game in the new year posts):
 |
| We sat on the wrong side to see Benji for the first game, but you can make him out if you look to the left of the picture |
 |
| They got a break at halftime and he came to visit |
 |
| Game two we set much closer to him. I loved watching him do all the little UVA basketball rituals (hands up for a UVA free throw) |
 |
| He made it up on the big screen |
We drove back from NY on the 27th and it took most of the day (traffic was as expected after a holiday). We were all relieved to be back in our own space, and it was Abby's first time home since early June!:
 |
| We left Abby's DTU ornament for her to hang when she got home |
 |
| Third night |
On December 26th, Chris and Tom and their families joined us for a big family Christmas dinner and more presents. It was fun to have the cousins all together:
 |
| Hanukkah, night 2 |
 |
| Cozy Christmas morning - we had a slow wake-up |
 |
| Presents! |
 |
| Lighting the first Hanukkah candle |
 |
| Our first present was a family gift, so the kids competed to finish a puzzle first to be the one who got to open the envelope |
 |
| Benji got to do it -- John Oliver tickets! |
 |
| Family photo in our matching Hanukkah PJs |
We thought it might be nice to have an activity for our visit and this turned out to be a lot of fun:
 |
| Abby is disturbingly good at cup stacking. She swears she did not learn it in the sorority house. |
 |
| Benji, trying to be clever with this |
 |
| It did not quite work out |
 |
| Gavin's baseball pitcher skills on full display here |
Benji had made plans to have a game night with his friends Josie and River, so he asked if we would play a game of Power Grid with him so he could practice. Who are we to say no to that?
We got of the wait list for tickets at the last minute and it was an awesome concert:
Benji was selected for the highest youth orchestra in Charlottesville this year and it has been challenging but he enjoys it. The quality of the music is fantastic and we really enjoyed his concert:
 |
| Close up where you can see Benji (right in the middle between the strings) |
