Xmas 2025

What a whirlwind Xmas 2025 turned out to be. With just 3 weeks to enjoy the Xmas season and shop, it was hard this year to squeeze everything in and really enjoy it. I like a good 4 weeks between Thanksgiving and Xmas. It gives you ample time to shop and a whole other weekend for parties and fun. 

Merry Xmas Eve

Still, we managed to get all of our shopping done, presents wrapped and attend several holiday parties before December 24th. Plus, we got to enjoy having Austen home for almost all of December, and he won't leave to go back to school until January 18th or 19th. (We may be ready to see him go by then!)

This season, we didn't walk any light shows and had no plans for holiday plays. Hailey asked where the elves were and I told her they didn't follow us to our new home. We knew she no longer believed and was trying to get us to admit that there is no Santa Claus so I told her the truth from a very wise "post" I saw and kept saved. The truth is that we are all Santa Claus. It's the act of giving without expecting anything in return. We all are Santa Claus all year long when we give to charities or when we exhibit a small act of kindness or are a big help to others - all without getting anything out of it. That's believing. That we can all make a difference by doing things and expecting nothing in return. It's the message I want to leave my kids about this season of giving. 

Anyway, Xmas Eve this year was a quiet one since our family celebrations were both on Xmas Day. So we enjoyed a leisurely brunch at our favorite restaurant, Buttermilk. We finished up some last minute food prep for items we were bringing to Xmas Day events and then we got ready to go to church. Came home and had a bunch of appetizers/dinner and watched Home Alone. (The night before we played a variety of games and watched movies). 

Xmas morning, we were up early to open our presents and then head to my brother's house for the opening of our extended family presents at 11am. We were there almost four hours before heading to the city to enjoy some time with Tom's family. We left about 9:30pm and were home by 10pmish. 

So fun to catch up with family including all the older nieces and nephews. Now on to New Year's! 

The Szurgots

G Cousins

Gifts!

More Gifts!

More and More Gifts!

Cheer Competition

Even Hailey came to cheer for her big sister!

Peyton had her first cheer competition of her season last week. She competed as a rec cheerleader in competitions when she was younger but as a high school cheerleader, only the Varsity team was scheduled for competitions until this year. And, while her goal is to make Varsity next year, as a sophomore, she is on the JV cheer team. 

The cheer teams at her high school have not competed in recent years or been required to tumble until just a few years ago. Because they do want to compete, the coaches are now requiring certain tumbling skills to even make the team. 

Peyton has worked hard on her tumbling skills and earned a coveted spot "on mat" - the entire team must try out for these positions as not everyone on the team makes "mat." The routine required her to do a standing back handspring as well as a round off back handspring. Positioned in the front for most the routine, she jumped, she danced and she looked animated in her first competition of the season. And, although their flyer fell (their stunts looked a little rough the first go round), it wasn't because of the bases. You can see the flyer clearly loses her balance after bringing her extended leg in way too fast.

They came in third place out of 10 teams and probably could've gotten at least 2nd had their stunts been a little more polished. So they went back to the drawing board to rework these stunts for their next competition on Friday and Saturday. 

We can't wait to cheer her on! 

Front row, bottom left (JV cheer team)

(Look for Peyton in bottom left corner and then follow her around the mat)

Hailey's Parent Teacher Conferences

Hailey - 6th Grade

By the time your last one reaches 6th grade, you often wonder if you really need to still attend parent-teacher conferences! Or at least I am! Most of the time, my kids are doing pretty well in classes and sometimes I'm even embarrassed that I booked a conference with a teacher to talk about how my kid has an A in a class. However, the reason why I keep signing up for these conferences is that it's nice to put a name with a face and have them know/learn more about my child. 

So I picked four conferences with Hailey's teachers - Advanced Math, Science, Social Studies and Advanced Language Arts. She has As in all of these classes but it was so good to have these conferences because there was a common theme running throughout them in most of my discussions with her teachers and that was that she tended to be more quiet in class especially during discussions. 

I forget that Hailey was a really shy kid when she was little. In fact, her Montessori school took her to be tested because she literally did not talk. Of course, we knew she did talk but she definitely is the quietest of my three. 

Now I had been noticing this the last year or so at the dinner table. Of course the discussions always revolved around Austen's college or his soccer and then Peyton would pipe in to make sure she had some of the attention too. Hailey was just a quiet observer during these discussions, even when we tried to pull her in. I thought it would get better when Austen went to college - no more college or soccer talk but it didn't. Peyton just monopolized the conversation more! 

So now, after these conferences, I'm challenging her to come out of her shell and be an active participant in these family discussions so in turn she's a more active participant in her classroom discussions too. I'll report back in six months to see if she's improved but with Austen home again for the next month or so,  she's really going to have to work at participating in the conversation. 

Thanksgiving 2025

 It was a nice, long Thanksgiving break starting with Austen arriving home a full week before Thanksgiving Day. He kicked off his break by eating a lot at home and at Ruth Lake (where he misses the sushi) as well as seeing many friends including his roommate whom he just saw for three months! It's good to know they aren't sick of each other yet. 

Peyton always ruins the photo

He did spend some quality time with us too at dinner, playing games as a family and watching some movies as well as practicing his golf on our new golf simulator. Surprisingly, he also studied a lot more than I was thinking he would. Now that his room is on the 3rd floor, I don't necessarily go up there all the time but every time I did, he was studying. That's what I like to see as he heads into his first semester finals his freshman year.

Tom worked late the Friday and Saturday/Saturday night before Thanksgiving so I was making sure the girls got where they needed to go for sports/practices and getting everyone fed. Sunday was a grocery shopping day and Monday and Tuesday, Tom headed to work for a bit before coming home 1/2 day on Tuesday to help prep. (Peyton also had school those two days.) I did venture to Hailey's school conferences on Monday (more on that in a follow up post) and got the table ready to host 17 - I'm glad I figured that out early since my Thanksgiving idea only had 16 place settings!

Tom and I then officially kicked off Thanksgiving by heading to our friends' house for a Friendsgiving on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, we did some more prep and the girls and I headed to a movie before Tom and the kids went to another Chicago Blackhawks game (Tom always gets awesome tickets and this time scored a skybox for four). 

Blackhawks game

We enjoyed a nice and relaxed Thanksgiving in our new home with family (who still can't figure out our curvy driveway). On Friday, we canceled our annual tree cutting for Saturday that we've been doing with friends for at least 25 years due to a blizzard forecast. We were all sad to not catch up with our friends and pick out the perfect tree. But we knew the storm was coming so we went to the local Lions Club tree lot where we hoped to pick out a great tree but the tallest they had were about 7-8 feet for $185 and I thought that was too short for our now 12 foot ceilings. So off we went to another tree lot where we found a 10-foot tree that cost us $400!! Now don't get me wrong, it's a beautiful tree but we literally would've pad 1/3 of that price at a tree farm and had much more fun! 

But we accomplished the goal and that was to buy the tree on Friday so when we were snowed in on Saturday, we could decorate the house and the tree and that's exactly what we did. So it all worked out. It was a cozy Saturday and we were all hoping when we woke up on Sunday that the roads would be cleared enough for Austen to head back to school and they were by 5pm when he left. The goodbyes weren't too tough this time since we'll see him in another week as he's done with most of his finals/presentations by December 8th so he'll be home for a good 10 days before taking his car and driving back for his one final (oh the beauty of being 2 hours away!). But we are looking forward to seeing him again soon. 

Grateful this Thanksgiving to know he's thriving at U of I and that our family has adjusted a bit to having him gone. Thankful too for our beautiful new house; cherished friendships with both new and old friends; time spent with our extended families; and of course our good health. Truly blessed. 

Thanksgiving Dinner

Hailey's New Sport

Hailey has been begging me to sign her up for skating lessons since the summer. We had to wait though as she was in cross country and wouldn't be able to make the lessons, and then the next session did not start until November. She even enticed one of her good friends into signing up too. 

She is obsessed with hockey - specifically the Chicago Blackhawks. She does this - she gets fixated on one thing and she is relentless in learning more about it and in this case - the team, hockey in general and learning how to skate. It's been a good 8-9 months where she's gone from just liking hockey to being all about it. It must have something to do with Connor Bedard. The season just started six weeks ago and she's already been to three games. But, let's see how long this obsession lasts. 

So each Friday at 5:15pm she goes to lessons and is on skating lesson #3 and making progress each week too. At her last class, she was definitely going faster and turning more so she fell four times but she absolutely loves it and never wants to miss a class. 

She may be the only one of my three kids who learns how to ice skate! I may have someone to skate with now! I actually used to own skates when I was a little younger than her. We had a pond behind one of the houses I grew up in so we'd go out to the pond and skate when time allowed. We didn't have lessons. We just figured it out. But I remember always knowing how to ice skate as well as roller skate. 

If she passes this level, she'll advance to level 2. And, of course she's already asked if she can sign up for that class. Her end goal is to get on the ice with a stick and puck! 

Debbie

We moved into our new house almost three months ago. It's less than a mile down the road from where we used to live. A few days after we moved in, a neighbor came over to introduce herself. She said she was moving to Atlanta soon and wanted to know if we wanted to buy her trampoline. I politely declined saying I don't let my kids on trampolines (too many people I know have had horrific accidents on them). She was bit off. Tom and I closed the door and agreed she was weird. 

Three days later, she came back at night. I was gone and Tom was home with the girls. She wanted ice and for him to pop popcorn for her since her power wasn't working. She proceeded to ask him for wine and parked herself at our island. Finally, he said Hailey was sick upstairs and he had to go. I told him and the girls we were not answering the door if she came back. Two days later, she did. Just after the girls and I had pulled into the garage. We did not answer the door and the girls and I hid in the back of the house. She left. Then the police came. 

Our neighbor was filming her on my porch and called the police. Apparently, this woman (Debbie, 60 year old female) was being evicted from her rental home a block over and had no power so the neighbors had been calling police and keeping tabs on her. Welcome to the neighborhood! Debbie had plugged her phone into our front porch to charge. The cop unplugged it and asked me if I wanted to join 16 of our neighbors who had no trespassing orders against her. I did even though other neighbors had her entering their homes through unlocked doors and making themselves at home in their kitchens. 

Still the no trespass order didn't deter her. Tom and I went out one Friday night for dinner. The girls were at home together when Debbie came back - knocking on our door/ringing the doorbell. Peyton immediately called 911 and did not answer the door. Debbie left and the cops came. Peyton handled it all very well. Spoke the cops. Put me on the phone with them. We turned in our ring camera footage. Then we all waited for the next week when she was evicted and all her stuff was put out on the front lawn.

That was certainly a crazy day too because they found an assault rifle she had stolen from one of our neighbors in her house! We were all glad to be rid of her and not have her roaming the neighborhood anymore. A few weeks ago we received a notice of trial in the mail for her and recently an actual subpoena for Peyton to have to testify against her in court in December. Crazy! We're trying to get her out of it but she may have to miss school and testify. 

It's been an interesting introduction to our new neighborhood (and how we met all our neighbors). We recently learned that Debbie had moved onto Elmhurst and is wreaking havoc in their town. She has been repeatedly offered mental health services which she declines and continues to make a nuisance of herself to neighbors and continues her petty thefts. 

Honestly, I'm just glad she's moved on to a different neighborhood! Let's see what happens if Peyton has to serve as a witness against her. Welcome to the neighborhood!

https://patch.com/illinois/hinsdale/hinsdale-woman-gun-charge-released

Celebrating 52!

Celebrating 52!

Tom and I both had birthdays in early November. I kicked off my 52nd year with an early morning paddle scrimmage. Then I came home to go to brunch with Tom and the girls at my favorite Brunch place - Buttermilk! I love that place! Back home for some presents (Peyton and Hailey helped Tom shop). Got to talk to Austen for a bit and then it was off to play my second paddle scrimmage of the day and then head straight to a Sound Healing class through my Barre studio with some friends. That was definitely an experience - a whole hour of relaxation - great to experience it but a whole hour of relaxation unless I'm getting a massage was a bit much. Then home for dinner and a coconut cake for my candle and birthday wish. It was the perfect way to celebrate my bday - a little time with family, a little time with friends and doing things I love. Great way to kick off an other trip around the sun. 

The next week, we celebrated Tom's birthday. We were up early because Hailey had a basketball tournament. Hit the Starbucks then the Dunkin Donuts (for munchkins after Hailey's game). Then home to watch the Bears game (Tom). Took Hailey to her confirmation retreat while Tom hung out and did some work around the house and talked to family and got a call from Austen. Peyton and I went to the grocery store and shopping then took Tom to an early dinner at Piccolo Buco (a place he wanted to go to). He got a birthday candle in a cake there and then he came home to presents before heading to paddle practice to round out the evening. 

Great ways to celebrate! Here's to another year of aging well!

52!