The McMahon Family

Patrick had his last Solo Ensemble contest. As always, he earned the highest rating and ‘Best of Day’ with his group. They did a great job. The first group was with some of his best friends and the second group was with all the seniors in the band.

Last year, I made a goal of learning to crochet. While shopping for a beginners kit, I saw a giraffe. It did not come in the same brand I was looking at, so I decided to purchase a ‘practice’ kit and planned to purchase the giraffe one later. To encourage my goal, Cheri bought me a kit to practice with, too. I was excited, but never found the right time to start. So the two kits sat in my room for a year. Then when 2026 began, I returned to my goal and decided this was the year!

I started my chick kit and oh my gosh it was a disaster! Crocheting is super hard! I had to restart each step multiple times. I couldn’t get my tension right. My fingers cramped up. I couldn’t see the stitches the guide was talking about. It was a mess! I fumbled my way through and finished the chick.

I swore I wasn’t going to ever crochet again. Shannon heard that and reminded me my original goal was to make a giraffe. I told him I didn’t care, it was not going to happen. He ordered a kit anyway. Ugh. I then remembered the kit that Cheri bought for me, so I figured I better do that one for practice. It was a set of coasters in the shape of toast. Toasters, if you will. 😀

When the giraffe kit arrived, I was still in denial that I had to crochet again, but it was here…so I knew I better get going on it. Just as before, it was so very difficult. I restarted every step multiple times. I sent updates to Shannon as I was going to keep myself motivated and to realize that I was making headway. It just didn’t feel like it! I finally finished it this past weekend due to our two snow days.

With the giraffe finished, I have hung up my crochet needle. I am officially done with crocheting. I am in awe of Mom and Cheri. They make it seem so easy! It is not!

I did learn two things from this journey.
1. All yarn is NOT the same. The first kit had wonderful yarn. The other two had yarn that was thin and constantly splitting and becoming undone and ‘frayed’ with each stitch. Very frustrating.
2. My iPad was too old to run the tutorial videos. (So I had to get a new one! That was a pleasant surprise!)

Luke and Nicki invited Shannon and me to go away for their anniversary for a quick weekend trip to Indy. Those are always so much fun! We had a great dinner and two days with them. The hotel we stayed in used to be a Coca Cola bottling company, so that was really cool to see! Here’s to 28 years!

Shannon and I headed over early and did a little vehicle shopping.

A motorcycle for Shannon

A Bronco for me

A McLaren P1 for Mac

A McLaren P1 for Patrick

Photo Booth Fun!

Photo Booth Fun!

Can I just start with how smart my kids are?! Patrick is on the Constitution team…We the People. They went to the state competition in Chicago and the whole team placed second in the state with his Unit 1 placing first in the state! It was fun to see him in a different setting with his classmates.

After the competition he decided to stay in the city for a couple of days and go to the Bears/Packers game. They had a great time and were kind enough to send pictures of their weekend!

Christmas break has been wonderful. I actually took very few pictures. It was a glorious time though with the boys. Mac actually had an accident on his motorcycle and broke his shoulder, so he came and stayed at our house for a lot of break. We also took a quick family trip to Indy for shopping and hanging out. It was so wonderful having them home, but such a strange new feeling. They both did a great job of spending a lot of time with the family, but I can feel them wanting to pull away to their new, older, independent lives. I know this is how it’s supposed to be. I am raising them to leave and go out and live their own lives…but it’s such a strange feeling. Anyway, here are the few pictures I took!

Checking out his big present!

Stocking stuffers rock!

The Uzzle is a great game!

Patrick won at LRC!

On our shopping trip to Indy, Patrick got his ears pierced and a new coat.

Family dinner at Ruth’s Chris!