Christmas on the island once again! This year, We’re doing things a little differently than usual. For Christmas Eve, we spent the day with Player Development Program. Coach Tom and Lisa planned a reunion home run derby for former players and a cookout for everyone. Ben brought his batting arms and I brought my (less terrible than last time but still not awesome) pasta salad, and we celebrated the Christmas holiday with plenty of fun and good food!

The home run derby guys, except for Ben, were all former players of Coach Tom’s. Some are professional players now, and others are on their way there.

Way out in the outfield, the boys on our Little League team had fun wrestling each other and running after balls. They were absolutely ecstatic whenever one of them caught a pop fly!

It’s not every day you get to hit homers while a pro pitches. Here’s Ben hitting with Denzel Richardson pitching. Ben’s never played baseball with actual baseballs before, but it turns out that he’s a natural. He hit a bunch way out into the outfield!

After Coach Tom and I read a few books to the kids, Lisa made the food, and the guys did their home run derby, it was time to eat. Kito was especially thrilled about this part of the day. She sat and guarded the hot dogs while they were on the grill, and performed every trick she knows to get some for herself during lunch! After all the food and running around, she was absolutely pooped. I’ve never seen her so sleepy and well-behaved.

This is the first time I’ve spent a Christmas away from family, which is hard. I’m thankful that we have good friends to spend the holidays with to sweeten the homesickness. It was a wonderful Christmas Eve on the island!