Tennis Star in the Making?

Dominic and tennis go way back:

Watching the U.S. Open  on Sept 11, 2010

You might say it was his first pastime.

So anyway, he has mentioned tennis off and on over the last few years and even used to answer "women's tennis" when we asked him what sport he wanted to play when he was older.  I'm not sure where he got that idea!  He's definitely old enough for organized activities now and before Christmas I asked if he'd like to take tennis lessons.   He found that question a little odd, and told me he already knows how to play: you hit the ball and the other person hits it back.  I told him a coach could show him how to hit the ball properly, to which he replied "Mama, you just whack it."

Cute story aside, I found some youth lessons and signed him up in early January.  The first lesson was one-on-one for 45 minutes and I was very impressed he was attentive and did not get frustrated.

Wait for it....

Whack!

They even have some cute child-sized courts.

Here he is playing with the family over at the high school near our house:

Can you see a hint of Christy's presence? More of our balls kept disappearing into the trunk of her car!

 

And on MLK Day he got to do a group lesson with 7-year old triplets.  We're doing another tomorrow afternoon.  It's really nice that we only have to coordinate schedules with one other family despite it being a group of four.  Especially with all the rain and nasty weather lately. 

The coach's pose reminds me of elementary school PE class, shudder.

They are running relays, by the way.

So that's that.  He seems to like it so far and looks forward to playing.  Maybe we'll stick with this for awhile if things continue to go well.  He's already trash talking his Tio Tony about beating him at a game.  

Christmas 2014

We spent Christmas at home with Ita and Tio Tony.  On Christmas Eve, we were also joined by Knox, Yvette, Sylvia, and Gil for a gluttonous feast of prime rib roast, scalloped potatoes, cole slaw, tamales, soup, salad, and a few other things I'm forgetting.  Christmas Day, and the following week for that matter, were spent relaxing at home and doing very little.  It was totally awesome and I can't wait to do it again next year.  So all of you out-of-state family reading this should consider a trip to Texas at the end of 2015.  We'd love to have you!

Christmas Eve

Yvette helping Christy eat a cupcake. I'm not sure they made it past the tall whipped cream frosting.

Our new 8-seater table and chairs were delivered about 10 days too late for this party.

I happened to catch Knox getting Christy out of her high chair - haha.

  Christmas Morning

The contents of Dominic's stocking at about 5:30am.  I told him the night before that he didn't have to wait for his clock to turn green, but he couldn't get up TOO early either.  He came to our room around 5:15 and I got up with him.

The storm trooper pez was a big hit.

Christy woke up after 7am as usual.

She was happy to join in on the childhood Christmas tradition of overindulging in candy before breakfast.

This is how the tree looked toward the beginning of gift-opening, which started after 9am.

As much as she was on this princess car that week, you'd think it was a new gift. It was from Migs and Emmy in 2013 and she still loves it!

 

Christy is in a major book phase.  This one from Tio Tony has knock-knock jokes and she loves it.

A friendly dispute over Dominic's new sleeping bag.

Dominic playing with Christy's puzzle.

Christy playing with Dominic's action figures.

Marcos went to the garage to get something and discovered Santa left something out there!

 

I forget what they were watching, but it looks pretty intense.

To those we did not see this year, I hope you had a wonderful Christmas.  Happy 2015!