Last year for Rosie’s birthday, she got tickets to a UNC basketball game. If you aren’t from North Carolina, know this: while the NBA and the NFL are awesome, we do not have many professional teams here in the state. We have the Charlotte Hornets (who are never awesome), the Carolina Hurricanes (Uncle Steve loves hockey, but not most people). Baseball? Nothing.
But we DO have this: the ACC was created at Sedgefield country club in the 1950s, about 20 minutes down the road from our house. The ACC is big here- and we love our college sports, namely, what the ACC is traditionally best at: basketball.
So we love college basketball in this area. And I love UNC. And Taylor feels the exact opposite of “love” towards my favorite guys in baby blue. So I thought it was important to take Rosie to a game last year- and we watching UNC play against the Syracuse Orange last year- one of the first ACC games of the season, as a special birthday gift. It was so much fun, we did it again this year- and brought a friend- it was so much fun.
Chapel Hill is about an hour away (if you add parking which was a nightmare, add another 20-30 minutes if you don’t know what you are doing, like me).
This year was a little different though: let’s be honest, the gift wasn’t for Rosie, it was for me. So the gift wasn’t packaged as a “birthday” gift this year. But it was so much fun, we will have to continue.
And of all odds, who was sitting directly in front of Rosie? Taylor’s uncle Ken! His first game in 15 years, and just happened to be right in front of us.
The game itself was awesome. They played the Citadel, and there is a tradition at UNC games: If they score 100 points, you get a free sausage biscuit at Bojangles the next day. Inflation is real everybody, so these days, instead of a free biscuit, you get 2 for $1. And, the scrubs came in with almost 2 minutes left, nailed a few threes, and reached 100 points at the buzzer. It was so much fun. Here is a clip, right after that moment:
Running balls
The same week as the game, we did the “running of the balls” 5k in the neighborhood next to ours.
You may or may not be familiar with the “Christmas Balls”. It was on one of the national news morning shows, maybe the Today show, a few years ago, but the neighborhood next door to us has a tradition of putting these lighted balls up in the massive trees in their neighborhood, and it is something that has become “very Greensboro” over the years.
For about 12 years now, they have also done the “running of the balls” through the neighborhood: a 5-ish k race. What does that mean? It means that the purpose of the race isn’t time, it is fun, and to help those less fortunate during this season.
So we did it this year, with our good friend Anna, who Taylor and I knew back in our Harrisonburg, Virginia years.
Making Balls
When I was a kid, mom would make a bunch of things, and give them to our neighbors. Mostly it was food, though I can’t remember exactly what it was. Sometimes it might have been art-related, or a craft, I can’t exactly recall.
But I do recall that it was terrible, from my 7 year old perspective. The reason it was terrible was because it was often cold, and mom would wait in the car, and make poor, polite me go up and knock on the door of these seemingly random people that I didn’t know, and try and make pleasant conversations with the “little old ladies” all around the country club neighborhood we lived next to.
So of course, I want to do this tradition with my own kids.
This year was the 11th annual making of the (peanut butter) balls.
In the early years, we messed up a lot. My balls were a disaster- melting chocolate, is really challenging. You cannot add water to thin it out. You cannot add oil to thin it out.
Years ago we decided to do peanut butter balls because we thought we had far too many cookies and brownies, and wanted something different. We both liked peanut butter balls, so a tradition was born.
So far, I think it is going well: I wonder if Rosie will have good memories about this when she gets older? Stay tuned.