Hanukkah came late this year and as a result the bears ended up traveling with us to Florida to enjoy our winter vacation.

The First Night
The first night of Hanukkah was December 25th, and the bears started the day sunning themselves in the pool and playing with water guns.

The Second Night
On December 26th, the bears snuck out to the garage to drive my mother’s (Winnie’s) car.

The Third Night
On December 27th, the bears partied with all of Winnie’s other dolls.

The Fourth Night
On December 28th, the bears set up a hammock and swung on the patio.

The Fifth Night
On December 29th, the bears stole our pickleball rackets and played a game of their own. The day before, Ben fell over on the pickleball court and one of these bears is mocking him.

The Sixth Night
On December 30th, the bears were very excited for Adam, who closed three deals in one day! They “cheekily” helped him celebrate by dressing up like the girls in the poster in Winnie’s office.

The Seventh Night
On December 31st, the bears rung in the new year by banging Winnie’s gong.

The Eighth Night
On January 1st, the bears were super excited about traveling to Disney with us that evening.

Til next year, bears!

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We spend this year’s holiday in Florida where I once again spent most of my time kicking myself and wondering why I ever decided to leave this paradise.

Sometimes I wonder if I had all the activities and responsibilities I have in Chicago in Florida, would I still love it as much?

I don’t know. What I do know is that many of the friends and family I have here in Florida are not in Chicago. This to me is the best part of spending time in Florida.

I was lucky to spend so much time with friends and family!

On Christmas night, which was also the first night of Hanukkah, we had a bunch of Devenskys over for a Hanukkah celebration. My cousin Alexa called it “Jewmas”. And so it was christened, if Hanukkah and Christmas ever coincide again….

We had a feast that night! A Latke bar, deviled eggs from my Uncle David, Brisket, Chicken, Kugel from Nancy, a huge salad, Matzo Ball Soup, Challah and for dessert, my father’s famous Rugalug.

Not only was a lucky to see this family, but I also got to spend a wonderful afternoon with my Auntie Doris.

Dad let us crash his friend’s party and we had a blast there together!

In addition to family, I got plenty of quality time with my girlfriends.

My girlfriend Laura made the 3 hour trek from Orlando to come see me for a night.

One day Laura and I went to the mall, the huge mall FILLED with clothes and bought the same exact dress. She went there looking for Vuori clothing but didn’t get any but I did! it was a weird shopping trip! But fun, always fun to spend time with Laura!

Even Ben got to see his friends from Chicago who also spend time in South Florida for the winter!

We also managed to spend lots of time together as a family.

One day we went to Wakodahatchee to see all the different wildlife. We even spotted 2 alligators!

Adam took the boys golfing twice at two different locations.

Also lots more sports! Basketball, Pickleball, Volleyball and many family runs.

These runs were in preparation for a family 5K run we did in Fort Lauderdale on New Year’s Day.

The boys also decided to use some of their Hanukkah money for to buy water guns. They revealed them in Florida and had a massive water gun fight. Many massive water gun fights….

But that’s not all! I know it’s hard to believe we did more, but we did! My friend Laura’s husband works for Disney and gave us Friends and Family tickets so we also GOT TO GO TO DISNEY over this holiday!!!!!!

We managed to do 10 different rides (all without fast passes), park hop to 3 different theme parks, and eat a sit down dinner at Epcot all in one day. Our step counters all read 30,000 steps.

All this activity was accompanied by copious amounts of food too! We ate our way through Florida. Dandee Donuts for breakfast, Havana 1957 for Cuban Sandwiches, Golden Krust for Jamaican food, Max’s Grill for Pop Rock Sushi, Luff’s Fish House for all things seafood, Alaskan King Crab from Pop’s, Acai bowls and Charcuterie at the Waldorf Astoria, and lots of ice cream!

Another great Florida visit. We will miss you, Florida! From our family to yours, wishing everyone reading this a Happy New Year!

But wait, what about the Hanukkah Bears? Don’t worry, they came to Florida too. Stay tuned for the next blog to hear all about the bears adventures this year.

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About a year ago we signed the kids up for their first ever running race, the 8K Turkey Trot.

Adam and I used to do these races before we had kids and it’s great that they are finally at an age where they can join us. Or should I say they didn’t join us but beat us?

We paired off like Noah’s Ark for this race, Jack running with Ben, Sam running with Aaron, and Adam running with me.

Jack and Ben were fairly competitive until one of the last water stops. When Ben finished his drink he looked up to find Jack gone. Or should I say they were not fairly competitive but very competitive?

Turns out the twins did the same thing to each other, Aaron taking longer at another water stop then sneakily running past us when we weren’t looking.

In the end the Jack finished first in 45:52, Aaron finished second in 50:46, Ben finished third with Sam in 52:05, then Nikki in 52:11 and Adam in 53:30. Poor Adam didn’t get to train like the rest of us due to that pesky job he has!

The kids were so excited about this race that we immediately signed up for another one – the Shamrock Shuffle 8K in March of this year.

Jack was hurt for this race so he was not able to participate. The five of us finished as in this order – Ben 44:37, Aaron 46:34, Adam 51:53, Sam 52:51, and Nikki 53:22.

Ben had been running all summer on his own and the effort paid off!

This running trend continued over the summer. I would drag the twins and sometimes Jack but Ben would go out on his own, sometimes running up to 10 miles on his own. He was hooked.

We signed up for another race in August, upping the mileage. The Dim Sum 10K.

This time the kids all smoked us, but Ben’s training showed the most. Remember this is a 10K, not an 8K like the previous two races – results – Ben 53:21, Jack 55:36, Aaron 1:02:02, Sam 1:02:32, Nikki 1:08:30, and Adam 1:10:40.

It was a superhot day and I was so impressed with how well the kids did. It was also a smaller race then the first two. As a result two of our kids metalled in the race! Ben was 3rd in his age group (Jack was 4th) and Aaron was 3rd in his age group (Sam was 4th).

Finally we decided to sign Ben up for a running club. We heard about one from a friend whose daughter is a member. The nice thing about running is that you can compete without a school affiliation at any age. Since Ben’s school is smaller, organized sports is not one of the things they offer.

After three months of training with his new running club, Ben competed in his first race.

It was a tough one. He went out too fast and got a headache, then was confused about the race course. In the end he finished last place. However, since there were only 11 people in the race and the first 15 get to move onto Regionals, he was selected to compete again the following week. The race was a 5K. He finished with a time of 27:18.

I was super worried that he wouldn’t want to run again after this set back, but we did a lot of perspective taking, looking at this race from every angle. He placed 3rd for his age group in the Dim Sum 10K, so clearly he was running among elite athletes for this race. By the end of the talk Ben was joking about looking forward to finishing last again next week.

The next week he ran the same course. He was much less anxious, since now he knew the course he needed to run. He also practiced hard all week. One night it was snowing so he skipped his normal run club practice and Adam took him and Jack to the gym. Adam had Jack pace him so he could understand exactly the level of effort he would need.

At Regionals he ran again with basically the same 11 people as the first race. This time he had a much better race. It was the same 5K course. He finished with a time of 24:46. AND he didn’t finish last!

This small race meant that once again everyone qualified for the next race, which was Nationals. They switch the destination for Nationals every year but luckily this year it was only a 4 hour drive from us, in Shelbyville, IN.

The Nationals race included everyone in the country so the start line was crowded with over 100 runners. We were worried that Ben would once again get confused and lost on the course but with all the runners we were hopeful he would have someone to follow. He did veer off for a few seconds and we managed to right him back on track. Even with this small mess up, he still managed to get a new personal best. He finished the race with a time of 24:15.

It was a really cool experience and I hope Ben continues to enjoy it and decides to sign up again next year.

In the meantime, I have signed the family up for another fun run in January…

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My the numbers keep climbing! As scary as it can be to see my face slowly sagging and grey hairs starting to sprout, it’s better than the alternative (as my sister always says!).

We started the morning with the usual birthday donuts and gifts.

I was spoiled rotten this year.

Adam gave me large sum of cash, a gift card to the Intercontinental spa that can be used many times, foot massage gift cards, and a gift card to my favorite running store. Adam’s mother also sent me very thoughtful card with a check. It is amazing how she always remembers to send these cards so that they arrive before our actual birthdays. At 85 she still keeps this up meticulously for our entire family! She has always done this, even before smartphones! My sister spoiled me with new clothes (both high end stuff and fun stuff) and a warm snuggly throw blanket that the twins immediately stole. My father gave me a huge gift card to Lululemon (my weekday uniform).

On my birthday I cashed in my half day at the Peninsula Spa gift that Adam gave me for Mother’s Day.

I got there early and used the gym then spent the afternoon getting massaged like Kobe Beef.

While I was doing this Adam picked up the twins and got them new indoor soccer cleats and made it back home in time to take us all out for my birthday dinner.

The next day we booked a show for my birthday, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. I told the kids they could go or not go but they couldn’t complain about sitting there for 3 hours. Turns out they liked the show. Seriously what’s not to like? They all read Harry Potter and the show was really clever, filled with magic and cool special effects.

Or maybe they just like it because Adam bought them chocolate wands during intermission?

It was another wonderful birthday, only made possible by the incredible family I am so lucky to have around me. Thank you all so much!!!!

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Another event on Jack’s list of ‘lasts’, the last year he will have his buddies over on Halloween night, a tradition that has been going on for over 10 years. I don’t even have a photograph of this because it’s a bit awkward to go downstairs and ask a bunch of high schoolers to pose for pictures for you. So you’ll just have to imagine your own mental image of 5 kids who have known each other forever sitting around gaming, chatting and eating.

Ben did not trick or treat this year but did have his buddy over to hang out.

The twins also had a ton of people come over. Adam walked them around the neighborhood and got them all LOTS of candy.

We were late organizing costumes for the twins this year so a lot of the costumes were not available. As an alternative I found these masks that they could use if they didn’t find any other costume they liked…play video below to see how he masks work…

After we found them Aaron stopped looking for a more traditional costume. But Sam keep going, eventually he found this wacky Fortnite character named Guff. Here is a video of him doing the Gangnam Style Fortnite Emote.

After trick or treating and dinner, the younger kids took over the top level, doing the same thing the older kids were doing on the bottom level of the house, gaming, talking, and eating.

Another Halloween under the books! It’s been about 2 and 1/2 weeks and Aaron’s candy is pretty much all gone but Sam still has most of his. Typical.

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Last week we went to Jack’s End of Season Banquet for his high school soccer team.

As Jack is a senior, this will be his last year playing competitive soccer. It was bittersweet to see something that he has spend over 10 years doing come to an end.

He had a good 10 years, including many years with Adam as his coach.

After COVID ended Jack started high school soccer.

His Freshman year he played for the Fresh/Soph team under Coach Matt Dunaway. Unfortunately he pulled his hip flexor this year and spent most of the season on the side line.

When we got to the high school level, we realized Jack had to do more to get to the higher level teams, so that year we signed him up for travel soccer.

The next year, he was able to successfully move up to JV with Coach Matt Levine.

They had a great year! They even won the Under Armor Tournament. And Jack got an award, for Most Improved Player of the Year.

Around this time I saw an email asking if anyone would like to take over the emails and website for the high school soccer booster program. I volunteered for the position and started to work with the program.

Once the coaches got to know me they would chat with me after practices and games. I told the Fresh/Soph coach that my husband did some coaching then proceeded to tell him the story where my husband won soccer fest by finding a way to use the worst player of the team to their advantage against the best player on the opponents team.

The next day when Adam and I went to pick up Jack from practice, all the coaches descended on our car and asked if Adam would like to help coach.

Jack had a great year in 2023. He recieved another award this year, this time for Defensive Player of the Year.

His final year, he played for JV. He was awarded the Captain position. However, on the last practice before the season started, he broke his nose. He had to have surgery and stay on the sidelines until it healed.

Once he was able to play again, he still had to wear a protective mask.

Finally in the last month of the season, he was able to play mask free.

Once again Jack received an award in his final year, this year it was for Leadership.

In addition to the banners shown above on Senior Night, the booster program also gave out hoodies to all the Seniors.

Jack has already expressed an interest in playing soccer off season with his travel team. And maybe he will join an intramural team when he gets to college? So it may not be totally over for him as far as enjoying the sport, but the competitive nature, where you are hand picked because of your level of expertise, is over now.

Maybe he’s not even sad? When I was in high school I never thought about the fact that my senior year was a long series of last moments. I was too busy looking forward to the future – college!

And we are in the thick of college now. Jack has completed all his applications and is waiting to hear back from most of colleges that he applied to. Stay tuned for an update on this, hopefully soon!

I guess the real question is, will Adam still coach?!

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Ben turned Fifteen Yesterday! I can’t believe I just typed that sentence!

It’s been an incredible year for Ben. He’s really matured and settled life nicely. This year he’s focused on getting good grades, making friend and improving in soccer so he can play on a team in the Spring. It’s so incredibly normal that I can’t believe I just typed that sentence!

This year he’s gained a bit of independence. He can now go running on his own and not get lost. He’s still occasionally drawing and posting on his youtube channel, Benmakesart777.

Yesterday we woke up and did the normal birthday donut and egg sandwich breakfast. Then, because Ben’s school runs 11 months a year, he boarded the bus armed with cupcakes to share with his classmates.

In the afternoon we booked a soccer session. Jack joined Ben even though he already had a 2 and 1/2 hour soccer training session that morning with his high school.

Like the Messi Jersey? Last weekend the twins and Jack went with Adam to get new soccer cleats. They all bought Messi Jerseys for themselves as well. When they got home, they realized they didn’t get one for Ben. Jack felt particularly bad about it. When I asked Jack to sign the birthday card for Ben, he pulled me into his room and said, “Wrap this too.”

Jack handed me his brand new, expensive pink Messi Jersey to give to Ben for his birthday. It was such a thoughtful thing to do! I was so proud of Jack in that moment.

After soccer it was time for our usual birthday dinner.

Normally Adam over orders and we have leftover for days. After all that working out, there was only 5 pieces of sushi left and one serving of Beef Chow Fun. Jack actually said he was still hungry! But we soon fixed that with the birthday pie.

Ben picked a Chocolate Cream Pie from Sweet Mandy Bs. As with everything from that place, it was delicious!

Ben also spent some time on Ebay buying presents for his birthday, coins, pokemon, and comic books.

Happy Birthday Ben!

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Overloaded schedules and poor planning worked in the twins favor this year. We ended up booking their birthday party a month after they turned twelve. The benefit of this? It’s now officially summer! And summer opens up a lot more possibilities of places to have your party.

This year we booked the celebration at a floating waterpark in nearby Whiting, IN called WhoaZone.

We had the group meet at our house for pizza and messy revelry in our basement. Once we were all assembled and fed, we marched them into the 15 seater sprinter van we rented for the occasion.

When we arrived we had some time to splash around at the beach before kitting up in our floating vests.

We booked 2 hours of fun on the floating waterpark and the kids didn’t stop playing the entire time.

After we tired this crew out, we headed back to our house for cake. Post COVID, we now sing to the cake without candles. No one wants accidental spittle on their slice of cake.

Later the twins opened their presents (I was at the Kite Runner Show with my friend Nicole so no photo for this!).

Happy Birthday Twins!!!

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It all started with an invite to a Bat Mitzvah in Salt Lake City.

From there Adam planned an elaborate 56 hour road trip. Of course he did! It’s Adam!

First we stopped in Boulder for a college tour. We have many friends in Boulder and we were lucky to see them after the tour.

The next day we headed to Salt Lake City.

We took the boys for a hike called Adam’s Canyon Waterfall Trail. It was a considered a hard hike on Alltrails – 3.5miles out and back with an elevation gain of 1,430. There were some parts where we were full on bouldering, not hiking. Also we tried to keep our feet wet but when we finally got to the top we realized not wetting our feet was impossible!

That night we went to the Bat Mitzvah. My friend Heather hosted a beautiful ceremony in the backyard, conducted by another dear friend, Jessica. Jessica also married Adam and I.

After the ceremony we were treated to crepes, fancy themed drinks, a DJ and lots of dancing!

After the Bat Mitzvah we headed to Sun Valley for hiking and white water river rafting. Our first hike was Norton Lakes, in Ketchum, ID. It was a 4.6 mile out and back hike with an elevation gain of 1,476 ft.

There were lots of obstacles to climb, including naviating in the snow!

This hike boasted two lakes. When we were walking we past two ponds that we couldn’t figure out if they were lakes or not. In the end we thought the first lake was the final one. Only because the kids were curious about the waterfall did we end up following it up to the second lake, which was even more spectacular than the first!

Adam was worried after this hike that we blew the trip by doing such a fantastic hike on the first day. What more could we show the kids that would be more spectacular than this?

The next day we hiked Adam’s Gulch. It was a 6.1 mile loop trail with an elevation gain of 780 ft. We saw beautiful vistas, overlooking the town of Ketchum as well as seeing the snow capped Pioneer Mountains and the Sun Valley Ski Resort at Bald Mountain.

The next day we switched it up a bit and did some White Water River Rafting with White Cloud Rafting Adventures.

Our guide, Sam was very cool. He let the twins sit on the front of the boat and crashed them into waves. He also accommodated Ben’s interest in the wildlife, pointing out Eagle’s nests and other points of interest.

On our final day, we went big, Sawtooth Lake. A 9.6 mile out and back hike with an elevation gain of 1,817 ft. This hike was definitely our most challenging of the trip but the kids were ready! They did an incredible job getting to the top and were rewarded with an even more spectacular lake than Norton Lake. It was massive!

After a granola bar stop the kids went and explored the rest of the lake. We were so high up that most of the surrounding area was covered in snow! This video shows how the kids handled that….

When Adam first suggested hiking in Idaho I had my doubts, but this area of America has pristine, untouched beauty that was just breathtaking. Who knew the potato state was this pretty?!

After Sun Valley, we started our long trek back. But we stopped a lot on the way! First at Devil’s Tower in Wyoming.

Next we stopped at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.

Finally, we landed in the Badlands, SD. We spent two nights here, hiking one day. We got very lucky on our hiking day. The day before was 94 degrees. That night a wind storm came in, rattling the cabins we rented with 40-65 mile an hour winds. I had never felt anything like it. It made embarrassed that we called ourselves the Windy City when clearly there were much more windy places!

We celebrated Father’s Day in the Badlands. Adam opened his gifts which I lugged around to all the aforementioned stops.

Our final stop was by Madison WI for one more college tour for Jack. Now we are back in town, ready to enjoy the Chicago summer.

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For weeks before mother’s day Adam had been asking me what I wanted to do on my special day. When I finally sat down to look at the calendar, I realized the day was already scheduled. Hebrew, Art Class, and a soccer game filled the day from 8am until 4pm.

Still we made the most of it. I took the day off cooking. Presents were waiting for me when I woke up – a spa day at the Peninsula, gift cards to Nordstroms, as well as a check from my MIL.

I spent the evening on the couch reading, blissfully ignoring my the endless sweeping, wiping, and folding I do every day. I paid for it the next morning when Jack was out of socks and I was frantically rummaging through the laundry to find them, though!

In the evening, we got take away from our new favorite Thai restaurant, Oliang Cafe.

Everytime we go they ask if we are having a big party. No, I always answer back just the six of us.

Overall it was a low key day, which I found successful as I hate trying to strong arm the kids into doing activities I want to do just because Hallmark decided to celebrate mothers for one day.

The truth is I’m the one who is grateful for being a mom to these kids. And not just on Mother’s Day, but every day.

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