Emma's Basketball Scrimmage, John and Jim's Wedding, and Meeting Gabe and Ayla

Jon at Target Center

Happy January, everyone! I guess we survived the polar vortex, huh?


These first few pictures were taken the last weekend of December, when the Colfax Hurlburts (that's us) loaded up our minivan and headed to Minneapolis, to see Emma and her basketball team play at the Target Center.

Emma's scrimmage

The Colfax 7th and 8th grade girls had a scrimmage, with mainly parents watching, on a real live professional basketball court. The arena itself was huge... the photo above gives you an idea.


And it was flashy. The same announcer who calls plays at "real" games was given a roster and called out the names of the girls each time there was a swoosh of the basket. "Emma Hurlburt" was the first name called, since she made the first basket :). He had a long way of drawing the sound of their names out, so that each time it sounded SUPER!  and EXCITING! Guess that's what announcers do.

My fun, devious friend

I will admit there was some trickery involved in getting me to this event. Since I am myself not a sporty person, sometimes I let Jon "do the honors" with the kids if it's anything involving sports. But my good friend Jessy used her "creative persuasion techniques" to get me to go, and I'm so glad... it ended up being really fun. From Jon leading a caravan of Colfax vehicles into an illegal turn up a one-way street (visualize this with horns honking), to our families having pizza together and amusing ourselves with the "Elf Yourself" app on our cell phones (hilarious-!), to Michael getting lost in the after-game crowd (happily, he had his cell phone with so we found him quickly), a good time was had by all. Even me.

John will always be JoJo to us

Which brings us to my next blog-worthy event: my brother John's wedding reception in Madison last weekend.


Interestingly, John no longer lives in Madison... he's lived in New Jersey for about a year now. But Madison was his "home base" for many years, and it's where he wanted to celebrate his happiness with family and friends.

Jim and John

The wedding itself was held a few weeks prior in New Jersey, one of a number of states to legalize gay marriage recently. John and Jim have been together nine years, and had already committed to each other in a civil union ceremony, but of course having a wedding-- getting married-- is different. You participate in a ceremony, with rituals and traditions. Their wedding was held in a church. You receive the support and blessings of your family and friends, who gather together and celebrate you as a couple. And, of course, your receive the rights and privileges our society gives only to family members. Things like insurance coverage and legal rights.

My parents, with brother Bob in background

John is now a PhD employed in a teaching and administrative role at a college in New Jersey. Jim had stayed behind in Madison this past year until they were able to sell their condo recently. After their reception, John and Jim spent a few days at Mom and Dad's and then headed out to New Jersey for their new life together.

My sister Laurie and her friend Ingrid. Ingrid has been to all the big Bragg family events.

Some of the people in attendance were Jim's co-workers. He's worked at the same place in Madison for 26 years, so it's no small thing for him to pick up and relocate, at this stage of life. But amazingly, his company has a New Jersey branch, so Jim will be able to continue working for them (in a new position) despite the move.

Don was missing, so this waiter got to be our "honorary brother"

They'll be living in a spacious, older home that's set up like a duplex with an upstairs and downstairs. They've let us know they have plenty of room for visitors :). John said they're only about a half hour away (via public transportation... bus and subway) from New York City. So now we have a New York connection-! I've always had a dream about going to see a Broadway show... I LOVE musicals. Now maybe, someday, it'll actually come about...


One big unfortunate thing was that Bragg Family South (my brother Don and his family, who live in Arkansas) had to miss out on the party. They came north for Christmas and had every intention of staying until after the reception, but the "polar vortex" and reports of bad roads along their path home had them make the difficult decision to head back early. So some of us didn't get to see them at all this Christmas... we figured we'd see them at the wedding so hadn't made arrangements to visit Rhinelander over Christmas, where they'd been staying with Mom and Dad. The kids were disappointed, but it's better to be safe than sorry when it comes to long distance travel.

Leila danced the night away

One detail I would like to mention is that my soon-to-be-84 year old father said an opening prayer for John and Jim's wedding meal. And one of his opening lines was "God makes no mistakes." As anyone who knows our family knows, Dad has always been extremely religious. In this regard, it was not easy being his child! He always had the highest moral and behavioral expectations for us. And he still does. But his loving acceptance of John (and all of us, with our different "foibles") has been a shining inspiration to us and has brought our whole family closer. We are all keenly aware that it could have been so different. This kind of thing can divide families and break hearts... but with us it became a wonderful growing and learning experience. It started with an open heart and my parents focusing on simple things, like: "Our child is a good child".


Anyway, on to the next "big story"! Jonathan, Alicia and Jack came over yesterday and (for the first time) brought Alicia's kids, Gabe and Ayla along.

Gabe and Ayla investigate our snow fort

You should have seen the grin on Leila's face when she saw kids about her age walking up the driveway. She was super-excited and after a few introductions the kids got right down to the business of playing.


The past couple of days here were a wonderful relief, weather-wise. In contrast to what seemed like an endless period of sub-zero, windy, dangerous weather, yesterday was in the 30's, which was comfortable and downright sub-tropical after what we'd just gone through. Perfect weather for some sliding and fort-building.

Sledding (Emma, Gabe, and Jack)

It's interesting that the little girls' names are so similar-sounding. Our daughter is "Leila Jane" (pronounced Lay-la), and Alicia's daughter is "Ayla Jade". Ayla is a little older than Leila, but they're about the same size and behave like two peas in a pod.


Gabe spent a lot of time sledding, but after we went inside and had lunch, him and Emma spent a good chunk of time playing "Minecraft" on their iPods. I was very impressed with how comfortable Jack is with Gabe. He crawled right up on Gabe's lap to watch the game, and Gabe wasn't a bit annoyed or distracted by Jack's physical presence on his tiny lap.  They seemed happily comfortable together.

Gabe and Jackson

Anyway, it was a fun relaxing day. We had a venison roast with root vegetables and home-made bread. Somehow we all managed to squeeze up to the table... ten of us.


But I better get ready for work now. Today I'm working at the library :).